When British colonials came to Australia, they stuck to their winter Christmas traditions of roast meats and plum puddings. But over the centuries, Australians found their own ways to celebrate.
It was once thought the Aboriginal names for the Hawkesbury had been lost forever. But after a remarkable find in the Mitchell Library, almost 100 place names will be restored to Dyarubbin Country.
Dancers from Bangarra perform at the reopened Australian Museum in November.
Lisa Maree Williams, Getty/PR handout
Netflix is making a live action series based on Assassin’s Creed. With its promise of endless return and varied historical settings, the game has been an enduring success.
Opiate of Opulence, from the series Horror Has A Face, Fiona Foley, 2017.
Courtesy of Andrew Baker Art Dealer
A travel guide to some of our most beautiful Country highlights the complexity of Aboriginal cultures and white Australia’s historic ambivalence towards them.
Duccio di Buoninsegna The Nativity with the Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel, 1308-1311.
Wikimedia Commons
From ‘Comfort ye’ to the Hallelujah chorus, the music of the Messiah is a much-loved Christmas tradition. Yet it was originally written as an Easter offering.
The chorus of disapproving voices declaiming The Crown’s approach to royal storytelling are angling for the biographers’ holy grail and seeking to protect their own lucrative market share.
Tara June Winch has won Australia’s two major writing prizes in one year.
Penguin Random House
These two prize-winning books speak volumes about how we face trying times, might recognise the beauty in brokenness and maybe find ways to repair the wounds of the past.
For over 60 years, Daniel Thomas has shaped and extended our understanding of Australian art. Sometimes cheeky, always erudite, Thomas’s writings are collected in a new book.
While we might not think of the 1950s housewife as taking an active interest in Cold War politics, a close reading of the Weekly shows its female readers were encouraged to join in the discussion.
In Australia, between 1930 and 1950, women repeatedly stepped in to play the role of Santa. So the figure in the red suit could be gender neutral today.