What role can the arts and creativity play in navigating unresolved concerns, ongoing debates and controversial questions for our communities?
Exploring complex topics, from reconciliation and truth-telling in the context of colonialism to polarising social or political issues, this symposium will feature exchanges between leading artists and researchers from Australia and Northern Ireland about difficult conversations we, as a globally connected society, need to have today.
The conversations
Sarah Travers in Conversation with Performance Artists
Some of Northern Ireland’s leading performance artists since the 1970s discuss the role of the artist in conflicted public spaces, navigating subjects including violence against women, political conflict, clerical sexual abuse and our relationship with power.
Paul Moore in Conversation with Ara Devine
Paul Moore talks with filmmaker Ara Devine about the subjects within and the process behind the making of his award-winning short film ‘TURF’ – exploring the experience of life on the border in Ireland and the brief encounter between one man who lives there and a displaced Syrian refugee.
Watch TURF – A Short Film by Ara Devine.
Revelation, Reckoning, and Recovery
Continuing the critical conversations around child sexual abuse in Australia in the wake of the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (RCICSA, 2013-17).
The Bullock at the Mudhole
Paul Collis, Jen Crawford, Wayne Knight, Story Ground Collective
Barkindji Country & Ngemba Country: Gundabooka, Toorale Station, Bourke, Brewarrina
A Reading of Selected Poems by Kathleen McCracken
A reading of selected works exploring issues relating to First Nations experiences in Canada, in particular, violence perpetrated against indigenous women and the complexities of being an artistic ally to indigenous rights.
The Launch
What role can the arts and creativity play in navigating unresolved concerns, ongoing debates and controversial questions for our communities?
This panel discussion opened the UC difficult conversations event featuring a conversation between university leaders and artists from Canberra and Ulster.
