ChatterSquare

We live in a world full of constant sound and movement. What do we miss when we fail to stop and listen? In this episode, we slow right down and consider the things we need to let go.

Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr Baumann is an Aboriginal elder and educator from Nauiyu (also known as Daly River) in the Northern Territory. She is known for spreading the concept of daddiri, which is a dimension of Aboriginal spirituality.

We caught up with Miriam at the Catholic Social Services conference earlier this year to talk about daddiri, what it offers to non-Aboriginal people, and why it's more important than ever to pay attention to the natural world.

Music: Aces High by Kevin MacLeod incompetech.com under CCBYA 3.0 licence.

Youth detention seems to only attract public attention when there's a crisis, but the problem seems to go back further. What are still not confronting when it comes to children and young people who run into the law? How do we advocate for them in a hostile political and media environment?

In this episode, we talk to former Victorian children's commissioner Bernie Geary. Bernie's entire career has been focused on assisting vulnerable young people and their families. He was the first outreach youth worker in Victoria, working in West Heidelberg more than four decades ago. In 2005, he was appointed as the state's inaugural child safety commissioner, and became principal commissioner for children and young people in 2013, the role from which he retired in 2015.

Music: Aces High by Kevin MacLeod incompetech.com licensed under CCBYA 3.0.

The persistent gap between the rich and the poor has left many people disillusioned about how the economy and governments function. What does growth mean under these circumstances? Is it still useful to talk about a working class?

Labor MP Clare O'Neil takes on these questions and the policy questions they bear. She is a former mayor with a public policy pedigree, and has advised businesses in such disparate contexts as Wall Street and East Arnhem Land. In this episode, Clare is candid about her experience in politics, and what she thinks power is for.

Music: Aces High by Kevin MacLeod incompetech.com licensed under CCBYA 3.0.

All around the world, young people are taking things into their own hands. In Australia, 23-year old Tim Lo Surdo is doing what he can to contest the power structures that are reinforced through racism.

In this episode he talks about his path to activism, the link between racial and economic injustice, what organising means, and how communities of colour can exert political pressure.

Music: Aces High by Kevin MacLeod incompetech.com licensed under CCBYA 3.0.

In many ways, feminism has pushed the boundaries of where and how women participate in the economy. But there is a deepening sense that this has not been enough. So what got missed?

Eva Cox is a prominent Australian academic and feminist who has spent decades agitating for a more civil society. She joins us to discuss the impact that neoliberal economic models have had on women, including its emphasis on individualism. She also talks about the social as an essential lens, touching on a range of things such race, universal basic income, and social media.

Music: Aces High by Kevin MacLeod incompetech.com licensed under CCBYA 3.0.

After five years, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse concluded with volumes of stories and a set of recommendations. Yet the work hardly seems done. What lies ahead for the Catholic Church, against which so many claims of abuse and cover-up were made?

Francis Sullivan is CEO of the Truth Justice and Healing Council, which was convened by Australian Catholic bishops and congregations to coordinate Church engagement with the Royal Commission.

He talks about what the process has been like, and the growing unease among ordinary Catholics that church leaders still don't get it.

Music: Aces High, The Reveal by Kevin MacLeod incompetech.com licensed under CCBYA 3.0. Clip from ABC News

Every generation brings the past into the present as it reckons with issues of identity and belonging. The role of symbols becomes critical, and in Australia perhaps no symbol has had more claimants than the Southern Cross.

Dr Anne Beggs-Sunter is a historian and academic specialising in the history of Ballarat. She takes us through the 1854 miners' rebellion on the Victorian goldfields, where the Eureka flag was first raised.

What do people miss about this story? Can the Eureka Stockade be retold in an inclusive way? Is it time to reclaim the Southern Cross from far-right supremacists?

Music:

Rise Up by Shane Howard from Songs of Love and Resistance(used with permission), Aces High by Kevin MacLeod incompetech.com licensed under CCBYA 3.0

What does solidarity look like in a fractured time? Should we distinguish between activism and organising? Is there a place for allies?

Jack Latimore hosted Black Lives Matter leaders in Melbourne, where mutual lessons emerged from encounters with Indigenous leaders and communities of colour.

Jack is a Goori journalist and researcher, who is invested in the full participation of all people in political and cultural decision-making. In this episode, he reflects on the Black Lives Matter model, some of the positive things taking shape in Australia, and the work that still needs to be done.

'We need to get smart about the work we want to do, or the endpoint that we desire,' he says. He highlights 'the obligation to listen to other voices'.

Music: Aces High by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)licensed under CCBYA 3.0.

'Throughout this process I don't know how many times I've broken down crying, together with my partner.' ChatterSquare catches up with Benjamin Oh as the marriage law postal survey in Australia closes.

Ben is co-chair of Equal Voices, a national LGBTI-affirming ecumenical organisation. In this episode, he talks about what it is like to be gay, Catholic and Asian-Australian. What are the things that have helped him deal with homophobia? How does his faith sit with his sexuality? What does he think about the institutional language around gays and lesbians, given strong Catholic support for same-sex marriage compared to other Christian churches?

Ben also talks about the ways in which his Chinese Malaysian family has embraced his partner, and grounds for hope.

Music: Aces High by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)licensed under CCBYA 3.0.

How are we to engage with views that we disagree with – when they are held by groups that we are part of or that are part of us? In this special episode of ChatterSquare, we present 'Dissent Within', the Eureka Street panel at the 2017 Melbourne Writers Festival.

Dr Naama Carlin and Angus McLeay talk about their encounters with people who challenged their long-held assumptions, and the distance required to see one's privilege clearly.

Naama is an Israeli-Australian academic who is against the Occupation of Palestinian territories. Angus is an Anglican minister from an evangelical background who supports same-sex marriage. Both have found that the basic tenets of faith can reconcile tensions between loyalty and integrity, but also offer ways forward.

This event was chaired by Eureka Street editor Tim Kroenert, with thanks to the Melbourne Writers Festival for the recording.

Music: Aces High by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)licensed under CCBYA 3.0.