Big Ideas

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