AMplify - The Australian Museum Podcast

Explore the relationship between the heavens and Earth with world-renowned astronomer, Professor Fred Watson AM, in this fascinating discussion hosted by Professor Anthony Burke.

Join leading experts as they explore Peruvian archaeology, spirituality, and the achievements of the ancient Andean civilizations. This fascinating discussion, featuring Dr. Chris Carter, Professor Julian Droogan, and journalist Caroline Baum, traverses thousands of years of history and culture.

Dive into the connections between Peru's biodiversity and ancient culture in this discussion featuring the Australian Museum's Chief Scientist, Prof. Kris Helgen, and Andean archaeology expert, Dr. Jacob Bongers. Hosted by ABC Radio National's Natasha Mitchell, this session explores how Peru's unique environment shaped its civilizations.

Trailblazers in the fields of energy, engineering and the environment explore some of the innovations and inventions shaping the sustainability landscape. Hosted by Richie Merzian, CEO of the Clean Energy Investor Group, this enlightening panel discussion features celebrated inventor Professor Veena Sahajwalla AO, solar pioneer Dr Muriel Watt AM and CEO of the Mulloon Institute Carolyn Hall. Join these inspiring leaders as they showcase the exciting and practical climate technologies and initiatives leading us towards a more sustainable future.

The 2024 Roadmap to Net Zero Conference by Australian Museum

Professor of Architecture, and host of ABC TV's Grand Designs Australia, Anthony Burke, hosts this electrifying panel discussion dispelling the myth that a sustainable home is a “thing of the future”. Featuring Kate Minter (Managing Director, Rewiring Australia), Marc England (CEO, Ausgrid) and Tim Forcey (author and home efficiency expert), this session unveils some of the innovations and techniques available to homeowners and tenants to help build a better future now.

Unceremoniously ejected from the Australian Museum 150 years ago, former AM Curator, Gerard Krefft, was Australia's first zoologist and helped foster a national understanding and appreciation for natural sciences. Join us for a free and fascinating discussion on 'Gerard Krefft: A Saga of Science and Scandal', held on Saturday 21 September 2024. Featuring AM Director and CEO Kim McKay AO; former Director Dr Des Griffin AM; and our Head of World Cultures, Archives & Library, Dr Vanessa Finney.

In this Eureka Talk, explore the wonderful diversity of Antarctica and learn how experts are fighting to save this region from the devastating effects of climate change. Hosted by Australian Museum Eureka Prize winner Dr Jackson Ryan, this panel discussion explores how the Antarctic landscape has changed over the past century, and the critical role of scientists, researchers and science communicators in striving to preserve our frozen continent.

n the 1980s, a new wave of Egyptomania emerged in Australia with the first touring exhibition from Cairo, but Australia's fascination with Egypt's ancient past had begun in the 19th century. Our attraction to the ancient world endured throughout the political swings and design trends of the early 20th century, and grew as Egypt hosted ANZACs for deployment in both World Wars. Come with us to ‘Ramses Street' as we explore the legacy of Ancient Egypt in Australia and discuss the current shift to untangle and address colonial narratives in museums. Hosted by Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah.

Twice a year, sunlight sweeps into the chambers of The Great Temple at Abu Simbel, illuminating the face of Ramses II and marking the beginning of the flood and growing seasons. Temples were monuments to the pharaohs and the gods, reminding all of Egypt's wealth and prosperity. For modern visitors, these temples stand as examples of the ingenuity and scope of human endeavour. In the fourth instalment of our Saturday Lecture Series, we explore some of these monuments' key architectural features; how kings, such as Ramses II used them to define and portray power and - in the case of Abu Simbel – as a means to harness the sun. Following the lecture, join in the conversation with a Q&A hosted by Professor of Architecture, Restoration Australia's Anthony Burke.

Five years into his reign, Ramses undertook his most ambitious military action, attempting to wrest control of Kadesh from the Hittites. Join Associate Professor Ockinga as he unravels the complexities of one of the most famous battles in the ancient world and asks whether history is necessarily written by the victors.

In the premiere event of our Saturday Lecture Series, Macquarie University Professor Malcolm Choat uncovers the history of KV7 - The tomb of Ramses the Great. Tomb KV7 had a life that extended beyond a pharaonic burial chamber. Ancient tourists inscribed their names and impressions on its walls, Christian monks made their homes there and transformed the necropolis into a holy city. A thousand years later, a new wave of tourists from Europe began recording their impressions of Egypt. Join Professor Malcolm Choat as he takes us on a journey through time to explore how the “afterlife” of the tomb of Ramses II - and the Theban Necropolis - teaches us as much about Ancient Egypt as the New Kingdom does. In this captivating lecture, hosted by the Australian Museum's Chief Experience Officer Russell Briggs, learn what happened in the years between the interment of the great Pharaoh in the 18th Dynasty, and the contemporary excavation of the tomb in the 19th Century.

Come on a journey to the afterlife with archaeologist Dr Anna-Latifa Mourad-Cizek as we explore everything from beliefs and practices to tombs and funerary equipment. ‘I exist, I am alive, I am strong, I have awoken'. Along with mummification, ceremonies and the creation of tombs, ancient Egyptians contrived hundreds of spells to safeguard their eternal existence. Using key pieces from the exhibition Ramses & the Gold of the Pharaohs, Macquarie University's Dr Mourad-Cizek will explain how pharaohs, princesses, artists and others prepared to join the realm of the dead, to become eternally divine.

In the first instalment of the Australian Museum's exclusive 'Egypt - In Conversation' series, curator and Egyptologist Dr Melanie Pitkin sits down with journalist and passionate Egyptophile Caroline Baum for 'An Introduction to Egypt'. As the Senior Curator of the Nicholson collection of antiquities at the Chau Chak Wing Museum, Melanie shares insight into ancient Egyptians and their world view. Learn about key personalities, events and periods of pharaonic history to the interrelationship between religion and society.

The future is female! We turn the spotlight on some of the incredible 2023 Eureka Prize winners and finalists who represent the future of science in Australia. Listen to the last of our Eureka Talks Series, as Associate Professor Alice Motion chats with some of the incredible 2023 Eureka Prizes winners and finalists. We will sit down with Dr Stephanie Partridge, Associate Professor Noushin Nasiri and Scientia Associate Professor Kate Quinlan and delve into the unique challenges and achievements of these three remarkable scientists, whose research and inventions are literally helping to save lives. The Eureka Talks Series shines a light on research and innovations changing the fields of Climate, Health and Science Communication. Hear from Australian Museum Eureka Prize winners, finalists and other science leaders as they share their experiences, challenges and discoveries in their particular fields of research. The Australian Museum Eureka Prizes were established in 1990 to celebrate the work of Australian scientists, and how their contributions are producing world-leading results that can influence the lives of many across the globe.

Professor Kris Helgen, Chief Scientist and Director of the Australian Museum Research Institute (AMRI) in conversation with Ron Lovatt, the Australian Museum's longest serving 'DigiVol' photographer. In this recording Ron talks about his early years and what prompted him to return to nature photography later in life. He discussed his techniques for producing the ultra-high resolution photography that he employed in the Australian Museum Citizen Science program DigiVol. Recorded 6 September 2023 at the Australian Museum.

In this Eureka Talk, explore the science behind the deadliest event of the 21st century. Australian Museum Eureka Prize winning journalist, Olivia Willis, sits down with world-leading evolutionary biologist and virologist, Professor Eddie Holmes, and our Chief Scientist and Director of the Australian Museum Research Institute, Professor Kris Helgen, to discuss what is being done to prevent future zoonotic outbreaks. Explore how viruses move between hosts, and the debates over their origins. Learn about the triggers for virus mutations and the cutting-edge research and discoveries that are paving the way towards preventing the next pandemic. Discover the fascinating links between habitat destruction, illegal wildlife trade and the next global health emergency. Recorded live at the Australian Museum on 8 July 2023.

Eureka Talks Series: Waste Not, Want Not Recorded live at the Australian Museum 10 June 2023 Join two of the 2022 Australian Museum Eureka Prize winners, as Dr Jackson Ryan sits down with Professor Veena Sahajwalla to explore the science of decarbonising the world with a recycling revolution. In the first Eureka Talk, join us for an eye-opening talk on revolutionising waste. Dr Jackson Ryan, winner of the 2022 Eureka Prize for Science Journalism, sits down with the 2022 New South Wales Australian of the Year and two-time Eureka Prize winner, Professor Veena Sahajwalla, to discuss the cutting-edge research helping build a better world. Our speakers will explore the science of decarbonising the world and the importance of collaboration in scientific innovation. Find out how the grounds from your cappuccino could help to eliminate the need for coal and coke. Dive into the four R's - reduce, reuse, recycle, and REFORM - and how they can be applied to create a sustainable future. The Eureka Talks Series shines a light on research and innovations changing the fields of Climate, Health and Science Communication. Hear from Australian Museum Eureka Prize winners, finalists and other science leaders as they share their experiences, challenges and discoveries in their particular fields of research. The Australian Museum Eureka Prizes were established in 1990 to celebrate the work of Australian scientists, and how their contributions are producing world-leading results that can influence the lives of many across the globe.

Recorded live at the Australian Museum 7 June 2023 Nature speaks, but are we listening? Hear from photographic artist and activist, Leila Jeffreys, renowned naturalist, Tim Low, and author, David Gandelman, as they explore how improving your relationship with nature can, in turn, improve your relationship with yourself. Drawing from personal experiences, the panel will invite you into a more mindful space and ask you to reconsider how we interact with the world around us. From creatures big and small, there is plenty we can learn. Hear how Leila's work as a photographic and installation artist has deepened her understanding of the importance of interconnection and belonging for all living things. Discover invaluable insights into the natural world and its relationship to us as Tim shares his learnings from decades of research and writing (including best-seller books Where Song Began, Feral Future and The New Nature). Add in David's practical approach to mindfulness and this is sure to be a perspective-shifting evening.

Bee taxonomist Dr Michael Batley sits down with native bee ecologist and science communicator Amelie Vanderstock to chat about the importance, beauty and diversity of Australia's wonderful native bees, and discover ways to bring them to your garden. There over 1600 named native bees in Australia, and possibly another 1000 that are yet to be discovered. They live among us, in near silence, undertaking the crucial work of pollinating wildflowers, native plants and crops. One of the greatest concerns of taxonomists like Michael Batley is that species will go extinct invisibly – that a bee will disappear before being known to science. Michael is working hard to document the bees and chart new discoveries so that we may find ways to halt their decline. Recorded live at the Australian Museum on 4 February 2023.

Proud Cudgenburra/Bundjalung man, landscaper and Gardening Australia presenter, Clarence Slockee, joins us for the second installment of the series. Learn five practical ways to bring beautiful local blooms, birds and butterflies into your garden as Clarence busts the myth around the difficulty of growing native plants. Five Things is a series of talks by Australian ecology experts that offers real-world steps you can take to boost biodiversity and to make your community a haven for native plants and wildlife. Recorded live at the Australian Museum on 3 December 2022

On Saturday 5 November 2022, journalist and author, Ali Gripper, sat down with Dr Jodi Rowley for an intimate Q&A on Jodi's life's work and to learn five things we can do to make our gardens frog-friendly. Frogs play a crucial role in the balance of our ecosystems. Australia has over 240 known species of frog, almost all of which are found nowhere else in the world. With climate change robbing them of habitat, clean water and food sources, frogs are fighting for their lives. Since 2017, Curator of the Australian Museum Herpetology Collection, Dr Jodi Rowley, has been championing the protection of frogs through citizen science app FrogID. Through people power, over 700,000 frogs have been documented, giving Jodi and her team of scientists an unprecedented picture of the lives and deaths of Aussie frogs.

Recorded at the Australian Museum Thursday 2 June 2022. The ways in which we consume media have shifted, offering us extraordinary opportunities to inform people, bring them together and evoke action. But in this digital era, too much of one thing – or the wrong thing – can make people just scroll on. How do we balance images of loss and devastation with the prospect of a better future? Social researcher Dr Rebecca Huntley has focused on climate change since seeing images of the school climate strikes in 2018. The visceral anxiety and impassioned efforts of the students inspired her to do what she could to make a difference for her own children's generation. In this year's Talbot Oration, the respected Australian author, commentator, climate change strategist and mother will investigate the powerful ways that images can convey the messages of climate change and inspire climate action. Using data and evidence based on years of social trend research, Rebecca will offer reasons why the right imagery can break through the online chatter and spark action. Following her address, Dr Huntley was joined by Tishiko King, a proud Kulkalaig woman and campaigner for climate and social justice, and Dr Saul Griffith, engineer and author of The Big Switch, in conversation with Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt AO.

Unsettled – Remembering Massacres by Australian Museum

Arts leaders Wesley Enoch and Rhoda Roberts AO reflect on the legacy of writer Oodgeroo Noonuccal and activism in the arts. The first published Aboriginal poet in Australia, the writings of Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath Walker), captured both the strength of Aboriginal culture and the impacts of colonisation on her people. A charismatic, strong leader from Minjerribah (Stradbroke Island), her distinctive voice pricked the national consciousness and brought another perspective to the literature of the time. Wesley Enoch, who grew up on Minjerribah, has strong memories of “Aunty Kath”, and is now returning to Country and carrying on her legacy. In this very personal session, arts leaders Wesley Enoch and Rhoda Roberts AO share their memories of Noonuccal and discuss how arts and activism are inseparable.

Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt AO and Dr Jason DeSantolo explore the legacy of David Unaipon and how traditional systems and knowledge are helping solve contemporary issues.

Artist Daniel Boyd and Academic Dr Stephen Gilchrist discuss the legacy of Emily Kame Kngwarreye and the importance of place and ceremony in art today. When Emily Kame Kngwarreye died in 1996, she was recognised as one of the world's great painters. Her work was inherently tied to deep, layered understanding and interpretation of her Country's stories, and was the culmination of a lifetime of making art as ceremony. If an inherent relationship to place is the basis of First Nations visual tradition, what does it mean for contemporary First Nations art practitioners? How do urban-based Indigenous artists – and those whose cultures have been lost to them – maintain links with their heritage and create ceremony through their work? Recorded at the Australian Museum on 15 June 2021

NITV's Yokayi Footy presenter Bianca Hunt and Professor John Maynard, Chair of Aboriginal History at the University of Newcastle, talk opportunities, barriers and responsibilities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sportspeople past and present. Sport has allowed First Nations people to compete as equals on the field. Success offers possibilities of financial reward and social acceptance far above that which might be otherwise available. Yet as time goes on, we find sport and racism cannot be separated.

Join Indigenous systems ecologist Chels Marshall and facilitator Dr Mariko Smith to discuss how deep cultural knowledge not only overturned the legal fiction of terra nullius but may help reverse the damaging effects of 200 years of Eurocentric land and sea management practice into the future. Eddie Mabo's native title claim changed the foundation of this nation's land and sea law by proving that First Nations people had, through interconnecting social and ecological knowledge systems, lived sustainably and harmoniously on country for millennia.

Professor Tim Flannery outlines his manifesto for humanity's survival of the “climate emergency” in the Australian Museum's (AM) inaugural Talbot Oration. The event was held free to the public on Thursday 3 June 2021 at 6:30PM in Hintze Hall at the Australian Museum. In his speech, Professor Flannery made the case for using Australia's approach to COVID-19 as a model for responding to climate change, outlined in his new book, The Climate Cure: Solving the Climate Emergency in the Era of COVID-19. Professor Flannery spoke about the opportunity for Australia to lead in addressing the climate crisis and implement a prompt, effective, science-led government policy on management – and survival – of the climate threat. Following the keynote address, Professor Flannery was joined by Professor Veena Sahajwalla and multi-award-winning journalist Rae Johnston for a panel discussion moderated by former AM president, businesswoman and sustainability adviser Sam Mostyn AO discussing solutions and actions the public can take to help minimise climate change impact.

Australian Museum Director and CEO Kim McKay in discussion with Professor Tim Flannery.

Glenn Murcutt AO (with Sandra Sully) Architect Glenn Murcutt is globally acclaimed for his environmentally sensitive, sustainable and quintessentially Australian designs. The sole practitioner, teacher and critic, counts his childhood in Papua New Guinea and his father’s inspiring guidance, informed by the ideas of Henry David Thoreau, as profound influences. Murcutt has received every significant award including the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the Alvar Aalto Medal and the AIA Gold Medal. Recorded live at the Hallstrom Theatre in the Australian Musuem on 25 June 2019.

Albert Namatjira by Franchesca Cubillo (with Tracey Holmes) Born on the Hermannsburg Lutheran mission in the Northern Territory in 1902, the life of iconic master painter and Western Arrernte man Albert Namatjira was entangled in virulent racial politics. Franchescha Cubillo, Churchill Scholar and Senior Curator Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art at the National Gallery of Australia, offers insights into the Hermannsburg Movement, the artist’s magnificent paintings and enduring legacy. Recorded Live at the Hallstrom Theatre in the Australian Museum on 18 June 2019.

Mark Carey- The Culture and Politics of Ice University of Oregon’s Mark Carey explores the fundamental role of glacial ice in global economics and politics and within our imaginative, historical and colonial narratives. Much more than just a barometer for climate change or pristine nature, glacial ice has been an elemental force in human history, fundamental to global politics and central to the quest to make oceans, mountains and the polar regions safe for global markets. Recorded on the 22 October 2019 at the ANZAC War Memorial in Sydney.

HumanNature Series: Lessons on resilience from a bamboo bridge Katherine Gibson and Juan Francisco Salazar (Western Sydney University) explore life within the rhythms of nature in resilient community economies. For more than half a century, a 1.5 km handmade bamboo bridge spanned the Mekong River in Cambodia. It was constructed annually as the waters of the river subsided, and dismantled as they rose again with the monsoon rains, until in 2017, it was replaced by a concrete structure permanently connecting the island community of Koh Paen to the bustling city of Kampong Cham. What can a bamboo bridge teach us about ingenuity and resilience, respect for renewable materials and ethical living? Interspersed with clips from their film commemorating this beautiful, ephemeral bridge, Katherine Gibson and Juan Francisco Salazar illuminate local practices harnessed to diversify livelihoods and build economic resilience. Recorded at the ANZAC War Memorial in Sydney on 20 August 2019.

Andrea Gaynor - Armoured histories: radical remembering for the Anthropocene Hold the past to account with Andrea Gaynor, University of Western Australia as she proposes `radical remembering’ to actively confront the challenges of the Anthropocene. Climate breakdown, annihilation of entire species, dwindling topsoil and fresh water, food shocks and plastic oceans led 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg to admonish the assembly of wealthy and powerful at the 2019 World Economic Forum to ‘act as if our house is on fire. Because it is’. Recorded 12 November 2019 at the ANZAC War Memorial.

Bruce Pascoe’s ground-breaking research completely reconsiders the notion of pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians as hunter-gatherers. Explore and challenge the colonial myths that have often underpinned efforts to justify dispossession in this fascinating discussion. Reading the diaries of early explorers, both with and against the grain, Pascoe retells Aboriginal history and argues that it is time to take a new look at Australia’s past. Bruce Pascoe is Bunurong/Tasmanian Yuin man and an award winning author and story teller. His most recent book is Dark Emu: Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident? (Magabala Books, 2014), which won both the Book of Year and the Indigenous Writers Prize (joint winner) in the 2016 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. His other books include Night Animals, Fox, Ruby Eyed Coucal, Shark, Ocean, Earth, Bloke, Cape Otway, Convincing Ground, Little Red Yellow and Black Book, and Fog a Dox. Bruce is a board member of the Aboriginal Corporation for Languages and First Languages Australia and a past Secretary of the Bidwell-Maap Aboriginal Nation. He lives in Gipsy Point, Far East Gippsland with his wife, Lyn Harwood, and two children and three grandchildren. Recorded in the Hallstrom Theatre at the Australian Museum on 18 Oct 2018.

Environmental martyrs put their bodies and lives on the line, risking imprisonment, violence or burial in a shallow grave in the dead of night. Some activists remain anonymous, while others gain posthumous fame and power, their deaths becoming a rallying call for others to join the cause. Rob Nixon, Professor in Humanities and Environment at Princeton University, and author of the award-winning Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor, explores the surge in environmental martyrdom around the world over timber, water, land and mineral rights. Martyrdom is direct action in extremis, he says. But why are so many people sacrificing their lives? And what is the relationship between the fallen martyr and the felled tree?

Professor Fred Hollows AC by Gabi Hollows AO (with Sandra Sully) New Zealand born, UK trained eye surgeon Fred Hollows’ drive to end the injustice of avoidable blindness emerged from a deep commitment to social equality. The economical approach to ophthalmology – focussing on training local surgeons and reducing the cost of lens - which he and his orthoptist wife Gabi developed, has restored sight to more than 2.5 million people. The Fred Hollows Foundation which the couple established in 1992 just six months before Fred died, continues to empower poor and neglected communities across the world. Recorded in the Hallstrom Theatre at the Australian Museum on 11 June 2019.

Dr Macarena Gomez-Barris - The Occupied Forest Venture into the cacophonous space of the forest with Macarena Gómez-Barris of the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn USA, as she considers its contested conceptual, indigenous and potentially regenerative narratives. Recorded in the Hallstrom Theatre at the Australian Museum on 25 June 2019

Live at the AM: Lunchtime Conversation Series - Terry Percival AM, representing CSIRO WLAN by Australian Museum

Live at the AM: Lunchtime Lecture Series 2019: John Maynard On Charles Perkins by Australian Museum

Google Maps began in the spare room of software engineer Noel Gordon’s Sydney apartment in 2003. Today’s instant digital information, directions and street views of almost anywhere on earth has changed our lives, our understanding of the world and how we move and interact within it. Noel Gordon is in conversation with Australian Museum Director and CEO Kim MCKay. Recorded at the Australian Museum in the Hailstorm Theatre on the 25 September 2018.

Australian Museum Director and CEO Kim McKay AO has led the transformation of the nation’s first museum into one of the world's pre-eminent natural history and cultural institutions. Kim also co-founded the Clean Up Australia and Clean Up the World campaigns, and was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to the environment and the community. She offers reflections on the historic, scientific and cultural significance of the newly-restored Westpac Long Gallery, the nation’s first gallery, and its collection of treasures. Kim McKay is in conversation with Tracey Holmes, recorded at the Hailstorm Theatre at the Australian Museum on 18 September 2018.

Dick Smith in conversation with Kim McKay as part of the Australian Museum Lunchtime Lecture series. Sydney born Dick Smith is an adventurer, businessman, entrepreneur, philanthropist, political activist and 1986 Australian of the Year. The founder of Dick Smith Electronics became a household name, launching Australian Geographic magazine in 1984 to sponsor adventure and inspire a love of nature. His own groundbreaking aviation feats include a solo helicopter flight around the world and to the North Pole, as well as a non-stop balloon trip across Australia. Recorded 11 September 2019 in the Hallstorm Theatre at the Australian Museum.

This talk took place on Tuesday 21 May 2019 in the Hallstrom Theatre as the first installment of the Australian Museum's Lunchtime Conversation Series. Author Thomas Keneally in conversation with Australian Museum Director & CEO, Kim McKay One of our most popular and prolific authors, Thomas Keneally has produced more than forty novels, screenplays, memoirs and non-fiction. His embrace of challenging themes and social justice is evident in Bring Larks and Heroes, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and Schindler’s Ark, which won the Booker Prize, and was made into the Academy Award winning film Schindler’s List by Steven Spielberg.

This talk was presented on 14 May 2019 as part of the Australian Museum's HumanNature series. HumanNature Series: Environmental justice and the power of the Pacific word Experience the award-winning "eco-poetry" of Craig Santos Perez from the University of Hawaiʻi, as he reflects on the vital role of Pacific literature in the environmental movements of Oceania. The Pacific region is at the front line of Climate Change. Can literature play a significant role in raising awareness and inspiring activism? Join award-winning Craig Santos Perez as he reflects on the vital role of Pacific literature and poetry in environmental justice movements across the region. ABOUT HUMANNATURE In this landmark series of talks, the Australian Museum is proud to host a stellar line up of leading Australian and international scholars. They will share with us their insights from history, literature, philosophy, anthropology and art to examine the significant interplay between the humanities and the environmental crisis we face today, including climate change, biodiversity loss and a wide range of other issues. ABOUT CRAIG SANTOS PEREZ Craig Santos Perez is an associate professor at the University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa, where he teaches Pacific literature and eco-poetry. The author of four collections of poetry, and co-editor of four anthologies, he is the first Pacific Islander to receive the American Book Award, and first Micronesian to receive the highest literary award from the Hawaiʻi Literary Arts Council. Dr Santos Perez has lectured and performed at the IUCN World Conservation Congress, the UNESCO Ocean Literacy conference, the Indigenous Book Festival, the Festival of Pacific Arts and the International Conference on Environmental Futures.

This talk was presented as part of the Australian Museum's HumanNature series on 30 April 2019. HumanNature Series: Is green the new white? Lesley Green (University of Cape Town) considers how environmentalism squares with anti-racism and social justice in the sourcing of `green’ commodities from the sands of South Africa. Green explores the impact of extracting titanium dioxide, used to produce lighter spectacles, more fuel-efficient airplane parts, whiter paper and food, on the coastal settlements of Xolobeni and Lutzville. Both villages are embroiled in a struggle with the same Australian mining company as they try to sustain a living from the land. Green unravels the categorical jiu jitsu of the South African Anthropocene - where the economy is limited to finance; the hope of political liberation becomes a belief in trickle-downs from market neoliberalism, and environmentalists, in opposing extractivism, become white capitalists opposing black economic empowerment. Is green, she asks, the new white? ABOUT HUMANNATURE In this landmark series of talks, the Australian Museum is proud to host a stellar line up of leading Australian and international scholars. They will share with us their insights from history, literature, philosophy, anthropology and art to examine the significant interplay between the humanities and the environmental crisis we face today, including climate change, biodiversity loss and a wide range of other issues. ABOUT LESLEY GREEN Lesley Green is Professor of Anthropology and founding Director of Environmental Humanities South at the University of Cape Town. A Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the University of California at Santa Cruz in 2018, former Rockefeller Humanities Fellow at the Smithsonian and Mandela Fellow at Harvard, her research focuses on science and democracy in a time of climate change in South Africa. Professor Green is the author of Rock | Water | Life: Ecology and Humanities for a Decolonising South Africa (2019), editor of Contested Ecologies: Dialogues in the South on Nature and Knowledge (2013) and co-author of Knowing the Day, Knowing the World: Engaging Amerindian Thought in Public Archaeology (2013).

This talk was presented as part of the Australian Museum's HumanNature series on 26 February 2019. HumanNature: Connection and cooperation in a time of climate change In his urgent call to action, Birch identifies the powerful roles that First Nations ecological knowledge, environmental activism, scholarship and creativity can play in addressing the impact of climate change, particularly on vulnerable and disempowered communities suffering human rights abuses as a direct result. No less pressing, he argues, is the acceptance of personal responsibility towards forming respectful and humble relationships with country and the planet. TONY BIRCH Poet, short story writer and novelist, Professor Tony Birch is the current Bruce McGuinness Professorial Research Fellow in the Moondani Balluk Academic Centre at Victoria University, and in 2017, became the first indigenous writer to win the Patrick White Award. Tony has published key academic articles and essays concerning Climate Justice, Protection of Country and Indigenous Rights, and is currently researching and writing a book titled `The dead are the imagination of the living’: climate justice and connectivity.

This talk took place at 1pm, Tuesday 2 September in the Hallstrom Theatre at the Australian Museum as part of the Australian Museum's Lunchtime Lecture Series. Australian film legend George Miller traces his multi-award winning engagement with film to the ritual Saturday matinee in his hometown of Chinchilla, Queensland. After a stint at medical school he became a filmmaker, going on to create the Academy Award-winning Mad Max, Babe and Happy Feet series among many others. In this intimate talk, George discusses his early life and career, and reveals some amazing facts about his films, such as how his wife, editor Margaret Sixel, had to edit 480 hours of footage for Mad Max: Fury Road down to just two.

Layne Beachley is widely regarded as the most successful female surfer in history, and is the only surfer, male or female, to claim six consecutive world titles (1998-2003); she went on to win a 7th world title in 2006 before retiring in 2008. In this inspiring conversation with AM Director Kim McKay, Layne reveals the source of her drive to be the best of the best, involving the loss of her mother at age 6 and the revelation of her adoption. She also opens up about the equally strong power of love and her marriage to rock legend Kirk Pengilly. “The fear of abandonment and the fear of rejection is essentially what drove me to become a six-time consecutive world champion. And the reason I differentiate from the seventh is because the seventh title was won in a state of love. So I proved to myself that you can do it in two different ways. “We all experience trauma, we all perceive it in a different way and none of us can control what happens to us, but the one thing we can control is how we respond to it.” This talk took place at 1pm, Tuesday 28 August in the Hallstrom Theatre at the Australian Museum.