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On Sunday mornings, women gather at the Guru Nanak Sikh Temple in Woolgoolga, New South Wales, to pray and cook food for their community. They sing these devotional songs to bless the food they make. These songs came from the first langar (community kitchen of a place of worship) in India, which began in 1469. Learn about our Hopes and Fears: Australian Migration Stories exhibition: nla.gov.au/wha...

Tamer Tarik Taskaya grew up in Corum and Ankara, Turkey . He chose to migrate to Australia in 2010 to avoid military service in Turkey . Nikriz Peşrev is a classical Ottoman song , composed by Ali Ufkî in the 1600s, that Tamer has arranged to be played on the cello. Learn about our  Hopes and Fears: Australian Migration Stories exhibition: nla.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/hopes-and-fears-australian...

Iosefa, Tautala , Semi and Diane learnt the song Tele l'a ole Sami while growing up in Samoa. Their performance was recorded in Griffith, New South Wales. This popular Samoan song was composed in 1954 by Napoleon Tuiteleleapaga , Ray Evans and Jay Livingston . Learn about our Hopes and Fears: Australian Migration Stories exhibition: nla.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/hopes-and-fears-australian-migrat...

Dr Salvatore Rossano is from the region of Apulia, Italy. He composed Tarantella Dell'emigrante on the accordion while completing his National Folk Fellowship on Italian folk music at the National Library of Australia. This song is inspired by the stories and traditions of migrants from Calabria, and is dedicated to those who have left their homelands for a better life.  Learn about our Hopes and...

Newlyweds Radike and Eta Qereqeretabua relocated from Fiji to Australia in 1966 after Radike was awarded a scholarship to study librarianship. While living in Australia, they did live performances of traditional Fijian folk songs, such as Seni Mokosoi .  Learn about our Hopes and Fears: Australian Migration Stories exhibition: nla.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/hopes-and-fears-australian-migration-st...

Oscar Jimenez grew up in Barranquilla, Colombia. He migrated in 2000 for his tertiary education and continues to work in Australia as a musician. His original song, Isabela , was composed in 2004. It is dedicated to his family in Colombia, specifically his niece Isabela, and explores how distance can help us appreciate our roots. Learn about our Hopes and Fears: Australian Migration Stories exhibi...

Zuhir Naji is from Damascas, Syria. He ran a music school before leaving Syria with his family in 2013. The Naji family lived in Jordan for three years before coming to Australia as refugees. Thank you Australia is an original composition, played on the oud, that Naji has performed at Government House. Learn about our Hopes and Fears: Australian Migration Stories exhibition: nla.gov.au/whats-on/ex...

Kim Yang is from Taipei, Taiwan, and migrated to Australia in 2012. Bāng Chhun-hong (Spring Breeze) and Ú lā Hoe (Rainy Night Flower) , performed by Yang, are love songs composed by Taiwanese Hakka musician Teng Yu-Hsien in the 1930s. Both were adapted into patriotic songs by the Japanese military during World War II.  Learn about our Hopes and Fears: Australian Migration Stories exhibition: nla.g...

Ihor Kushnir was born in Adelaide to a Ukrainian father and Belarussian-Ukrainian mother. He plays and teaches the bandura , a Ukrainian string instrument . Dume is a traditional piece that Kushnir has arranged on the bandura for his band the Yellow Blue Bus.    Learn about our Hopes and Fears: Australian Migration Stories exhibition: nla.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/hopes-and-fears-australian-migr...

Christian Ramilo, nicknamed Bong, was born in Manilla, The Philippines. H e wrote Hanap Ko in 1983 during the martial law period under President Ferdinand Marcos. Hanap K o ( What Am I Looking Fo r) is about searching for strength to continue his activist work against the Marcos dictatorship .  Christian migrated to Australia in 1986 and was granted residence on humanitarian grounds.    Learn abou...

Fernando Aguanta grew up in Tupiza, Bolivia. He initially migrated to Australia in 1989, returning to Bolivia in 1995 before migrating again with his family in 2004. Fernando and his sons, Alejandro, Alfredo, Dio and Jay, play Bolivian folk music as a family band. The song Huari is an original composition.   Learn about our Hopes and Fears: Australian Migration Stories exhibition: nla.gov.au/whats...

There are some powerful examples in Bold Types of women who were thrown under the bus by male colleagues and higher ups after a scandal. Others were micro-managed, scrutinised and bullied.  Host: Amy Remeikis .  Historian: Dr Patricia Clarke.  Guest: Ita Buttrose .   Further Reading/References   Articles by Jessie Couvreur : trove.nla.gov.au/collection/bold-types/newspapers/ explore?l-pubtag = Jes...

What was the cost of straying from the company line versus the power of being an inside player?  Host: Amy Remeikis .  Historian: Dr Patricia Clarke. Guests: Zoe Daniel, Nas Campanella.   Further Reading/References   Articles by A lice Henry : trove.nla.gov.au/collection/bold-types/newspapers/ explore?l-pubtag =A lice %20 Henry   Articles by Jennie Scott Griffiths : trove.nla.gov.au/collection/bol...

Content warning: this episode contains descriptions of war casualties, rape and violence against women Right place, right time gave some enterprising women journalists a  front row seat to report on momentous events for their readers back home in Australia. Host: Amy Remeikis . Historian: Dr Patricia Clarke. Guests: Avani Dias, Sophie McNeill.   Further Reading/References   Articles by Anna Blackw...

Content warning: this episode contains mild coarse language. Some of the most successful of the Bold Types made their own road map and were deft at the pivot, while relentlessly sticking to their principles.  Host: Amy Remeikis .  Historian: Dr Patricia Clarke.  Guests: Zara Seidler, Suzanne Dredge.     References and Further Reading Articles by Jessie Couvreur trove.nla.gov.au/collection/bold-typ...

Content warning: this episode contains mild coarse language.   The "women's pages" were a blessing and a curse for opportunities.  The biggest irony was that the women writing this stuff were working mums whose lives were almost completely opposite to those of their readership.  Host: Amy Remeikis. Historian: Dr Patricia Clarke. Guest: Mia Freedman.   The Fijian folk music used in this episode is...

Content warning: this episode contains descriptions of war casualties and sexual harassment. Edith Dickenson was a fearless adventure-seeker who covered the Boer War with clear-eyed empathy as Australia's first female war correspondent.   She also hunted boar from an elephant's back in India whilst wearing a crinoline skirt, with the kids in tow.   Patricia Karvelas appreciates that today's crop o...

The stories in Bold Types live up to the title's promise.   The lived experiences of Australia's gutsy, pioneering women journalists, with a series of amazing firsts, starting back in the 1860s.   Host Amy Remeikis chats with author and historian Patricia Clarke for a preview of what to expect across this season's six episodes.

Have you ever noticed how many of our most famous acclaimed exports come from Western Australia? Heath Ledger. Kate Mulvaney. Tim Minchin. This episode - three 'Perthies' who've made it big in theatre, film and music talk to OFF STAGE about what's in the water across in the West of Australia and why they think it bats above its average in terms of artistic success. Marcus Graham tells the story of...

Martin Philbey began his photography career capturing every part of a crime scene. It was the beginning of a life in photography that would see him becoming so acclaimed he'd be hung in the National Portrait gallery of Australia as a rock photographer. How do you go from crime scene to rock scene? Martin talks about this and the music industry he's been a part of for the last thirty years.   Links...

In the late sixties, an engineering lecturer had a wild party at his home in suburban Melbourne. It was election night, and tensions were high. The lecturer had aspirations to be a playwright and what he saw going on around him, well, he reckoned it might make a good play. The aspiring playwright was David Williamson, and the party inspired Don's Party, one of Australia's first ever home grown blo...

Sir Robert Helpmann's legacy remains relatively strong in 2022: his face adorned the program of the NLA's On Stage exhibition and his name is immortalised in our biggest theatre awards, The Helpmann's. Yet, how many of us know much about his extraordinary life? A life that started on a farm in Mount Gambier and would go on to perform, direct, dance and choreograph in pretty much every major theatr...

By the time we're in our mid-forties, most of us feel as though our life is pretty much sorted out. Not Rose Quong. After twenty-seven years, she left her public service job in Melbourne to pursue life as an actress in London. She continued to chase adventure for all the years of her life afterwards.   Links: National Library of Australia On Stage Exhibition Papers of Rose Quong at the National Li...

Throughout the late 1800s and a lot of the 1900s, there was one name on most of the posters of shows that made it big in Australia: JC Williamson. JC Williamson Ltd was one of the biggest production companies of our history, and it was started by a man called James Cassius Williamson. This episode looks at the life and legacy of JC Williamson's, and one of the biggest touring stars they brought to...

In 1796, the theatre was the place to be. In the growing colony Sydney, people would pack into the theatre to see ex-convicts perform the latest popular plays for them. The NLA's exhibition On Stage has an exquisite treasure from this time: a playbill once belonging to the Lieutenant-Governor of NSW, Philip Gidley King. On our first episode of Off Stage, host Melanie Tait takes you inside the thea...