Lunch Hour Talks
LUNCH HOUR TALK 21 JULY 2022
21 July Lunch Hour Talk
Speakers: Meredith Burgmann & Nadia Wheatley
Topic: Radicals
In the exhilarating decade of the Sixties these two were arrested in campaigns against the Vietnam War and Apartheid, and in support of Aboriginal Land Rights, Women’s Liberation, Gay Liberation, and ‘workers’ control’. In Radicals they share their own memories of that time and showcase the stories of eighteen fellow radicals who, either in reaction to a particular issue or simply in response to the zeitgeist, rejected the political views and values of their family, school, church and class. Like other members of their generation, they were determined to change the world – and they did.
In this discussion, Meredith and Nadia will be joined by Jozefa Sobski, whose journey of education and radicalisation in one of the stories told in this book.
Meredith Burgmann is a former academic who also served as a (Labor) president of the NSW Upper House. She is the co-author, with Verity Burgmann, of Green Bans, Red Union: The saving of a city and the editor of Dirty Secrets: Our ASIO Files.
Nadia Wheatley is an Australian writer whose books include The Life and Myth of Charmian Clift and the memoir Her Mother’s Daughter. Awards include the NSW Premier’s History Award (in 2002 and 2014) and the Age Book of the Year, Non-fiction (2001).
Jozefa Sobski AM was part of Sydney Women’s Liberation, NSW Women in Education and on the collective which produced the last issues of MeJane. She is Chair of JSNWL Board.
Lunch Hour Talk 16 June 2022
16 June Lunch Hour Talk
Speaker: Catherine Fisher
Topic: Sound Citizens: Australian Women Broadcasters claim their voice, 1923-1956
In 1954 Dame Enid Lyons, the first woman elected to the Australian House of Representatives, argued that radio had ‘created a bigger revolution in the life of a woman than anything that has happened any time’ as it brought the public sphere into the home and women into the public sphere. Taking this claim as its starting point, Sound Citizens examines how a cohort of professional women broadcasters, activists and politicians used radio to contribute to the public sphere and improve women’s status in Australia from the 1920s until the 1950s. Radio provided a platform for women to contribute to public discourse and normalised the presence of women’s voices in the public sphere, both literally and figuratively.
