AMplify - Conversations at the Australian Museum

Recorded live at the Australian Museum 7 June 2023

Nature speaks, but are we listening? Hear from photographic artist and activist, Leila Jeffreys, renowned naturalist, Tim Low, and author, David Gandelman, as they explore how improving your relationship with nature can, in turn, improve your relationship with yourself.

Drawing from personal experiences, the panel will invite you into a more mindful space and ask you to reconsider how we interact with the world around us. From creatures big and small, there is plenty we can learn. Hear how Leila’s work as a photographic and installation artist has deepened her understanding of the importance of interconnection and belonging for all living things. Discover invaluable insights into the natural world and its relationship to us as Tim shares his learnings from decades of research and writing (including best-seller books Where Song Began, Feral Future and The New Nature). Add in David’s practical approach to mindfulness and this is sure to be a perspective-shifting evening.

Bee taxonomist Dr Michael Batley sits down with native bee ecologist and science communicator Amelie Vanderstock to chat about the importance, beauty and diversity of Australia's wonderful native bees, and discover ways to bring them to your garden.

There over 1600 named native bees in Australia, and possibly another 1000 that are yet to be discovered. They live among us, in near silence, undertaking the crucial work of pollinating wildflowers, native plants and crops. One of the greatest concerns of taxonomists like Michael Batley is that species will go extinct invisibly – that a bee will disappear before being known to science. Michael is working hard to document the bees and chart new discoveries so that we may find ways to halt their decline.

Recorded live at the Australian Museum on 4 February 2023.

Proud Cudgenburra/Bundjalung man, landscaper and Gardening Australia presenter, Clarence Slockee, joins us for the second installment of the series. Learn five practical ways to bring beautiful local blooms, birds and butterflies into your garden as Clarence busts the myth around the difficulty of growing native plants.

Five Things is a series of talks by Australian ecology experts that offers real-world steps you can take to boost biodiversity and to make your community a haven for native plants and wildlife.

Recorded live at the Australian Museum on 3 December 2022

On Saturday 5 November 2022, journalist and author, Ali Gripper, sat down with Dr Jodi Rowley for an intimate Q&A on Jodi’s life's work and to learn five things we can do to make our gardens frog-friendly.

Frogs play a crucial role in the balance of our ecosystems. Australia has over 240 known species of frog, almost all of which are found nowhere else in the world. With climate change robbing them of habitat, clean water and food sources, frogs are fighting for their lives.

Since 2017, Curator of the Australian Museum Herpetology Collection, Dr Jodi Rowley, has been championing the protection of frogs through citizen science app FrogID. Through people power, over 700,000 frogs have been documented, giving Jodi and her team of scientists an unprecedented picture of the lives and deaths of Aussie frogs.

Recorded at the Australian Museum Thursday 2 June 2022.

The ways in which we consume media have shifted, offering us extraordinary opportunities to inform people, bring them together and evoke action. But in this digital era, too much of one thing – or the wrong thing – can make people just scroll on. How do we balance images of loss and devastation with the prospect of a better future?

Social researcher Dr Rebecca Huntley has focused on climate change since seeing images of the school climate strikes in 2018. The visceral anxiety and impassioned efforts of the students inspired her to do what she could to make a difference for her own children’s generation.

In this year’s Talbot Oration, the respected Australian author, commentator, climate change strategist and mother will investigate the powerful ways that images can convey the messages of climate change and inspire climate action. Using data and evidence based on years of social trend research, Rebecca will offer reasons why the right imagery can break through the online chatter and spark action.

Following her address, Dr Huntley was joined by Tishiko King, a proud Kulkalaig woman and campaigner for climate and social justice, and Dr Saul Griffith, engineer and author of The Big Switch, in conversation with Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt AO.

Unsettled – Remembering Massacres by Australian Museum

Arts leaders Wesley Enoch and Rhoda Roberts AO reflect on the legacy of writer Oodgeroo Noonuccal and activism in the arts.

The first published Aboriginal poet in Australia, the writings of Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath Walker), captured both the strength of Aboriginal culture and the impacts of colonisation on her people. A charismatic, strong leader from Minjerribah (Stradbroke Island), her distinctive voice pricked the national consciousness and brought another perspective to the literature of the time.

Wesley Enoch, who grew up on Minjerribah, has strong memories of “Aunty Kath”, and is now returning to Country and carrying on her legacy. In this very personal session, arts leaders Wesley Enoch and Rhoda Roberts AO share their memories of Noonuccal and discuss how arts and activism are inseparable.

Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt AO and Dr Jason DeSantolo explore the legacy of David Unaipon and how traditional systems and knowledge are helping solve contemporary issues.

Artist Daniel Boyd and Academic Dr Stephen Gilchrist discuss the legacy of Emily Kame Kngwarreye and the importance of place and ceremony in art today.

When Emily Kame Kngwarreye died in 1996, she was recognised as one of the world’s great painters. Her work was inherently tied to deep, layered understanding and interpretation of her Country’s stories, and was the culmination of a lifetime of making art as ceremony. If an inherent relationship to place is the basis of First Nations visual tradition, what does it mean for contemporary First Nations art practitioners? How do urban-based Indigenous artists – and those whose cultures have been lost to them – maintain links with their heritage and create ceremony through their work?

Recorded at the Australian Museum on 15 June 2021

NITV’s Yokayi Footy presenter Bianca Hunt and Professor John Maynard, Chair of Aboriginal History at the University of Newcastle, talk opportunities, barriers and responsibilities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sportspeople past and present.

Sport has allowed First Nations people to compete as equals on the field. Success offers possibilities of financial reward and social acceptance far above that which might be otherwise available. Yet as time goes on, we find sport and racism cannot be separated.