Society & Culture

  Alasdair McGregor and Simon Nasht discuss the life and work of Frank Hurley, including his work in the Antarctic and his stunning visual archive of major events both at home and overseas over a dinner discussion at the National Library.  The Library re-issued the book Frank Hurley: A Photographers Life, written by McGregor, portraying the life and career of Australia's first internationally recognised photographer and highlighting the sacrifices and risks to obtain the 'perfect' photo.  Image: Frank Hurley (1885-1962), Frank Hurley and Maslyn Williams looking out over the Kidron Valley towards Jerusalem, Mount of Olives, Palestine, 1940? [picture], nla.cat-vn4901223

  On what would be art dealer and collector Rex Nan Kivell's (1898 1977) 121st birthday, Treasures Curator Nat Williams reveals new insights into the Library's collection.

  In her new book, You Daughters of Freedom, historian Associate Professor Clare Wright brings to life a time when Australian democracy was the standard bearer for progress and the envy of the world. In conversation with Genevieve Jacobs, Wright tells the story of that victory—and of Australia’s role in the subsequent international struggle—through the eyes of five remarkable players: the redoubtable Vida Goldstein, the flamboyant Nellie Martel, indomitable Dora Montefiore, daring Muriel Matters, and artist Dora Meeson Coates, who painted the controversial Australian banner carried in the British suffragettes’ marches of 1908 and 1911. La Trobe University historian Associate Professor Clare Wright has worked as an author, academic, political speechwriter, historical consultant, and radio and TV broadcaster. In association with Text Publishing.  Image: Clare Wright courtesy Text Publishing

  The lifelong adventurer and famous photographer Frank Hurley travelled around the Middle East and North Africa from 1941 to 1946. His official mission was to Australian service members during the desert campaign of the Second World War. This lecture focuses on how Hurley was entranced by the local cultures, architecture and landscape of the middle east and will be delivered by Exhibition Curator, Rosalind Clarke. Image: Frank Hurley (1885-1962), Frank Hurley and Maslyn Williams looking out over the Kidron Valley towards Jerusalem, Mount of Olives, Palestine, 1940? [picture], nla.obj-151339245

  Feminist, social activist, public servant and journalist, Marie Coleman was the first woman to head an Australian national statutory authority, the National Social Welfare Commission. Marie has has spent over 60 years campaigning against the gender pay gap and other social injustices. A founder of the National Foundation for Australian Women she was instrumental in establishing the Australian Women’s Archives Project and lobbied for the Commonwealth paid parental leave legislation. Marie has been awarded the Order of Australia, the Public Service Medal, the Centenary Medal of the Public Service Institute, and an Edna Ryan award in government. She was inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women and chosen as 2011 ACT Senior Australian of the Year. Presented by the Canberra and District Historical Society. Image: Bob Givens, Portrait of Marie Coleman, 6 August 2005 (detail), nla.cat-vn3573210

  Cartoonist and former Canberra resident Judy Horacek gives her perspective on the Library's cartoon exhibition, Inked: Australian Cartoons.She will also provide insight into her own work - what she loves about cartoons and the cartoons she loves, how the profession has changed in the three decades that she has been in it, and her musings about whether the medium will survive in this new age. About Judy HoracekJudy Horacek's work has been published all over the world, which includes regular gigs in The Age, The Australian and The Canberra Times.Horacek also makes children’s picture books, both on her own and with Mem Fox. Image: Judy Horacek, 2001, The unjolly swagman, [2], nla.obj-148725554

  Author Bruce Gaunson discusses his third book, Fighting the Kaiserriech: Australia’s Epic within the Great War, exploring Australia’s involvement in the First World War. From a citizen army sailing across the globe to fight in a clash of superpowers, the Australians were transformed into a well-respected and formidable force. Gaunson’s book provides a clear picture of the Great War and its key issues, as it draws on the sources of 13 countries, describing the struggle with the German Empire, Deutsches Kaiserreich, and the role of the Australian Imperial Force in one of the most immense struggles the world has ever seen. In association with Hybrid Publishers and the Canberra Great War Study Group, the Estaminet. Image: Frank Hurley (1885–1962), Infantry Moving Forward to Take up Front Line Positions at Evening, Their Images Reflected in a Rain-filled Crater at Hooge, October 1917 (detail), nla.cat-vn91190

  Ginger Gorman is a fearless and multi award-winning social justice journalist. She has an innate ability to connect and communicate with some of the most interesting and marginalised people in our community and works hard to translate those untold stories into powerful and insightful journalism. In 2013, Journalist Ginger Gorman was trolled online and received scores of hateful tweets, including a death threat. Over the next five years Ginger spoke to psychologists, trolling victims, law enforcement, academics and the trolls themselves, embedding herself into their online communities and their psyches in ways she had never anticipated. Journalist Ginger Gorman, in conversation with Channel 9's Chris Uhlmann, leads us through the mindset and motivation of online trolls, exploring what makes them tick and who they really are.  Troll Hunting is an utterly compelling read and an important window into not just the mindset and motivation of trolls, but the history of this kind of aberrant behaviour. 

  Victor Briggs takes us on a navigational journey via the stars, sharing the essence of the connections with both land and sea people.  Image: John Cleveley (c.1745-1786), Discovery and Resolution at an Island in the Pacific, 1777, 1780's, nla.cat-vn321742

  Dr Joy McCann reveals some of the secrets of the Southern Ocean, drawing from sea captains’ journals, explorers’ letters and whalers’ logs as well as her own research into the Antarctic region’s natural and cultural histories. Discover the Southern Ocean’s intriguing stories and what it can teach us about our past and our future. 

  The recent re-discovery of Captain Cook’s ship HMB Endeavour, a joint project between RIMP and the Australian National Maritime Museum, made world headlines. Archeologists from the ANMM will discuss this discovery and the ongoing work still to be done.  Image: HM Bark Endeavour model 1967–70, Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney, 00009219

  In the mid-18th Century, Whitby was a booming industrial town, a centre of shipbuilding and a centre of professional maritime training, in particular in mathematics. It was entrepreneurial and aspirational - a place where there were opportunities to make careers, and in some cases considerable wealth.  James Cook is sometimes described as the son of a farm labourer who learnt to sail on collier barks between Whitby and London, and then learnt cartography while serving in the Royal Navy in Canada. Sophie Forgan, (Chairman of Trustees, Captain Cook Memorial Museum, Whitby, UK) challenges this view and argues that Whitby was key to the formation of the young Cook’s skills and aptitudes. Image: Thomas Luny (1759–1837), The Bark, Earl of Pembroke, later Endeavour, Leaving Whitby harbour in 1768 c. 1790, nla.cat-vn345842

  Award-winning author Bruce Pascoe delivers a call to care for our earth through agriculture. As detailed in his book Dark Emu, he provides compelling evidence from the diaries of early explorers which suggests that systems of food production and land management have been blatantly understated in modern retellings of early Aboriginal history, and that a new look at Australia’s past is required. Bruce Pascoe is Bunurong/Tasmanian Yuin man and an award winning author and story teller. His book Dark Emu: Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident, a history of Aboriginal agriculture, was published by Magabala in 2014 and won both the Book of Year and the Indigenous Writers Prize (joint winner) in the 2016 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.In 2018 Dark Emu was transformed into compelling contemporary dance performance by Bangarra Dance Theatre, touring nationally. Other books include Night Animals, Shark, Ocean, Bloke, Cape Otway, Convincing Ground, Little Red Yellow and Black Book. Bloke, Chainsaw File, Fog a Dox, and mo

  It is frequently contended that present-day working conditions and wagelessness are analogous to those experienced during the severe economic downturn of the 1930s. Using methods of historical sociology, Professor Lisa Adkins explores oral and manuscript testimonies of those who lived through the period to test the claim that the conditions of the present, and especially those associated with work, are comparable to those of the Great Depression. Professor Lisa Adkins is Head of the School of Social and Political Sciences at The University of Sydney and an Academy of Finland Distinguised Professor (2015-19). Image: A Family Standing Outside a Tin Shack Called Wiloma during the Great Depression, New South Wales. c. 1932 (detail), nla.cat-vn6247378, courtesy Fairfax Syndication.

  Treasures Curator Nat Williams explores the collection and documentation of tapa, or barkcloth, by Cook’s associates and other navigators. A Treasures Gallery Access Program, supported by National Library Patrons.  The Treasures Curator is supported by Catalyst – Australian Arts and Culture Fund.

  Listen to our facilitator, Canberra journalist and garden-lover Genevieve Jacobs along with botanical artist Julia Landford, ANU anthropologist Dr Bronwen Douglas and leading botanist Dr Judy West to discuss the context and importance of the natural history art that arose from the Cook voyages, as well as discussing the continuing significance of natural history art in the scientific field today. Image: Moses Griffith (1747- 1819), Rainbow Lorikeet, 1772, nla.cat-6155314

Richard Fidler presents the 2018 Seymour Biography Lecture Telling and Writing the Story, outlining some of the tensions that come into play when bringing someone’s life story to a listening audience and comparing it to the freedoms and constraints involved in writing biography for a reader. Richard Fidler hosts Conversations on ABC Radio, an hour-long interview show. His guests have included astronauts, authors and scientists, but the program often features remarkable people unknown to the wider world. More recently he's written several historical books, including Ghost Empire and Saga Land (co-written with Kari Gislason), containing short biographies of historical figures from Byzantium and medieval Iceland. The Seymour Biography Lecture is supported by Dr John and Mrs Heather Seymour AO.

Polynesian artist, Michel Tuffery maps the collaboration and interaction on first contact between Tupaia and Cookie, his crew, the scientists and artists.