On the last day of February we witnessed something that had never happened before in living memory. Something that wrecked absolute havoc on our community. Many of us had no choice but to swing into action and help people whose lives had been totally smashed by a deluge the likes of which noone had seen …
Join Big Nelly and Brett Solomon as they scan their retinas across the latest global cyber issues and compress them into gigabyte-sized chunks of goodness for your ears. As Executive Director of accessnow.org, Brett has a unique insight into the role of human rights in the digital age. Nelly just needs to work out who …
Queer Sydney was the theme of Powerhouse Late X Vivid Ideas 2022 where I was Mistress of Ceremonies at the pointy end of the night, introducing the seminar and lecture series. I also had the great pleasure of chatting with my old friend Gillian Minervini who brought a queer lens to Vivid this year as …
What is it with this film? Back in the day when I realised how much of an impact it had had, particularly on Australian women’s lives, I called it a cult surf classic. But maybe its day has finally come? It played to a packed Drill Hall in Mullumbimby last week and I did a …
Brett Solomon (CEO accessnow.org) and I have been broadcasting a segment called Activista on BayFM 99,9FM for the past month and it can now be heard as a podcast! Hear how you can be a better activist at a time when the world needs you most. New episodes uploaded each week. Viva Activista! Click here
Our exhibition of vintage film stills from Puberty Blues taken by Michael Roll was a smash with only six framed prints left for sale through Ninbella. It was a real honour to be able to donate 50% of the profits to The Women’s Village Collective to help with their work housing homeless women in the …
It was delightful to chat with The Echo about an exhibition and sale of framed archival photographs byMichael Roll, the stills photographer on Puberty Blues. I’m helping to raise funds for The Women’s Village Collective, an organisation working to house the many women and their children currently without a fixed address in the Byron Shire.
One of the great joys of working with Ninbella is meeting the artists and interviewing them for its blog. Here is a short video of a zoom session I did with Iningai man Ethan James-Kotiau. It’s a fascinating story of a young homeless man who’s life was changed by art. Now he creates Iningai Iconography as he …
I first met Michael Caton when I was about 10 years old. He was renting a room for $10/week at my Bush Mum’s three story terrace building in Jersey Rd. Sydney. Jack Thompson and his twin girlfriends at the time also rented a room as did many other artists, actors and bohemians. Sheila and her …
How do rainbows affect your neural pathways? What’s it like to dive under the North Pole? Can the internet save us? So many questions. And so many answers at TEDxByronBay. We’re stirring up a colossal cauldron of ideas in the Byron Theatre on Saturday June 26 and as co-curator of this exciting project, I personally …
Hats off to the tireless farmers of the Liverpool Plains! They’ve just won another victory to protect their fertile farmlands from coal mining. And now they’re going for Gold. I first joined the farmers at their blockade against BHP at Breeza in 2008 carrying GetUp!’s lemon and solar-powered Climate Relay Torch. What an alternative energy …
For the first time in its 43 year history, the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade is off the streets and in the stadium. The sound and visuals will be amazing! I’m looking forward to seeing the creative output of our community in the 133 entries, not to mention hearing the sound of my …
Lea Oldmeadow makes powerful art totems out of ancient bark and natural fibres. A former upholsterer from the Central Queensland town of Emerald, Oldmeadow now lives and works in the sacred hills around Nimbin in northern NSW where he speaks the secret language of trees. I caught up with this reclusive artist and made this …
To honour ‘Survival Day’, I had a great chat with Kate Constantine (AKA Konstantina) in which she talked about her new show ‘Negative Space’ at Ninbella Gallery in Bangalow. Filling the voids left by a lack of traditional upbringing, this fierce Koori artist explores her experience as a white skinned Aboriginal woman working on Bundjalung …
Late last year I was commissioned by Story Magazine to write an article about my experiences growing up in Sydney in the 80s. The piece was for the Paradise edition of this bi-annual publication published by Queensland Performing Arts Centre which was to stage David Williamson’s play Emerald City but due to the pandemic was cancelled. …
It was a delight to be Mistress of Ceremonies for Art for the Wilderness last Sunday evening. The event in the main gallery of our historic building at 40 Queen Street Woollahra saw nearly 100 artists donate work for auction to raise funds for The Wilderness Society. Around 200 art lovers matched the generosity of …
Here’s a little film I made about the retreat I went on with my yoga teacher last year. Heading to the mountains again for more joy soon.
I hosted the Bobby Goldsmith Foundation’s gala “Golden Hammer” at the Australian Museum the other week to raise funds to help BGF continue its great work in supporting people living with HIV. John Leha from the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence welcomed us to Country and BGF’s CEO Nick Lawson spoke about the work that BGF has …
As an observer of climate chaos I have a particular penchant for a good apocalyptic scenario. So it was delightful to be invited to host a conversation with some fabulous writers at NIDA on the topic. Guests included Alana Valentine whose AWGIE Award nominated Barbara and the Camp Dogs was rocking the foundations of Belvoir Street …
Check out these gorgeous geometric formations by Sharnie Shield, derived she explains “from the red native flowers in the Wollongong Botanic Gardens”. I bumped into the lovely Sharnie whilst perambulating around the grounds and chatted with her as she repaired one of the many forms she has on show. They’re made of simple straws and …
Last year on International Women’s Day our campaign Land Water Future released this little film I made about some of the wonderful women around NSW who are fighting to protect our land from coal and gas development. Still as relevant this year as last: https://www.facebook.com/landwaterfuture/videos/442203715934994/
Who doesn’t love the Archibald Prize? Every year it comes around with a fresh set of forty-odd faces to enliven our mid-winter musings. When I was working on the ABC TV’s arts program ‘Review’ in the early ‘90s, we’d always cover it in great detail. And we were all over it as producers for …
I’ve always been fascinated by the waratah, that majestic floral symbol of NSW. Rising from the ashes of bush fires, it provides us with a powerful symbol of hope. I was first seduced by their splendour when I slipped into some taffeta frocks created by my old friend Linda Jackson who has long been obsessed …
Fashion lovers thronged to the Powerhouse last week for a chat between me and four of Australia’s most fabulously creative and inspiring designers – Linda Jackson, Jenny Kee, Anna Plunkett and Luke Sales. Interestingly, this quartet of extreme talent has collaborated in various configurations and incarnations over the past 4 decades – first it was …
Dad and I went to see the exhibition ‘Pop to Popism’ when it was on at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in preparation for a public talk we’d been roped in to give about the advertising world in the 60s and how the pop art movement had influenced it. My father had been …