Cirrus@Austlit

'Saying sorry is the easy bit. For many Indigenous Australians like me, education has been the key to unlocking real acts of reconciliation' 

'Big thinking has been unfashionable for too long. Over the past decade, successive leaders have overseen cuts to universities, the arts and public broadcasting. There has also been a rejection of First Nations attempts to wrestle back dignity and create lasting change for the whole country.' (Introduction)

'This Christmas, I’ll be asking for a hard hat and high-vis. It’s not that I need them for the work I do, although I have been known to wear high-vis for onsite visits and major set builds. It’s more that this guise may be the only way artists will get recognised in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.' (Publication summary)

'Noel Pearson says there are three narratives that make Australia – the story of the longest continuous living culture on Earth; the tale of the British colonial project and the institutions that have helped shaped our society; and the narrative of the most successful multi-ethnic, multicultural nation on the planet.' (Introduction)

'To celebrate ten years of Platform Papers, tracking the cultural thinking of the nation, we have invited Wesley Enoch, a theate artist and Nunuccal Nuugi man from Stradbroke Island, to define what we mean by cultural leadership; and to ruminate on where to find it. With the growth of governmentled cultural patronage, have we obscured the core reasons why the arts exist? Have the voices of the mob, the dissenters and the rambunctious opposition been corralled into an official culture? ‘I am sick of hearing we’re not good enough, we don’t do enough for artists, we need more money. Where are the visionaries? Artists are amongst the best qualified people to imagine a future, the ones who can carry the creative dreams of a nation. But where are you? Government champions the arts more than artists do, he says.

'Enoch finds the arts community ridden with mistrust, and fearful of those who speak out. Australia, he concludes, is in great need of cultural leadership; of a fresh force to challenge thinking and gather confidence, to speak out as citizens in the national interest. But where to look? He finds the answer close to home.' (Publication summary)

'Every blackfella has a story.

'20 Questions is a cabaret and a talkshow rolled into one. It works like this: each night a new mystery guest from the exemplary roll-call of Indigenous performers is asked 20 questions. The questions are the same every night, but the answers will be very different. The idea is that out of this simple set-up comes a big, rich modern dreaming of story and song – and a better understanding of how much more there is still to tell.

'That great professional asker-of-good-questions Wesley Enoch hosts an extraordinary line-up of guests including Jada Alberts, Casey Donovan, Lisa Maza, Rachael Maza, David Page, Leah Purcell, Miranda Tapsell and Ursula Yovich.' (Source: Belvoir website)

'Bertolt Brecht's epic morality tale about the ravages of war is given a unique twist by Queensland Theatre Company Artistic Director Wesley Enoch and Paula Nazarski in a dazzling new translation.

Instead of the 'Thirty Years' War of 1600s Europe, this near-future incarnation of the age-old story is set against the bleak backdrop of a post-apocalyptic desert where Mad Max might be at home - an Australia ravaged by devastating conflict, where life is cheap but business is still business. Ursula Yovich is the titular canteen-wagon mistress, shrewdly driving hard bargains as she shepherds her brood of three through this unforgiving, harsh wilderness. With an all-Indigenous cast, this fresh spin on Brecht's play delicately folds in themes of land ownership, the impact of mining and the stolen generation.' (Source: QPAC website www.qpac.com.au)

'Clara lives with her partner, Erik, in a clean, modern home untouched by a flood that has ravaged many parts of their town. Recently unemployed and growing fat and slovenly, her days are spent in front of the television, awash with images of disasters and destruction and programs that flaunt versions of the woman Clara could be if she tried. She is overwhelmed to the point of apathy; immobilised. Feeling so numb, she toys with Erik'’s emotions, and sends him on excursions to fetch her obscure items for a book he has obligated her to make, as if to extract some new reaction from him. She is, perhaps, trying to sabotage their comfort.

'One stormy night, Eugenie comes to the door as a Jehovah'’s Witness to speak to them about the End Days. When she is invited in to take shelter, the evening soon drips with danger, violence, and ugly truths. And Clara’'s hideous troll skin will be revealed and burst open. ' (Publisher's blurb)

'In the 1870s a girl is born under a tree - her birth tree - chosen to give her strength and wisdom. When the tree is cut down she follows it into the white man's world, working as a cook for the big house on the island. Her tree has become a kitchen table, one she will pass down through successive generations as a legacy - a way of carving out her family stories. Now, generations later, a young man and his mother fight for ownership of the table.'

Source: back cover, Currency Press imprint (2007)