By Shae Courtney. This article is part of our July 2013 focus on “Australia in the World”. Click here for more articles in this issue. Since 1948, nations have declared their support for, and recognition of, the inalienable human rights of all under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The recognition of these rights, which […]
By Maya Borom. Mira Nair’s film adaptation of Pakistani author Moshin Hamid’s bookof the same name provides a delicate introspection into protagonist Changez’s (Riz Ahmed) struggle with his western consumerist driven identity and his eastern cultural, religious and familial background. This struggle is told as a first person narrative to investigative journalist Bobby Lincoln who […]
By Jacqui Fetchet. This article is part of our April and May focus on Art and Human Rights. “For me the idea of a blank canvas is one of the most empowering things – the thought that you can do anything, go anywhere, say whatever you want. It is freedom of speech. For my people it […]
The images and multimedia included in this article are republished from the South Eastern Centre Against Sexual Assault’s (SECASA’s) art group blog. The art group blog was established as part of SECASA’s of our ‘year of less text’ initiative, with funding from the Victorian Women’s Trust. The ‘year of less text’ aims to do more […]
By Berni M Janssen. This article is part of our April and May focus on Art and Human Rights The Preserves Project is a multi-arts project celebrating the ways people from different cultural backgrounds preserve, share and pass on what they value. The trees are heavy with fruit, not every year, but when the season has […]
By Maya Borom. Warwick Thornton’s Mother Courage is an installation co-commissioned by the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) and the five-yearly modern and contemporary art exhibition dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel, Germany. Thornton is best known as the winner of the Camera d’Or for best first feature at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival for Samson […]
By Rebecca Lister. This article is part of our April and May focus on Arts and Human Rights. The first thing I notice about Karen* is her smile. It is wide and open and when she smiles you can see her even, small teeth. Karen smiles a lot. At first I wonder if she smiles […]
By Sienna Merope This article is part of our April & May focus on Art and Human Rights. Writing about the contribution of fashion to human rights can feel like a bit of an uphill battle. First, there is the not totally undeserved perception that as an industry and a creative practice, fashion has little […]
The Federal Government’s Creative Australia Policy was recently released by the outgoing Arts Minister Simon Crean, who came under fire for the use of the word “tolerance” in relation to people with a disability. This line has since been taken out but Arts Access Victoria has responded with dismay at the policy, not just for […]
By Sonia Nair. Human rights’ stories centred on child protagonists have become increasingly prevalent, as writers delicately trace the exploitation of their civil liberties and the ensuing acceptance and desensitisation that accompany these atrocities in a self-perpetuating cycle of poverty, deprivation and barbarism. Sudanese writer Majok Tulba did it in Beneath the Darkening Sky with […]