Bookoccino Conversations

Terra Nullius. A No Man’s Land.

Met with European notions of civilisation, Indigenous Australia was brutally overlooked. But the worlds oldest living culture survives. Indigenous approaches to architecture are gaining ground. Indigenous voices are demanding respect and self-determination. 2023 will likely reveal how far we've come…

Paul Memmott is an anthropologist and architect. For 5 decades he has been Director of the Aboriginal Environments Research Centre. His work has focussed on a range of topics including institutional architecture, indigenous housing, crowding, governance, well-being, homelessness, family violence and social planning. He has is referenced by many scholars, including in Dark Emuby Bruce Pascoe, and in the rebuttal to Dark Emu: Farmers or Hunter-gatherers? by Peter Sutton and Keryn Walshe. He is the author of 11 books, including the magisterial Gunyah Goodie and Wurley: the Aboriginal Architecture of Australia. 

Peter Stutchbury is an acclaimed and award-winning architect known for his innovative approach to sustainability and design. He has a deep appreciation for the Australian landscape, having spent his formative years in the desert country of western NSW. He was winner of the International 'Living Steel' competition for extreme climate housing in Cherepovets, Russia, held the Catedra Luis Barragán in Mexico and has been a tutor on McKay-Lyons Ghost Studio in Canada.

On January night a large group gathered at Moby Dicks, Whale Beach for Bookoccino's annual 'China Night', a foreign policy conversation hosted by Jane Perlez. This year we welcomed Michael Green of the US Studies Centre, author Linda Jaivin and Lowy Fellow Richard McGregor. If you would like to learn more about Bookoccino's acclaimed event series please join our mailing list 

On the 31st of October 2022 we welcomed the inimitable Richard Fidler, discussing his new 'Book of Roads and Kingdoms' with Geraldine Doogue. 

It was our pleasure to host Foreign Correspondents Damien Cave and Nick Bryant on Wednesday June 13 at Moby Dicks, Whale Beach. Together they discuss the experience of living abroad, what defines the Australian character and Why America is no longer the great nation it was. 

A truly engaging and powerful discussion on the war in Ukraine. Hosted by Lowy fellow Richard McGregor, with Bobo Lo and Zoya Sheftalovich. 

Vladimir Putin's decision to invade Ukraine has turned global politics upside down. The US and Europe have co-operated more closely than they have for decades, along with allies like Australia, reinvigorating the West. Germany has committed to a huge boost in defence spending and Finland has dropped 70 years of neutrality. Energy prices have soared. On the other side, China has strongly backed Russia, perhaps with an eye to future conflicts in the Pacific. 

Our guest is Anthropologist Wade Davis who’s written a best seller on Colombia... its beauty, people and the nation's entanglement with the cocaine trade and the 50 year Colombian Civil War...His new book is entitled 'Magdalena River of Dreams: A Story of Colombia'

Wade is interviewed by Martin Kane one of your friendly booksellers at Bookoccino.