LIMINAL

Dumile Feni (1942-1991), For the Child An exhibition at Canberra's ANU Drill Hall Gallery reminds us of the horror of Apartheid and how the struggle used art to express and overcome its impact. I took my nine year old daughter to the opening night, coincidentally National Sorry Day (in Australia)and Africa Day, May 26. While I told her to prepare for some disturbing images I wanted her to see them for herself. Art, however disturbing, has the power to unlock the human spirit and help people rise above oppression. My kids are aghast at stories about what life was like during Apartheid. They almost don't believe it could have happened. But it did, and as the former Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, said in his formal remarks to open the show, history is very repetitive and so we must not forget.

This week's ABC Four Corners revealed with gut-wrenching images, how cattle  in slaughterhouses have suffered mistreatment.  It's got my family again thinking about the responsibilities we have towards animals. I wrote this for Web Child last month: There's a small revolution rippling along in suburbia, at least in my pocket of the suburbs. And my anecdotal evidence suggests that boys are leading the way. It's vegetarianism, and it contests the stereotype that boys are less sensitive than girls. My seven-year-old son wants to be a vegetarian. His good friend is one. Others in his class have talked about wanting to forgo meat. They are all boys and they each came to this conclusion on their own. “Mum, every time I eat meat, I feel sorry,” said Oliver, one day at the kitchen sink.

Who would argue with the need to 'close the gap' between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians? There are unacceptable gaps in services, health and economic outcomes. But on a trip from Canberra to Arnhem Land as a volunteer journalist I was struck by a glaring and fundamental gap little talked about - the communication gap. I was little prepared for an exursion to remote Australia with the charity, Indigenous Community Volunteers...

Sorry Day, May 26, opens up wounds for those taken away from their families by the state. Taken from his mother as a baby, Lee Willis-Ardler, learnt to direct his anger into positive change: Lee Willis-Ardler is a straight talker and prone to using colourful, fiery language. But when he is asked about ‘being stolen’ from his mother as a newborn, he is lost for words. “I go through periods thinking about it,” he eventually said after a long pause. “There’s an anger about it and it doesn’t go away.”

The Walkley Magazine October  2008 Moving from journalism into public relations in the welfare sector, has put me on the other side of stories and more aware of a minefield of ethical and privacy issues. I owe a debt to those advocates who moved mountains, and fast, to find people with personal stories who made my copy come to life. I can now appreciate the minefields those people have to navigate. Now I’m the one fielding calls from impatient reporters wanting a case study when a deadline is looming.

The Canberra Times, October 20, 2008 The decision to axe Radio National's Religion Report came as a shock. Twice I have worked on the program, first as its producer, and then as its presenter. It is put together by only two people, but it is able to draw on the wealth of experience and history in the ABC's religion department to create a gripping specialist current affairs program that subjects religion to the same sort of journalistic scrutiny as other programs subject other parts of life. And there's no doubt that religion is a terribly important (if little-reported) part of life, lying behind so much of the news we regard as “political” or “diplomatic” or “social”. Where else in prime-time radio or television have you been able to hear the people who matter quizzed about their interpretations of Judaism, Christianity or Islam and the way in which they plan to act on those interpretations? Some of these people will be happy about the decision to axe the program....

South Africa's deeply unpopular President, Thabo Mbeki, has fallen on his sword. Senior ministers are also likely to go, leaving a big political vacuum. The ruling party pushed Mbeki to resign. Why? The smell of corruption. Mbeki's future had hung in the balance after a senior judge inferred that Mbeki had interfered with the prosecution case against Jacob Zuma, the ANC party leader and Mbeki's chief rival for the top job. Read more from journalists in South Africa.