The Weekend Read

At certain times of the year, a group of volunteers can be found roaming Canberra’s bush reserves bearing raw chicken carcasses – all in the name of saving and studying the small local population of goannas.

Of particular interest to the volunteers is the Rosenberg’s monitor – only seven are known to be living in the area, and their survival in an environment so close to Canberra’s city is uncertain. 

But, armed with bait and cameras taking millions of photos, local ecologists and volunteers hope to give Canberra’s goannas a chance.

Today on the show, Suzannah Marshall Macbeth, with her piece from a recent edition of The Saturday Paper, ‘Saving Canberra’s goannas’.

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Guest: Writer Anna Goldsworthy

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A 14th century monastery in Bhutan might be the least likely place to find a hive of busy Wikipedia editors, but for Bunty Avieson, it was the perfect setting for a project in improving media literacy among local nuns, and preserving an under-documented culture online. 

The rigours of editing Wikipedia offered a new path of enlightenment for both the teacher and her class of Bhutanese nuns, as they worked to bring the country’s culture and traditions to local as well as global readers.

Today, senior lecturer in Media at the University of Sydney, Bunty Avieson will be reading her piece from a recent edition of The Saturday Paper.

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Guest: Senior lecturer in Media at the University of Sydney, Bunty Avieson

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Today on the show, Author and founder of AIME (the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience) Jack Manning Bancroft.

Published on the day of the referendum for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, Jack’s piece is a statement on the continuing power of Indigenous knowledge systems, despite the long shadow of a failed referendum outcome.

Jack will read his story, ‘The Indigenous Knowledges Systems Lab’..

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Guest: Founder of AIME, Jack Manning Bancroft

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Today, journalist Nicole Hasham, with her piece from a recent edition of The Monthly. 

On top of a hill in a remote Aboriginal community, hours from Alice Springs, is an unmissable sight: a 20 metre high, steel Christian cross.

It’s a monument that was a decade in the making, cost 2 million dollars to build, and has attracted the interest of Hollywood star Mel Gibson. But despite the grandiosity, it’s a project that hasn’t been without its controversies.

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Guest: Journalist Nicole Hasham

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For many Australians, facing the reality of this country is a task that has proved enduringly difficult, both at a public and a political level. For investigative journalist David Marr, finding the right way to tell the stories that allow us to see the truth of our history is a personal quest and one that has led to his latest book. This week, Michael talks with David about shame – both personal and national – and why his family agreed that he had to write Killing for Country.

Reading list:

Patrick White: A Life, David Marr, 1991

My Country: Stories, Essays & Speeches, David Marr, 2018

Killing for Country, David Marr, 2023

Septology, Jon Fosse, 2022

The Hummingbird Effect, Kate Mildenhall, 2023

You can find these books and all the others we mentioned at your favourite independent book store. Or if you want to listen to them as audiobooks, you can head to the Read This reading room on Apple Books.

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Guest: David Marr

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Today on the show, writer and historian Robyn Annear, with her piece from the September edition of The Monthly. 

While researching the opening of the Yan Yean reservoir in the 1800s, Robyn followed a thread, unravelling the history of sewage and sewerage in Victoria.

From cast-iron pissoirs and open-air urinals, to robo-dunnies and the National Public Toilet Map app, our local history of public toilets is rich with squalid detail. 

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Guest: writer and historian, Robyn Annear

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Today’s episode is a very special edition of Weekend Read. 

Patrick Dodson is a respected Aboriginal elder, a federal Senator, and widely known as the Father of Reconciliation.

He is a fierce advocate for the Voice to Parliament, but Patrick Dodson has spent most of the campaign out of the spotlight, while he undertakes cancer treatment for his recent diagnosis of Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Recently, Senator Dodson was able to record this episode in his country, the lands of the Yawuru people, in Broome, Western Australia.

In this episode, Patrick Dodson reads his moving piece from a recent edition of The Monthly about his lifelong fight for a better Australia.

We would like to thank the staff in Patrick’s office for making this possible.

Patrick will now read his piece, ‘A firelight stick on the hill’.

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Guest: Senator Patrick Dodson

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Today on the show, Mark Mordue reads his piece from The Saturday Paper.

MRI scans are infamously claustrophobic and anxiety-inducing procedures. During his own MRI, the author was surprised to find solace and inspiration in the barrage of sounds he was subjected to lying within the machine. The cacophony of the equipment presented an opportunity to expound on the musical genres that are its antecedents, and those that are, perhaps, its legacy.

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Guest: Writer, poet and journalist, Mark Mordue

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A clinic inside Melbourne’s Royal Women’s Hospital is quietly changing lives through the power of tattoos. 

The Combined Breast Service offers breast reconstruction, including making nipples anew with tattoo ink. It’s an offering that empowers post-mastectomy patients and breast cancer survivors, who often grapple with accepting their new chests. 

Today, author Katherine Wilson will be reading her piece from the May issue of The Monthly.

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Guest: Author Katherine Wilson

Background Reading: Making a point

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Today on the show, author Christos Tsiolkas with a recent piece from The Monthly.

“The Past is a foreign country: they do things differently there” – is the memorable opening line of L.P. Hartley’s 1953 novel, The Go-Between.

It’s a line that has stuck with Christos Tsiolkas since he read it in high school - and a sentiment that has made him reflect on his life, his migrant parents’ lives, and the value of creating foreign worlds through fiction. 

Christos Tsiolkas will read his story, ‘The Past is a Foreign Country’, after a short conversation with 7am host Ange McCormack. 

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Guest: Author, Christos Tsiolkas

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