The University of Melbourne
9 August 2024, 2PM-4PM
Research Lounge, Arts West

Even though climate change is usually framed in environmental terms, it has become increasingly evident that the ability to mitigate against the factors contributing to global heating is primarily a political issue. This panel brings together First Nations authors, activists and philosophers to consider the interrelationship between politics and the environment. Drawing from a cultural history of sustainable living and different strategies for political activism, the speakers will reflect on what might be done to change the current climate.

Come see Philip Morrissey as he hosts Mary Graham, Tristen Harwood and Ellen van Neerven in a discussion about some of the most pressing issues today.

Presented by the English and Theatre Studies Program and the Indigenous Studies Program.

BIOGRAPHIES

Mary Graham is a Yugambeh Kombu-merri (Gold Coast) person of her father’s clan and of the Waka Waka Clan through her mother. She is an Adjunct Associate Professor University of Queensland (UQ) and holds an Honorary Doctorate from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT).  She has lectured on subjects in Aboriginal history, politics, and comparative philosophy at the University of Queensland and at other educational institutions around the country. She was the Administrator of the Aboriginal and Islander Child Care Agency (AICCA) during the 1970’s and has been on Boards and Committees of many Aboriginal organisations in Brisbane for many years since.  She worked in Native Title area with the Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action (FAIRA) of Queensland.
Mary was a member of the first Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. She also is a Casual Lecturer at the University of Queensland (UQ) in the School of Political Science and International Studies (POLSIS), and the Schools of Psychology and of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry. She was and still is also engaged in international research projects involving Australia nationally and internationally (UK.) She currently does research work with Institute of Urban Indigenous Health (IUIH), the leading Aboriginal health organisation in Brisbane. And with POLSIS and Philosophy (UQ). Although now retired, she has always and continues to work with her own traditional Yugambeh Community and Organisations on a wide variety of projects.

Tristen Harwood (Ngalakgan) is a writer, critic, and editor. He is a PhD candidate at RMIT, researching the relationship between carceralism and Indigenous art. He teaches in Critical and Theoretical Studies at the VCA. Tristen is a contributing editor at MeMo review and a boardmember of the Plumwood Committee. He has published broadly on art and his most recent book is Variations A More Diverse Picture of Contemporary Art (2023), co-edited and authored with Grace McQuilten and Anthony White.

Philip Morrissey is of Kalkadoon and colonial Irish heritage. He retired in 2017 after a career of thirty-seven years as an administrator and an academic. He is the co-editor of the essay collections Kim Scott: Readers, language, interpretation (2019) and Reading the Country: 30 years On (2018), and is the senior editor of Lionel Fogarty: Selected Poems 1980-2017 (2017). He is currently co-editing a collection of critical essays on Lionel Fogarty scheduled for publication in 2024.

Ellen van Neerven is an award-winning writer, editor and literary activist of Mununjali and Dutch heritage.  Ellen has authored two poetry collections, Comfort Food and Throat, one work of fiction, Heat and Light, and a work of creative non-fiction called Personal Score which received the 2024 Victorian Premiers Prize for non-fiction.  Throat won three prizes at the 2021 NSW Premiers Literary Awards including Book of the Year, the Kenneth Slessor Prize and the Multicultural Award. Ellen lives on Yagera and Turrbal land.

ENQUIRIES

Please send your enquiries to Dr Lynda Ng via lynda.ng@unimelb.edu.au.

If you have any support requirements in order to participate fully, please contact us via scc-events@unimelb.edu.au.

Image credit: The Pinnacles Desert by Tobias Keller (image provided by Unsplash).