Brent Harris: Surrender & Catch, the first major monograph of the Aotearoa-born, Melbourne-based artist Brent Harris opens at AGSA.

Curated by Maria Zagala and co-presented with Tarra Warra Museum of Art, brings together over 100 paintings, drawings, studies and prints, traversing the artist’s practice and stylistic shifts over his career.

Brent Harris: Surrender & Catch maps the ways Harris’s art has developed over the past four decades, featuring a broad selection of works from 1987 to 2022. Harris’s distinctive style, which moves between figuration and abstraction, deploys both humour and the grotesque to examine psychological subject matter as he visualises his complex and contradictory feelings. Indeed, the exhibition title refers to Harris’s interest in sociologist Kurt H. Wolff’s notion of ‘surrender and catch’ as a process for self-analysis and as a method of working.

Exhibition dates: 6 July – 20 October 2024.

 In this segment, we hear from Maria Zagala, who has worked as Associate Curator of Prints, Drawings & Photographs at the Art Gallery of South Australia since 2006. From 1996 to 2006 she was Assistant Curator of Prints & Drawings at the National Gallery of Victoria. Maria completed her Master of Fine Arts at La Trobe University specializing in life drawing practice in the Italian Renaissance, with extended periods of research in Berlin, London and Florence. Brent Harris, who has been actively exhibiting since the mid-1980s. He is a painter and printmaker who has lived in Melbourne for over forty years. Harris’s works are known for their flat space, clean lines and graphic forms, which belie the underlying themes of his work, such as mortality, trauma, eroticism and childhood.

On Wednesday 19 June 2024, the Government of South Australia officially launched the first ever Autism Strategy –a five-year roadmap for South Australia to address the barriers faced by Autistic people across all life areas and support them to achieve their goals and aspirations. 

The launch of the Strategy marks a significant milestone in South Australia’s journey to being the nation’s leading autism inclusive state, and to build knowledge, understanding and sense of belonging for South Australia’s Autistic and autism communities.

Meaningful cultural change and greater inclusion in our community can only come about by consulting, listening, and creating open dialogue with the autistic and autism communities. 

The voices of South Australia’s Autistic and autism communities have been the driving force behind the development of this Strategy. Over 1,300 submissions were received during the first and second public consultation processes conducted by the Department of Human Services.

This process makes it one of the largest public consultation processes conducted on disability-related matters in South Australia and one of the most significant co-designed strategies to date.

The release of the SA Autism Strategy 2025-2029 will be followed by the development of 7 Action Plans to drive initiatives and improvements across each of the Strategy’s commitments.

The SA Autism Strategy 2024-2029 is now available to view online at the website autismstrategy.sa.gov.au

In this segment, we hear from Reece Turtur, Manager Strategy within the Department of Human Services’ Strategic Policy and Reform unit. Dasha Kolesik, Member of the State Autism Strategy Advisory Committee

The 2023 Outbound Knowledge Exchange bursary program gave 9 wine industry professionals the opportunity to travel to one or more Great Wine Capitals of the World to build their knowledge and skills.

Through the Department of Primary Industries and Regions, each recipient received a bursary of $6,000 for travel between September 2023 and February 2024.

During their travels, bursary recipients met with key industry, regional and education stakeholders to share their experience, expertise, and energy as well as learn about practices and operations in their chosen field.

Participants shared their experience and learnings at regional and industry events, helping to build capability within their area of interest and maximising the benefit to SA’s wine industry.

Interested wine professionals are invited to apply for the next round of bursaries when they open on 1 July.

In this segment, we hear from Charles Matheson, Grower Engagement Officer for Riverland Wine. For his bursary, Charles travelled to Cape Town/Cape Winelands, South Africa, and San Francisco/Napa Valley, USA, to study sustainability in viticulture and the impact on market access. Yanina Giordano, a PHD candidate at the University of Adelaide and is undertaking research to develop innovative solutions for controlling Brettanomyces (“brett”) spoilage in wine, which has the potential to have a significant commercial impact on wine production. 

As has happened in the past, we are currently seeing another increase in COVID-19 cases in South Australia. In addition, we are beginning to see an expected increase in flu cases which is what we usually see in the cooler months.

These rising cases in the community, will likely result in an increase in presentations to our hospitals of people with respiratory illnesses in the coming weeks.

In this segment, we hear from Professor Nicola Spurrier, the Chief Public Health Officer for SA Health and has accountability for public health and communicable disease issues. Noel Lally, who is is the Acting Executive Director, Communicable Disease Control Branch and has been working in SA Health since 2009. His focus has largely been on immunisation, working across government, non-government and tertiary education sectors to coordinate and lead state-wide delivery of the Jurisdictional and National Immunisation Programs.

Palliative care is a holistic approach to supporting individuals with life-limiting illnesses – meaning an illness that’s active, progressive, or advanced, with little or no prospect of cure.

With the support of healthcare professionals – including doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals, palliative care aims to alleviate symptoms, enhance quality of life, and provide emotional, social, and spiritual support to both patients and their families. 

Palliative care can begin at diagnosis, offering support throughout the illness journey, and can even potentially prolong life.

Palliative care is about empowering people to live their lives as fully and comfortably as possible, even in the face of terminal illness.

For help with navigating palliative care and bereavement support in South Australia, Palliative Care Connect provides information and links for people with life-limiting illnesses and their family, friends, and carers, as well as health and aged care professionals. 

Palliative Care Navigators and Bereavement Navigators are available by phone to support South Australians with life-limiting illnesses and their family members, friends, and carers, as well as healthcare professionals.

To learn more, visit Palliative Care Connect or call the dedicated Palliative Care Connect Statewide Navigation Service on 1800 725 548 (PALLI8), available Monday to Friday from 8.30am to 4pm.

In this segment, we hear from Dr. Peter Allcroft, a Senior Staff Specialist at Southern Adelaide Palliative Services and is a highly respected physician who has dedicated his career to improving the lives of patients with life-limiting illnesses. Kate Swetenham, who is the Director of Nursing at the Department of Health’s End of Life Care Team, provides clinical support to programs of work in Advance Care Planning, Palliative Care, Voluntary Assisted Dying and Grief and Bereavement.

This week is National Volunteer Week – Australia’s largest annual celebration of volunteering (May 20-26). The theme for this year’s Volunteer Week celebration is “something for everyone” - a chance to celebrate the changes that our volunteers can make in children and young people’s lives, and also to assist families and foster and kinship carers.

Department of Child Protection volunteers help with various tasks, including driving children to access visits with family members, and to school or medical appointments. They also help with homework support, assisting children at special events such as those organised for National Reconciliation Week and Youth Week, and helping them with their Life Story (scrap book of memories) work.

There are about 180 people volunteering with the department. The youngest volunteers are in their 20s, and the oldest in their 80s, with the volunteer force collectively pitching in more than 31,000 hours a year.

In this segment, we hear from Anne Marie Scanlon, Department for Child Protection North Region Director and has worked at DCP for more than 20 years, having started at the department as a volunteer. Volunteer Judith Crawford who has been volunteering with the Department for Child Protection for about 12 months. She drives children to and from day care and school, and to appointments or visits with family members. Volunteer Bert Dirix who has been volunteering with the Department for Child Protection for more than nine years, helping children get to school, appointments, camps and family contact. He started volunteering with DCP after he retired and was looking for a way to give back. 

Stronger, more effective and transparent screening laws came into effect in South Australia on 1 July 2019, requiring people who work or volunteer with children to have a Working with Children Check (WWCC). A WWCC is valid for 5 years. Workers in child-related roles need to apply again and receive clearance before their current check expires. If your WWCC expires in the next 6 months, it’s time to apply again now. Apply online at www.sa.gov.au/wwcc.

Not sure when your check expires? The DHS Screening Unit will try to contact you by SMS and email when your check is close to expiry – but you don’t have to wait to hear from us. You can go online to www.sa.gov.au/wwcc to update your contact details and confirm the expiry date of your check.

When you apply, you’ll need to provide:

·       any previous names you've had, including maiden names, aliases or nicknames

·       your address details for the last five years

·       proof of ID

Please allow plenty of time for your application to be processed – we recommend at least 3 months. Complex applications can take longer to process.

Need help or have questions? You can phone the Screening Unit on 1300 321 592 (Monday to Friday, 9:00am to 5:00pm). You can also learn more online at www.sa.gov.au/wwcc.

In this segment, we hear from Ruth Ambler and Belinda Haines. Ruth is the Deputy Chief Executive of the Department of Human Services. Her areas of responsibility include worker screenings, provision of State Government concessions, regulation of restrictive practices in disability services, inclusion policy and and the Office for Women.

Belinda is the People and Culture Manager at the SANFL. 

Opera house nets were banned from use in South Australia last July. 

Green Adelaide and RecFish SA are hosting a net exchange event on Saturday 11 May, 10am – 1.30pm, on the banks of the River Torrens / Karrawirra Pari (Felixstow Reserve) to raise awareness about the ban, remove these dangerous nets from that system and look after our river for a proposed platypus reintroduction. 

The exchange event allows members of the community to swap up to x5 nets for a more wildlife-friendly pyramid style net. All collected opera house nets will be disposed of responsibly, and recycled through the GhostNets program. 

It is vital to ensure all opera house nets are removed from the system to protect air-breathing aquatic animals, such as rakali (native water rat) and turtles.

The removal of opera house nets also supports Green Adelaide’s rewilding project to reintroduce platypus to the River Torrens / Karrawirra Pari. An independent scoping study, commissioned by Green Adelaide, last year found that the removal of these nets was a key requirement of preparing the system for a possible platypus return.

In this segment, we hear from Professor Chris Daniels, the Presiding Member of the Green Adelaide Landscape Board, an environmentalist, zoologist and science communicator.

Tasting Australia presented by RAA Travel is Australia’s premier food and beverage festival and among the longest-running events of its kind in the nation. It’s a celebration of eating and drinking and a showcase of all things South Australian: produce, people and place. Each year we invite audiences to step beyond a standard food festival and discover deliciously different experiences that feed their curiosity.

Tasting Australia creates lasting memories through authentic eating and drinking experiences only South Australia can offer. 

The 17th edition of Tasting Australia will start this Friday 3 May and run for 10 days to Sunday 12 May – across Adelaide and regional South Australia. 

More than 150 events feature in this year's festival program, which was shaped by the Tasting Australia creative team: festival director Karena Armstrong, food curator Kane Pollard and drinks curators Meira Harel and Banjo Harris Plane.

In this segment, we hear from Banjo Harris Plane, one of Tasting Australia's Beverage Curators with a background spanning fine dining restaurants, international wine imports and sales. Born and bred in Adelaide, he worked across interstate and international restaurants before five years as manager of the globally acclaimed Attica in Melbourne – a stint that saw him twice named Australia’s best sommelier.

The Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games presents an opportunity for the South Australian Sports Institute (SASI) to conduct expanded testing sessions to discover potential world class athletes who could compete at these Games.

Typically, an athlete who represents Australia at an Olympic/Paralympic level will have spent between 7-10 years in a sport development pathway before emerging as a senior international athlete.

Given the Brisbane 2032 Olympics/ Paralympics are less than 10 years away, the process of identifying and developing talented athletes is crucial in ensuring that South Australia is able to produce medal winning athletes for the 2032 Australian Olympic and Paralympic teams.

Two Talent Search sessions will be held in the April school holidays with the first taking place today (15 April) and the second happening on Monday 22 April.

 The tests conducted range from generic fitness testing, to sport specific tests across sports that SASI works with - athletes could discover that they excel in a sport they have never tried before!

If athletes continue to develop and succeed in each talent development stage, they will eventually receive a SASI scholarship which gives them access to all of SASI’s high-performance services including movement science, athlete wellbeing, nutrition and strength and conditioning.

 In this segment, we hear from Simon Cain, who has more than 15 years’ experience managing high performance elite teams and programs. He has been with SASI for the past eight years and is the Manager for Sports and Programs. Max Liebeknecht is a sprint cyclist within the SASI cycling program. His potential to achieve cycling success was picked up through the SASI Talent Search Program. 

The EPA has released the State of the Environment Report for 2023, making a number of recommendations to help safeguard South Australia’s environment, with a strong focus on climate change and biodiversity losses.

This year, for the first time, the report has also incorporated the views of Aboriginal peoples as the traditional custodians in protecting and restoring Country, including an expert report and recommendations on how Aboriginal peoples’ cultural perspectives can be more effectively incorporated in approaches to environmental protection.

The State of the Environment Report 2023 provides information on key aspects of the environment, including: Climate, Air, Land, Water, River Murray, Sea and Liveability.

The report provides recommendations to State Government to address the most significant environmental issues, and provides data and analysis to assist government, industry, and the community to take action to improve environmental outcomes.

In this segment, we hear from Keith Baldry, Director of Science and Systems at the South Australian Environment Protection Authority, an independent government environment protection and radiation regulator. Dr Matthew Ward, Director of Science and Information at the Department for Environment and Water.