The World's Biggest Survival Story

Sun 9 May 2021

Melissa Lucashenko + Bruce Pascoe + Lisa Fuller + Thomas Mayor

The Edge Auditorium

L032

#Performances

#About the event

Duration: 60 minutes

First Nations people have survived – and thrived – on this continent for at least 65,000 years. According to the common law, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been here from ‘time immemorial’. With Australia now in medical, ecological and economic crisis, what insights from First Nations survival illuminate how we all might survive the future?

#Artists

Melissa Lucashenko

Melissa Lucashenko is a Goorie (Aboriginal) author of Bundjalung and European heritage. Her first novel was published in 1997 and since then her work has received acclaim in many literary awards. Killing Darcy won the Royal Blind Society Award and was shortlisted for an Aurealis award. Her sixth novel, Too Much Lip, won the 2019 Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Queensland Premier’s Award for a work of State Significance. It was also shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Stella Prize, two Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, two Queensland Literary Awards and two NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. Melissa is a Walkley Award winner for her non-fiction, and a founding member of human rights organisation Sisters Inside. She writes about ordinary Australians and the extraordinary lives they lead. Her latest book is Edenglassie.

Bruce Pascoe

Author Bruce Pascoe is a Tasmanian, Bunurong and Yuin man who lives on country, deep in the Victorian bush. A prolific writer, Bruce is the author of over 20 books. In Dark Emu – winner of the Book of the Year and Indigenous Writer's Prize in the 2016 NSW Premier's Literary Awards – he argues that systems of food production and land management have been blatantly understated in modern re-tellings of early Aboriginal history.

Lisa Fuller

Lisa Fuller is a Wuilli Wuilli woman from Eidsvold, Queensland, and is also descended from Gooreng Gooreng and Wakka Wakka peoples. She won the 2017 David Unaipon Award for an Unpublished Indigenous Writer, the 2018 Varuna Eleanor Dark Flagship Fellowship, was a joint winner of the 2018 Copyright Agency Fellowships for First Nations Writers, and placed second in the 2018 Feminartsy Memoir Prize. She has previously published poetry, blogs and short fiction. Lisa is an editor and publishing consultant, and is passionate about culturally appropriate writing and publishing. Lisa is a member of Us Mob Writing, the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild, the First Nations Australia Writers Network, and the Canberra Society of Editors.

Thomas Mayor

Thomas Mayor is a Torres Strait Islander man born on Larrakia country in Darwin. Following the Uluru Convention, Thomas was entrusted to carry the sacred canvas of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. He then embarked on an eighteen-month journey around the country to garner support for a constitutionally enshrined First Nations voice, and a Makarrata Commission for truth-telling and agreement-making or treaties. His first book in 2019 was "Finding The Heart of The Nation". Thomas’s journey continues, both in person and through the pages of this book and his second book for young Australians - "Finding Our Heart". He has two books that will be released in August 2021. A childrens book about the Gurindji Wave Hill Walk Off. And a book about fatherhood from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander’s perspective.