How free should artists be to make risky work, to provoke, to get political? Who gets to decide if a work of art is deemed too risky, too dangerous, too difficult? Cancellations. Censorship. Controversy. Political pressure. Mass boycotts. The collapse of festivals. The Australian arts community has seen it all recently, in part triggered by the devastation in the Middle East. But is there more going on too? Join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell with a panel of arts and culture heavyweights to consider the future of artistic freedom and democracy in this country — and why both matter in these fractious times.

This event was organised by Griffith University and Griffith Law School.

Speakers

Professor Julianne SchultzProfessor Emerita of Media and Culture at the Centre for Social and Cultural Research at Griffith University.Columnist, Guardian AustraliaBoard member, Sydney Writers FestivalAuthor, The Idea of Australia: A Search for the Soul of the Nation.Founding editor, Griffith Review.Dr André Dao Winner of the Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction for his debut novel AnamWinner of the Pascal Prize for Cultural Criticism for his pubished essays.Postdoctoral fellow in international law at Melbourne Law SchoolCo-creator of the asylum seeker oral history project Behind the Wire. Author, The role of the committed writer in an unfree world (Overland Magazine, 2026)Presenter, The State of the (Writing) Nation (2023)

Dr Ben ElthamCultural policy researcher and consultant, freelance arts journalist and critic.Lecturer in the School of Media, Film and Journalism at Monash University. Fellow, Centre for Policy Development 

Thanks also to Professor Sarah Joseph, Dr Karen Crawley, Dr Samid Suliman at Griffith University.

Gods and goddesses, heroes and monsters, quests and odysseys, sex and violence. Greek mythology seemingly has it all. And as Christopher Nolan's box office smash retelling of the Greek epic The Odyssey suggests, these stories will never die. Join three superstar writers with their own mythical retellings to explore why these stories endure and how they have been re-imagined over time.

The event Mythical Retellings was recorded at the Melbourne Writers Festival on 10 May 2026.

Speakers:

Yann MartelAuthor, Son of Nobody, The Life of Pi (Winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize) and more

Nikita GillInternational best-selling poet, playwright, illustrator, actor and author, Hekate: The Witch and more

Zoe TerakesActor, playwright and author, Eros: Queer Myths for Lovers

Carody Culver (host)Editor, Griffith Review

As the great powers renegotiate their alliances and priorities, Africa is reshaping its future. From the promise of digital economies and homegrown innovation to the complex legacies of foreign aid, debt and dependency — this is a conversation about power, possibility, and the remaking of a continent on its own terms.

What needs to change in policy, in investment, in the stories we tell for Africa's ambitions to be fully realised?

Africa and the World: Reclaiming Agency in a Shifting Geopolitical Landscape was presented at Havard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics (IOP) and their Africa Development Conference

Speakers

Dr Jendayi FrazerFormer US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs

H.E Ameenah Gurib FakeemFormer President of Mauritius

H.E. Mark-Alexandre DoumbaMinister of Digital Economy & Innovation of Gabon

Mayowa Kuyoro (host)Partner at McKinsey & Co

The decisions being made right now, in parliament, in budget lock-ups, in policy debates, will shape the lives of your kids and their kids. Think: Climate. Housing. Aged care. AI., But in many cases, those decisions are being deferred. There's a name for it: policrastination. The habit of delaying what we know needs doing because the short-term political incentives reward inaction, even when the long-term costs are clear. What would it actually take to govern for the long term?

This conversation is anchored in the new book Future Generations Policy, Governance and Leadership: Ending Policrastination, co-authored by our speakers.

Presented at the bookshop Hill of Content, Melbourne. 

Speakers

Taylor Dee HawkinsManaging Director of Foundations for Tomorrow, a non-profit dedicated to advancing the protection of future generations in Australia

Professor Susan Harris Rimmer Research academic focusing on international human rights law in the Griffith Law School

Dr Elise Stephenson Deputy Director of the Global Institute for Women's Leadership, Australian National University

Caitlin Reiger (host)CEO Human Rights Law Centre

Meet the tenacious Papua New Guineans who won't give up on holding Australian mining giants to account, despite the enormous personal toll of doing so. Emmanuel Peni is fighting to protect the world's "second Amazon"- the pristine Sepik River. Theonila Roka Matbob won the 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize for campaigning against the toxic legacy of Rio Tinto's Panguna copper-gold mine.

This event was hosted at the Extracting Justice: Mining, Accountability, Community Power in the Pacific Conference at the University of Sydney.

Speakers:

Theonila Roka MatbobFormer politician in Papua New Guinean parliamentWinner of the 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize

Dr Luke FletcherExecutive Director of Jubilee Australia, a not-for-profit research and advocacy centre focused on economic justice in the Asia-Pacific

Emmanuel (Manu) PeniCo-producer, Sukundimi Walks Before Me documentaryExecutive Director of Project Sepik

Ben Doherty (chair)Walkley award winning journalist, Guardian AustraliaFormer foreign correspondent covering south-east Asia

From the Frontier Wars, to foreign wars experienced by migrant Australians, to the threat of Australia's involvement in future conflict, war means many different things to different people. So as Australian society evolves, should our culture of war commemoration change too? 

The 2026 Wilks Oration was recorded at the Effective Living Centre, at Christ Church Uniting in Wayville, Adelaide.

Speakers:

Professor Peter StanleyAuthor of more than 50 books including Beyond The Broken Years, Australian military history in 1000 books, Bad Characters (joint winner of the Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History in 2011) and moreFormer Research Professor at UNSW CanberraInaugural head of the Research Centre at the National Museum of AustraliaFormer principal historian at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra (1980-2007)Founding member and President of Defending Country

Pacific communities have long led the global climate fight — not from the margins, but from the front. Australia's hopes of co-hosting COP31 alongside Pacific Island nations have been dashed. So, what does genuine partnership now look like and what does it demands of Australia? 

This live conversation was recorded at the 2026 WOMADelaide festival, produced and presented as part of their Planet Talks program, held on the traditional lands of the Guarna people.

Listen to Big Ideas — Changing minds on climate change

Speakers

Moemoana Safaʻatoʻa SchwenkeSamoan climate activist, cultural ambassador, former Miss Samoa and Miss Pacific Islands

Salā Dr. George CarterHead of the Pacific Institute and Deputy Head of the Department of Pacific Affairs, Australian National University

'Alopi LatukefuDirector Edmund Rice Centre for Justice & Community Education

Tukini Tavui (host)CEO of the Pacific Islands Council of South Australia

He was there at the birth of a movement. He's been a champion for the rights of gay people both in Australia and abroad ever since. The son of Jewish refugees, he's also been forced to reckon with other parts of his identity, especially since 7 October 2023. Dennis Altman looks back at 50 years of activism, writing, and social change.

This event was recorded at the Williamstown Literary Festival on 13 June 2026.

Speakers:

Professor Dennis AltmanAuthor, Righting My World: Essays from the past half century, and many moreVice Chancellors Fellow at LaTrobe UniversityFormer President of the AIDS Society of Asia and the PacificPatron of the Australian Queer ArchivesPatron, the Pride Foundation

Sam Elkin (host)Author, Detachable Penis: A Queer Legal SagaHost, Queer View Mirror Triple R community radio stationFormer lawyer

Think of a history textbook you had at school. Could you relate to the characters inside its pages? These women are proving Australian history contains multitudes. You just have to go looking for the version of Australia that never made it into the textbooks.

Meet four women reshaping how and whose history is told. Hidden histories with a Wiradjuri woman and nurse turned oral historian, a South Indian finance student turned storyteller, a Zambian born film-maker and author, and the founder of She Shapes History. 

This event was hosted at the National Library of Australia in partnership with She Shapes History.

Speakers

Sita SargeantSocial entrepreneur, author, founder and CEO of She Shapes History2026 ACT Young Australian of the Year

Santilla ChingaipeZambian-born filmmaker, historian and author of Black Convicts - how slavery shaped AustraliaHost of the SBS documentary Our African RootsHost of monthly literary and listening events in Melbourne. Find more information at firstchapterpresents

Jacinta MackayWiradjuri woman, nurse, researcher and oral historian completing her PhDLecturer, University of Sydney School of Nursing2024 National Library Scholar

Harini RangarajanChennai-born, Canberra-raised storyteller, archivist and musicianACT Greens candidate

Further information:

Relevant reading notes and tips for this event if you're interested to discover more.

The conversation around men's mental health, identity and emotional lives is changing. Literature is one of the places where that shift is happening. On the page, writers are exploring what it costs men to conform, to hide, to perform strength they don't always feel.

Masculinity and Mental Health was presented at the Newcastle Writers Festival.

Listen to Big Ideas: The radicalisation of boys — Jess Hill, George Megalogenis, Thomas Mayo with Natasha Mitchell at Byron Writers Festival

Speakers

Tyree BarnetteAuthor of Stolen Man on Stolen Land: Being African-American in Australia

Brandon JackFormer AFL player and author of Pissants and 28: A memoir of football, addiction, art, masculinity and love

Andrew PipposAuthor of The Transformations and Lucky's

Michael Williams (host)Editor of The Monthly

The ocean sustains all life on Earth, yet we know remarkably little about it. Now, because of technological advances, we could be on the cusp of a new age of exploration. But the ocean is in trouble.

As National Geographic's Chief Science and Exploration Officer and deputy administrator for the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Terry Garcia has seen the worst humans can inflict on the environment, working on responses to major disasters the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska and BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He says that in order to save the ocean, we need to understand it, and in order to understand it, we need to explore it.

The 2026 Talbot Oration was recorded at the Australian Museum on 4 June.

Speakers:

Terry GarciaPresident of Exploration VentureFormer Executive Vice President and Chief Science and Exploration Officer for the National Geographic SocietyFormer Deputy Administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Kim McKay (host)Director and Chief Executive of the Australian Museum