Long before 70s hippies and hipster artisans, Australians were seeking solace by going back to the land. They ranged from anarchists to suffragists to Catholic agrarians.
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50 years after Apollo 11, a new exhibition considers artistic responses to our celestial neighbour. As we retreat from human space exploration, our relationship to the moon has become virtual.
Many historic ideas about women's beauty - from prizing firm breasts to emphasising the 'natural' - continue to resonate today.
As we face a growing tide of unregulated hate speech, the media is crucial in normalising diversity. Yet progress here has been slow. Even the ABC has failed to meet some of its own targets for hiring a diversity of employees.
Public taste has changed and that is that. It's not just the references that date in topical satire. Audiences are powerful, and if they feel insulted they can shut down a comedian.
For poet John Kinsella, veganism is an ethics of commitment. Living as a vegan, he writes, is not a holier-than-thou situation, but a move towards being more respectful of life.
In our world of pervasive consumerism, libraries continue to be founded on humanism. Their core purpose as accessible places is vital – yet they are also now popular tourist destinations.
From Steve Smith's tearful apology to anonymous apps like Whisper, public confessions can be therapeutic, emancipatory, or potentially exploitative.
Although not pitched as one, Avengers: Endgame is an environmental movie. But in reality, we need to face our fears and find solutions, rather than perpetuating the fantasy of regressing into the past.
If it is wrong to censure art or refuse to display it because of its content, how can it be right to shun it because of the behaviour of the artist?
In the face of digital disruption that threatens the very fabric of democratic culture we must refashion Enlightenment oppositions for new times.
For centuries, Westerners viewed Islam as an inherently violent religion. But the struggle today, for all religions, including Christianity, is between liberals and conservatives, fundamentalists and moderates, reason and revelation.
Since the end of the first world war, the Australian media has often reported that ‘the French’ care about, remember and even venerate the Anzacs. But is this true? And which French people?
For the Barkandji people, the crisis on the Barwon-Darling represents the biggest threat to their continued survival on country since the sheep invaded.
This year the Apollo 11 mission turns 50 - but what does the future hold for the Moon? The ephemeral shadows cast by human artefacts may soon be joined by more permanent scars of lunar mining.
Rarely seen in the family album are photographs of funerals, burials and the suffering of those who are left to mourn.
Today's screen satire frequently preaches to the converted. Fortunately, there are some notable exceptions that can skewer even the most progressive of viewers.
It's time for a more reasonable, hybrid definition of civilisation that incorporates our Indigenous heritage.
Nora Heysen was the first woman to be awarded the Archibald Prize, but for most of her life she was defined not by her art, but by her relationship to her famous father, the artist Hans Heysen.
The term 'political correctness' is often used to imply that those who resent racist comedy just lack a sense of humour. But First Nations people are using humour to speak back, especially on social media.
Top contributors
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Associate Professor in Media, University of Notre Dame Australia
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Senior Lecturer in Literary Studies, Monash University
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Honorary Principal Fellow, University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, University of Melbourne
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Research fellow, Deakin University
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Professor of Classics, University of Newcastle
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Senior Lecturer - Urban Planning, University of Melbourne
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Alice Gorman is a Friend of The Conversation.
Senior Lecturer in Archaeology and Space Studies, Flinders University
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Professor of English, Flinders University
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Julianne Schultz is a Friend of The Conversation.
Founding Editor of Griffith REVIEW; Professor, Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research, Griffith University
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Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH), University of Wollongong
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Professor of Indigenous Studies at Monash University, and Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Monash University
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Professor of Geography, School of Social Sciences, University of the Sunshine Coast
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Adjunct Professor of Art History, Australian National University
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English for Academic Purposes Specialist, Anthropologist, Centre for English Teaching, University of Sydney
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Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought, The University of Queensland
