Maree Clarke is a well-respected figure of the south-eastern Australian Aboriginal community for not only her inspirational work supporting Aboriginal artists but also for her own successful career as a visual artist. In her practise she works to revive elements of Aboriginal culture that were lost in the period of colonisation and use art as […]
Tomorrow, the challenge to the Malaysia Solution will be heard before the Full Bench of the High Court amidst claims that asylum seekers registered with the United Nations in Kuala Lumpur are in danger of being refouled to China. Take a moment to read this thoughtful piece by Julian Burnside on Australia’s culture of forgetting. […]
On Friday 22 July 2011, Monash University’s Castan Centre for Human Rights Law Annual Conference was held in Melbourne. Samina Yasmeen, Director of Centre for Muslim States and Societes at UWA addressed the topic “Islamophobia and Multicultural Australia”. Following the speech Right Now writer Hanne M Watkins spoke with Professor Yasmeen about Islamophobia, inclusion, women’s […]
Brook Andrew is an Australian artist known for looking directly at the role of history when creating artwork with historical concerns. With work featured in every major art collection in Australia, his most recent exhibition Paradise is no exception. The exhibition remarks upon the challenging affects that time and cultural perceptions can have on important […]
I came across Freemuse in a rather serendipitous way. An article from a Norwegian newspaper appeared among the results when I googled human rights news and, being Norwegian myself, my interest was piqued. The article was about singer, composer, filmmaker and human rights activist Deeyah and her brainchild, the compilation album Listen to the Banned. […]
Last month, the first Sudanese refugee to be drafted to play in the Australian Football League, was subjected to racial abuse by a spectator during a VFL game between the Werribee Tigers and Port Melbourne. Majak Daw is currently being groomed for professional football by the North Melbourne Kangaroos and plays regularly for their feeder […]
After making my first portrait of a family who’d been in Australia for 4 years, I suddenly had many other families asking me to make portraits of them too. Throughout the process of photographing I heard many stories as to how and why they’d arrived here. As a mother with my own family I find […]
Annie Wu’s New Australia, part of the NEW 11 exhibition at ACCA earlier this year looked back on the past. New Australia is a breakaway Australian socialist journal that was published over three years in the early 1890’s. The work provides documentation of an ideological movement that encouraged members to rediscover their conception of utopia through a Settlement […]
In 2010 Bishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa declared that the time had come, particularly for Africans, to stop the “wave of hate” and to stand up “against wrong”. He was referring to the wrong to “gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people” who are “part of […]
Mental illness is increasingly recognised as one of the most prevalent health issues in the Australian community. The human rights of people with a mental illness in Australia has received greater attention in recent years, prompted in part by new obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (‘Disabilities Convention’), […]
Kelly is well known internationally as a humanist artist with his art often being part of the dialogue in places in transition from war or oppression to newfound civil society including the Republic of Georgia, Northern Ireland, South Africa and the Basque Country (Spain). He is the only visual artist to be given the prestigious […]
Today I missed my train by 10 seconds I have to wait 20 minutes to catch the next one That is why I got upset and grabbed a paper and held a pen To write something in order to relieve my anxiety If you want to know how time is expensive just miss a train […]
