December 2019

Leah Purcell on reinventing The Drover's Wife three times: 'I borrowed and stole from each'

Submitted by Paul Daley on

The actor, playwright and screenwriter’s first novel solidifies her take on Henry Lawson’s classic: first a play, now a book, soon a film

When Leah Purcell inverted Henry Lawson’s The Drover’s Wife into an iconoclastic Indigenous tale of gender, identity, racial violence and domestic abuse, she was consciously tackling one of the shibboleths of white Australian foundation literature.

Australia's lungs have collapsed and Generation X needs to take part of the blame | Paul Daley

Submitted by Paul Daley on

It’s no longer the Boomers making the policy and political decisions – or abrogating their responsibilities to do so

The children of many of us Gen X-ers have been saying for years that we are going to bequeath a far worse world than the one we were born into.

I don't have a favourite dog or child. Any more | Paul Daley

Submitted by Paul Daley on

When my favourite dog died, I thought nothing could fill the hole in our lives. Enter Olive, a charismatic charmer and our feisty shadow

Friends and family have been emphatic for years whenever I’ve asked: is it OK to have a favourite child?

“Absolutely not,” is the usual, categorical consensus.

Related: I’ve had dogs for much of my life, but Nari found another league in my heart | Paul Daley

There's a new push for the return of looted Aboriginal artefacts – in the name of 'truth telling' | Paul Daley

Submitted by Paul Daley on

Government inaction on stolen sacred cultural material and human remains is a continuing insult to Indigenous peoples

Almost 250 years after James Cook’s arrival paved the way for Indigenous dispossession, federal parliament will debate a call for the return of countless thousands of looted Aboriginal artefacts, many of which remain in the British Museum.

What price spiritual connection? Yolngu seek compensation for cultural destruction

Submitted by Paul Daley on

Challenge seeks recompense for loss of culture and income from 50 years of bauxite mining in Arnhem Land and could give rise to many similar claims

Australia’s Indigenous traditional owners will closely observe what promises to be the glacial progress of a quest by a north-east Arnhem Land clan for commonwealth compensation for the loss of culture and income from half a century of bauxite mining.