Last modified on Mon 3 May 2021 00.31 EDT
Rage is a good place to start
After being cancelled last year due to the pandemic, 2021âs Sydney writersâ festival began with fury: an opening address shared by Melissa Lucashenko, Tara June Winch and Evelyn Araluen, and taken by all three as an opportunity to advocate for justice. As Araluen put it: âAboriginal women know what it is to be silenced, ignored or wilfully misinterpreted by those who do not wish to hear what needs to be said.â
Lucashenko told a parable which had at its core the damage wrought by gentrification, as it âhits country NSW like a freight trainâ. Winch, stuck in France with a tab open on the Stranded Aussies forum, gave a forceful speech about how Australia looks from afar â violent, racist and in denial â and how uncomfortable it feels for her to be grouped into the âidentity crisisâ that is âAussieâ in the first place.
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A group of Australians unable to return home because of the Federal Government s strict arrivals cap have filed legal action against Australia with the United Nations.
Almost 500,000 Australians have returned home since the beginning of the pandemic but there are still more than 36,000 stranded overseas.
The legal action has been lodged with the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva over claims that Australians are being arbitrarily banned from entering their own country.
Guest: Geoffrey Robertson, human rights lawyer
Producer: