Across the continent, diverse, adaptable fishing practices, recipes and rituals were a cornerstone of Indigenous life at the time of first contact – and many remain so to this day.
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Articles on Friday essay
Displaying 21 - 40 of 307 articles
Humans have attempted to understand and treat mental illness for centuries – from ancient Greek medicine, Middle Ages exorcisms and the rise of asylums, to modern medical breakthroughs.
To read broadly and deeply is a marvellous thing that can make us alert to the wide-ranging varieties of being. But no book will condemn or redeem us.
Clare Wright has spent ten years researching the history of these groundbreaking petitions. Though few Australians have heard of them, she writes, we can learn much from the story of their creation.
Chinese Australians use WeChat for everything from paying bills and attending funerals, to helping community members in need. Banning the ‘super sticky’ app would do more harm than good.
Invisible to the naked eye, the work of the wind often goes unnoticed. Yet, for millennia, this unseen force has shaped religion, trade, warfare, culture, science and more.
When Shauna Bostock began researching a book on her family, she thought it would be limited to her Aboriginal ancestry. But then a late-night phone call led her down a surprising path.
Fighting in sieges, an army of crack female troops, cross-dressing as male soldiers: women have survived and thrived as part of the war machine. But they’re rarely included in military histories.
‘Literary couples are a plague,’ wrote Elsa Morante, married to Alberto Moravia. They’re one of the couples in this lively exploration of what happens when two writers share loves and lives.
Kevin Brophy grew up fearing his violent father. Going through the papers of his war record, he began to wonder if his dad was someone else as a young man — someone he might have enjoyed knowing.
Wanning Sun spent nearly a decade talking to migrant workers at the Apple factory in China’s Shenzhen about their intimate lives – and how their relationships are affected by inequality.
Edwina Preston reflects on the lost art of hanging out – which feeds creativity – and the need to reclaim time from the pressures of productivity. She draws on new books by Jenny Odell and Sheila Liming.
So many of our artistic geniuses have complicated legacies. What do we do with work we love by artists whose behaviour is more difficult to admire?
They tend backyards brimming with cactus varieties, consuming the produce. Prudence Gibson meets a hidden group of gardeners and ponders the allure – and – danger of psychoactive plants.
China’s Xi Xinping had trialled his COVID lockdown measures on what he callously called the ‘virus’ of the Uighurs, writes Stan Grant. COVID lockdowns are now over, but the trace of tyranny remains.
Migrant women come to Australia with high hopes but their husbands’ careers often take precedence. Farjana Mahbuba spoke to Bangladeshi Muslim women, finding stories of isolation and under employment.
It is easy to feel jaded in a time of catastrophe but there is a compelling moral argument for us to work towards a better world.
Male domination is not inevitable, omnipresent, natural or biological. In various societies, men and women arrange their lives differently - challenging monolithic notions of ‘the patriarchy’.
Edwina Preston pays tribute to the humble letter: from literary love letters to philosophical lessons to cherished family heirlooms. Letters impart lessons, reveal character – and are a form of art.
More than 30 years ago, Lola was raped during the Bosnian war, but she still awaits justice. Her story illustrates the difficulty of holding war criminals to account – a problem Ukrainians face today.
Top contributors
-
Associate Professor in Media, University of Notre Dame Australia
-
Honorary Professor, The University of Queensland
-
Associate Professor, Griffith University
-
Associate Professor in Literary Studies, Monash University
-
Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought, The University of Queensland
-
Lecturer, Deakin University
-
Professor Emeritus of Media and Culture, Griffith University, Griffith University
-
Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing, The University of Melbourne
-
Associate Professor (adjunct) in Creative Writing, Flinders University
-
Fashion historian, Edith Cowan University
-
Professor of English, Flinders University
-
Associate Professor Visual Communication, University of Technology Sydney
-
Sessional academic, Department of Media, Communications, Creative Arts, Language, and Literature, Macquarie University
-
Joanna Mendelssohn is a Friend of The Conversation.
Honorary (Senior Fellow) School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne
-
Adjunct Professor of Art History, Australian National University
