Race Matters

Censorship in the arts has been rampant across our galleries, theaters, airwaves and screens. As the genocide devastates across Palestine in its seventh month, we witness sites of art-making cower away from speaking out and silencing artists who do. In this tumultuous and heartbreaking climate - how do we understand the role of the artist? Hear from artists  Lux Æterna, Alissar Chidiac and Nicole...

Content note: this episode contains mention of family violence, incarceration, houselessness, and visceral descriptions of some memories. It's not described in detail but please go gently if these will affect you.  Samantha Haran and Bipasha Roy chat to Gomeroi writer, curator and scholar Dr Amy Thunig. A rich chat on memoir as a politcal act amid erasure, dismantling white supremacy in academia,...

A spirit of protest and deep sensitivity echoes in this episode with two staunch First Nations activists and artists Jazz Money  &  Thea Anamara Perkins . Honored to have FBi broadcaster, writer and curator  Levent Can Kaya take over Race Matters with an incisive and luminous chat. Hear Lev, Thea and Jazz on personal archives and joyous collective imagination as antidotes to colonial violence;...

Alicia Zhao and Joannie Lee are joined by artist, Dharma practitioner and co-founder of the  Inner Fields collective - Elaine Su-Hui. Together they share a reflective chat on their relationships with Buddhism, what it is to come to a politicised reclamation of spirituality, decolonise Western appropriations of faith, and turn towards a practice that doesn't bypass injustice - but faces it with cou...

This week the Race Matters team settle in to have a deep chat about love. What is the role of love when we are witnessing the horrors, violence and apathy of the genocide of Palestinian people and the rise of facism? Join Alicia Zhao, Toobs Anwar and Samantha Haran unpack the politics of love and what it means to practice radical and political love in our everyday life. Featuring excerpts from Sau...

how can we gather in non-hierarchical ways, form solidarities, resist shallow representation and form cultures of genuine reciprocity? ⁠ Upending the colonial building of artshouse during Dalit History Month,  ಒಡಲಾಳ Odalala (‘from the depths of one’s being’)  brings together local and international artists to examine histories of caste, migration, gender and sexuality through contemporary expressi...

MIGRANT SEX WORKER OF COLOUR DIARIES: WE SPEAK CLEARLY 〰️ this episode is in loving memory of dear friend and colleague, Venus ⁠〰️ A special episode this week as we delve into the second offering of our  Migrant Sex Worker of Colour Diaries  produced by Jasmine Raat-Ki-Raani. An intimate, extended dialogue with Natasha tracing her life from Brazil to so-called a̶u̶s̶t̶r̶a̶l̶i̶a̶. Hear stories of...

A stunning and expansive world conjured by Aaqila aka halalbutch Aaqila is a writer, artist, DJ and community organiser based on Whadjuk land and sometimes Gadigal land. Their habitude operates towards providing tools for collective liberation beyond the tools of the institution; which manifests in different ways from the dinner table to the gallery. Their threads of research are drawn from Malay-...

"Space is scared. We often think that space is related to the physical and the tangible but also the metaphysical. To hold space for someone is a great gift. In today's world, we all have these pockets of existence, but we rarely and genuinely hold space for others that is more than just superficial. To hold space for another is to exist with them at that moment - to share breath and existence. If...

an audio vignette exploring the past and future of pasifika music and what it means to make forward-thinking music as a pasifika artist. narrated by conversations with experimental producer ripley kavara (lakatoi, kandere) and aus hip-hop pioneer hau lātūkefu (koolism) @ lonelyspeck  / Sione Teumohenga is a Tongan-Australian artist, producer and musician based on Kaurna land, best known for produc...

"⁠An experimental and (non)fictional invitation to see myths and mythmaking as a form of queer storytelling. Home dwells in the languages we keep." Darren Lesaguis is of Bisaya and Tagalog descent, a former co-host of Race Matters, and community radio worker. 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 Kitchie Nadal - ‘Huwag na Huwag Mong Sasabihin’ Kulintang Ensemble - Kulintang Mamayog Akun Background Free Download No Copyright...

"⁠A journey through time, and gender- exploring Dalit womanhood and Dravidian masculinity through an anti-caste and trans lens. Bounded and centred by an all-Dalit & Tamil Greek chorus consisting of photographer Jaisingh Nageshwaran, scholar Dr. Roja Singh, community oragniser Grace Banu and wise young woman Ritu Elizabeth Samuel, soundtracked by rapper nasbandi - and me." R.Talitha Samuel is...

"⁠How do you find your place in a world that was never built to accommodate you? An intimate memoir, unravelling the shifts in a body and the world around them in a world before and during the global pandemic." Tori Hobbs is a disabled healthcare worker, writer and co-founder of Disability Justice Network. a grassroots organisation run for and by multiply marginalised disabled people in so called...

"⁠What is it that you call home? For a queer Palestinian in diaspora the answer can be complicated. From Beiti to Beitak, Chicago to Naarm, I try to find out. Featuring interviews with Nourah of Salon Kawakib and Mirna of Aywa Syndicate." Kal Jazeera is a queer Palestinian creative currently based in naarm by way of potawatomi land Chicago. They orbit many fields across performance but the heart o...

Broadcasting from the 24/7 sit-in at the PM's office, we hear from two core organisers from Families for Palestine - Sarah Shaweesh and Zuzia. We chatted about the collective power of staking a picket and how communal acts of care are an expression of resistance.  ⁠ Please support the work of Families for Palestine, sign up for a sit in shift by sending them a message, or learn about other ways yo...

A sprawling, expansive chat with two artists who embody a DIY ethos interconnected with spirituality and poetry.  Two chats with musician, sculptor Lonnie Holley and poet Moor Mother (Camae Awaye) chatting through their practices, converging across their innovative use of materials, unique ways of collaborating and principled resistance. A conversation to sink deep into, with both Lonnie and Camae...

Conversations at the intersection of healing, justice and anti-racism happening this summer.  "We are watching genocide, a lot of us come from lines of attempted genocide. we can't 'self care' our way out of that but what we can do is hold each other ... we don't have a choice" our final episode for the year is helmed with Samantha Haran in conversation with Quandamooka and Wiradjuri woman, and Fi...

Conversations at the intersection of healing, justice and anti-racism happening this summer.  Hear Toobs and community herbalist Salma Yassien speaking through community practices of collective care, herbalism and spirituality that proved vital in the wake of hyper-policing and medical racism in and outside the global pandemic. A sprawling chat grounded in spirit, hope and the wisdom of daily, anc...

Conversations at the intersection of healing, justice and anti-racism happening this summer.  Hear Tanya Shukla in conversation with narrative therapist Sekneh-Hammoud Beckett. In an intimate and reciprical dialogue they explore the intersectional race politics in our deepest desires and connections; unravelling into a vulnerable offering of how we can move through and transform sites of trauma in...

We are honored to offer this bonus episode with gratitude and soldiarity with The Red Rattler Theatre , Autonomous Collective Against Racism (ACAR) & Blak Caucus . This is as much a talk as it is a compelling call to action, listen to their words.  "Palestinian activists and the Blak Caucus invite you to this plenary on unceded Gadigal land.  Our siblings in Palestine face a genocide...

Xuan and Marina from Amplify Bookstore  are back for another episode of anti racist book club! Hear their recommendations of Palestinian authors across all genres of books. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but we hope it offers a starting point for engaging with Palestinian literature in the spirit of solidarity, empathy and dissent.  Hear them chat through  A Woman is No Man  by Etaf Rum...

Alicia Zhao and Toobs Anwar chat to poet and Fulbright scholar Stephanie Niu, about her expansive research on Christmas Island with the local community, weaving together poetry, stories and community mapping and archiving. Plus, Stephanie shares a reading of her poem "Vision for America" Find out more about Stephanie’s work here. Her forthcoming collection "Survived By" will be available for preor...

Where would Race Matters be without Tanya Ali? Honestly, we probably wouldn't exist. As well as being one of the founding co-hosts of the show, Tanya was a luminous compass for the show’s vision and growth in her time as executive producer and continues to nurture what we do. Somewhere in the haze of post-lockdown she graciously stepped out of her volunteer role as Executive Producer and never got...

We take some reprieve amid the heaviness of the world to bring you some of the new(ish) voices of Race Matters. Over the last six months, every week, our new volunteers have been coming together to help bring Race Matters to life. Today we hear from  Tim Worton, Alicia Zhao, Toobs Anwar with Executive Producer Shareeka Helaluddin  talking about what brought them here, consciousness-raising texts (...

Meet some of our newest co-hosts and producers Samantha Haran and Alicia Zhao. They’ve been working together on this new series to reimagine and explore the possibilities of what ‘education’ can be and alternative ways in which we learn, gesturing towards modes that are transformative and healing. They begin by looking critically at the ways in which current models of education are failing people...