When it comes to significant shifts in culture, law and society are poised in an agonising “chicken or egg” scenario. Does the law change from above, trickling down to alter a culture? Or does a movement rise up, demand, fight, lobby for a change to which the law eventually concedes? It’s a dynamic relationship that doesn’t obey a strict rule of cause and effect.
Right Now is holding a short fiction and poetry competition! The winning poem and the winning short story will be awarded $500 in prize money each and will be published in Right Now’s highly anticipated print anthology.
The Australian Government and education providers make a nice profit from international students, but fail to protect them from being exploited in the workplace, writes Alexandra Hurley.
Food brings people together and can evoke stories. ‘Recipes & Refuge’ explores how new Australians (and subsequent generations) have used food to find their place in multicultural Australia, as well as maintain a connection to home, writes Sonia Nair
As more asylum seekers are being processed outside of the public eye there is a clear need for an independent medical panel to ensure that each person’s human right to sufficient physical and mental health care is being met, writes Chloe Potvin.
Anne Manne examines the culture within the Catholic Church that allowed the ongoing sexual abuse of children.
John Bartlett explores the conflicts of being homosexual and religious, reflecting on his own experiences, as well as the perspectives of a gay Muslim man, an Imam and a Catholic theologian.
Gun violence is seemingly far removed from Australia, but by investing in the weapons industry and indulging in recreational drugs, we fuel ongoing drug wars in Mexico. Disarm, by Pedro Reyes, creatively calls arms companies to account, writes Erin Handley.
For a sports-obsessed nation like Australia, Anna Krien’s Night Games is an oft-troubling but essential expose of the troubling ‘macho culture’ that exists in codes like AFL and NRL.
Evelyn Tadros and Imogen White review two powerful Indigenous works: The Shadow King, a quintessentially Australian take on King Lear; and Vic Simms’ riveting re-released 1973 album, The Loner.
I heard myself confusing tenses – intentionally – saw that I was trying to simplify the message – to speak her language – failing miserably. I hadn’t even asked what her language was. Even if I did I knew I didn’t speak it.
This week Athena Rogers reviews the refugee Melbourne Fringe Festival performance HiRise, and Pia White takes a look at discussions of violence in the media in the monthly media review.
