Soul Search

The Chinese dragon has long been associated with the Emperor of China, and by extension China itself. The coming Year of the Dragon this Lunar New Year is a reminder of how the dragon is a significant and auspicious symbol for people all over the world — from Bendigo to Shanghai.

Doug Lougoon is President of the Bendigo Chinese Association, which owns the world's longest processional dragon. Doug's grandfather migrated to Bendigo in the 1880s.

Dr Hongyan Chen is Associate Professor at the institute of International and Comparative Education at the East China Normal University in Shanghai. In 2018 she published the paper, The Metaphor of the Dragon in Chinese Culture

Special thanks to the Bendigo Easter Fair Society for permission to use audio from the 2019 Easter Fair, when the new dragon, Dai Gum Loong, was introduced to his predecessors, Loong, Yar Loong and Sun Loong. You can watch the parade on YouTube.

Further listeningRe-enchanting China: The resurgence of popular religion, on Soul Search.

What do Aboriginal spirituality and Christian theology have to say to each other? According to Garry Deverell there's plenty, but the conversation can only really begin when there's mutual respect and listening — something that is still missing 235 years after British colonisation.

Rev Dr Garry Deverell is a Trawloolway man from north-eastern Tasmania and Academic Dean, Lecturer, and Research Fellow in the new School of Indigenous Studies at the University of Divinity, which he helped to found. His latest book is Contemplating Country: More Gondwana Theology.

On SBS’s hit show Alone Australia, contestants had to spend weeks in the wilderness without any human contact. Isolation can be hard — many people fear it — but some embrace solitude as an opportunity to learn what makes us human.

Dr Kate Grarock was a contestant on the reality TV show Alone Australia. She’s also an ecologist, hiker and YouTube creator.

Hon Dr Joseph Randolph Bowers is a psychotherapist, spiritual director and lifelong meditation practitioner based in Armidale, NSW. He is the author of Solitude Awakens: The Heart Forest Mountain Way as well as various books exploring Mi’kmaw First Nations culture and spirituality.

Julian of Norwich, the Medieval mystic and anchoress, continues to inspire though her writing even after 650 years. Her powerful prose about her religious revelations, was written in the midst of 14th Century plague-riven Europe.

Julian was the first woman to write in Middle English in the time of Chaucer, and her writings still exist today because of groups of dedicated women who smuggled, hid, translated and nurtured them across the centuries.

Professor Daniel Anlezark is McCaughey Professor of Early English Literature and Language at the University of Sydney. He was reading excerpts from The Shewings of Julian of Norwich - Revelations of Divine Love - (1675 manuscript)

Dr Janina Ramirez is Research Fellow in History of Art at Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford. She’s the author of Julia of Norwich, a very brief history, and presenter of the documentary BBC The Search for the Lost Manuscript Julian of Norwich

The Reverend Dr Sally Douglas is lecturer in biblical studies at Pilgrim Theological college in Melbourne, and a minister of the word in the Uniting Church. Her new book is Jesus Sophia: Returning to Woman Wisdom in the Bible, Practice, and Prayer.

Ningaloo Reef – on the remote west coast of Australia – is the playground of whales, manta rays and black-flanked rock wallabies. The world-heritage site is one of the last wild places left on Earth, and has inspired author Tim Winton for decades, both in his written work and environmental activism.

Tim Winton is one of Australia’s most popular and prolific authors. A four-time Miles Franklin winner, he is the creator of iconic novels like Breath and Cloudstreet.

Ningaloo Nyinggulu is available to watch now on ABC iview.

This episode  was 21 May 2023

Why is rest such a challenge in our culture, in our time? Tricia Hersey has made it her life’s work to advocate for rest — developing a rest practice herself, and guiding others in the same direction.

Tricia’s work isn’t about self-care or individual wellness, and there’s no neat hack for recalibrating your work/life balance. Instead, she advocates for a radical, countercultural form of rest grounded in a theology of Black liberation.

Tricia Hersey is a performance artist, community organiser and founder of The Nap Ministry — an organisation devoted to the liberating power of rest. Her book is Rest is Resistance: Free yourself from grind culture and reclaim your life.

Where are you going? Journeys take many forms: Moving away from your parents’ house, being a tourist in a foreign land, or going on a pilgrimage to a site of profound spiritual significance – and all have a transformative effect on our lives.

Dr Giselle Bader has a PhD in religious studies from Sydney University. Her research looked at fourth century pilgrimage to the holy land, including the pilgrimages of women like Egeria and Paula, and how accounts of their journeys have been received over the years.

Sarah Malik is an award-winning journalist and author of Safar, a new collection of Muslim women’s travel stories.

As the year draws to a close, people from many traditions reflect on generosity, hope and grace. Where do you find grace in a world with so much grief? But according to Julia Baird, it’s worth looking for, because the gift of grace — given without demand or calculation — changes everything.

Dr Julia Baird is a journalist, broadcaster and author. Her books include Phosphorescence and Victoria: The Woman who Made the Modern World. Her latest book is Bright Shining: How Grace Changes Everything.

Dr Anna Halafoff is Associate Professor in Sociology at Deakin University and president of the Australian Association for the Study of Religion. She is the author of Freedoms faiths and futures: Teenage Australians on religion, sexuality and diversity.

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Artists have always been engaged in social and cultural change.  But how possible is art in a time of crisis? What kind of art do crises require and inspire?

is a multidisciplinary artist and vocalist who grew up in Tripoli, Lebanon and now lives in Sydney. She works across photography, video, sound design and live performance, exploring themes of displacement and migration as a chronic injury. She is a founding member and one of the creative producers of Western Sydney-based .

Dr Rod Pattenden is an artist, art historian, and educational facilitator interested in the connection between spirituality and the arts. He is co-editor of Imagination in an Age of Crisis: Soundings from the Arts and Theology

Rev Dr Jason Goroncy is Associate Professor of systematic theology at Whitley College in Victoria. He has served as a pastor in the Baptist and Uniting Churches in Australia and is co-editor of Imagination in an Age of Crisis: Soundings from the Arts and Theology

Injury of Migration  courtesy of  Maissa Alameddine, vocalist and producer

Act III: Love (or what if this is love)  courtesy of Maissa Alameddine,  vocalist/ concept.  Sound producer: Cam Nascon

Correction: Maissa Alameddine is not based in Western Sydney, but does work there.

In a world shaped by colonialism and climate change, Pasifika theologians are on the cutting edge of Christian thought about mission, ecology and indigenous knowledges. It's part of a broader renovation of the whole idea of the church taking place as the centre of global Christianity shifts away from Europe towards the Global South.

Rev Dr Cliff Bird is a scholar of Pacific theology and minister in the United Church of the Solomon Islands. He heads the World Council of Churches’ Council for World Mission in the Pacific and is co-author of Reweaving the Ecological Mat, a major work of Pacific theology leading an effort to resolve the ecological crisis facing Pacific Islanders.

Rev Dr Seforosa (Sef) Carroll is an Australian, Fiji-born Rotuman theologian. She is Lecturer in Cross Cultural Ministry and Theology at United Theological College at Charles Sturt University and was recently Programme Executive for Mission and Mission from the Margins for the World Council of Churches. She is the author of Climate change, faith and theology in the Pacific (Oceania): the role of faith in building resilient communities.