Cirrus@Austlit

McPhee states that her lecture offers 'a few observations drawn from my past lives and my present struggles about the conditions all new and many established writers need in which to write, whatever their chosen medium and market. I want to look at some of the areas where our written culture seems to me to be vulnerable, then offer a few suggestions about how we might start to make ourselves stronger.'

She argues that 'Writing has rarely been so important as it is right now in this country. Words are needed more than ever before - words that identify what is going on here, words that pose difficult questions and dismantle what can sometimes sound like a sense of entitlement or a reluctance to face the future. Words are all we have if there is to be any hope of persuading those who have stopped listening.

'A culture like Australia's has always been an adaptive one - able to sustain itself even without the protection that language and deeply-rooted tradition gives. I don't know what the future is going to look like - but I do know that the increasing globalisation of cultures makes providing the conditions for creativity and artistic practice to flourish more essential than ever before.'