Read The Play

Welcome to our final episode of Read the Play! This week, Chelsea & David bring together a whole bunch of content from the 2025 National Symposium Unifying Anti-Racist Thory and Practice, offering us some final words on race, resistance, refusal and joy.  To start, you’ll hear the wonderful Vernon Ah Kee & Ghassan Hage speaking to the “affective” dimensions of anti-r...

Welcome back to our second-last episode of Read the Play, and another heavy and vital conversation about the everyday violence of racism, and the powerful love, resistance, and presence of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities that confronts it head on. In this episode, Chelsea and David share a few pieces of material recorded at different points over the past few years with Gunggari s...

This episode of Read the Play is a heavy one, but it is vital listening if we are to properly understand the stakes of Indigenous Critical Race Theory in this moment. In this episode, Chelsea & David return to Indigenist Health Humanities to understand the violence that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience within colonial health settings.   First up, you’ll hear a...

In this week’s episode of Read the Play, Chelsea & David ask: what does it mean to tell the truth about the nature of racism in the colony? And how can we dedicate ourselves to truth-telling in all the work we do? Through a series of short excerpts, this episode weaves together an account of truth-telling in the colony: refusing colonial mythology, disrupting the lies that sustain it, an...

In this episode, Chelsea & David dig into one of the key conceptual frameworks that Indigenous critical race theory offers: complicity. Through three conversations with people engaged in very different kinds of political and intellectual work, they draw out the role of Indigenous critical race theory in offering a language to describe the ongoing attempts of colonial institutions to incorporat...

This week, Chelsea & David dive into the relationship between Indigenous critical race theory and the long and proud tradition of Aboriginal community-led organising, activism and grassroots struggle on this continent. They kick off with an older interview with Widjabul Wia-bal activist and organiser Larissa Baldwin-Roberts, reflecting on the insights she learned from growing up in a strong tr...

This week, we move beyond the university to engage with the diverse ways that communities are organising themselves in response to the persistent violence of racism, colonialism, and capitalism in this moment. Through a series of short excerpts from broader conversations with Sam Watson Junior, Dr. Jamal Nabulsi, Dr. Crystal McKinnon, Dr. Jordy Silverstein, Dr. Lina Koleilat and Dr. Leanne Betasam...

This week on Read the Play, Chelsea and David consider what it takes to stand your ground in the face of relentless colonial violence. They share an interview recorded with Professor Eddie Cubillo when he was in the depths of a prolonged fight against racism at the Melbourne Law School. In the second part of this episode, Chelsea & David share a recording from the indomitable Palestinian schol...

In this episode, Chelsea & David ask: what can we learn from paying attention to the work that Blackfullas are doing across diverse frontlines in the war on race? From racial complaints processes, to suing the racists; working to redistribute their resources, or refusing to participate in their systems: Kevin Yow Yeh, Dr. Steven Hagan, Angela Barney-Leitch, and Senator Lidia Thorpe each offer...

In this episode, Chelsea & David share a special panel recording from the 2025 National Symposium Unifying Anti-Racist Theory and Practice, bringing together Prof Gracelyn Smallwood, Dale Ruska, Uncle Coco Wharton and Senator Lidia Thorpe to share their responses to the question: “what do we want? And when do we want it?” This rich and far-ranging discussion also offers vital conte...

This week on Read the Play, Chelsea and David reflect on what it means to insist on Indigenous humanity: a humanity that is not defined by proximity to whiteness or power, but rather grounded in sovereignty, spirit, and struggle. First up, you’ll hear an interview with Darumbal and South Sea Islander scholar and writer, Dr. Amy McQuire, who reflects on the insights she has learned from worki...

This week, Chelsea and David bring together two key thinkers in the war on race: Uncle Graham Brady and Uncle Philip Mills. First up, we hear Uncle Graham’s generous and thoughtful opening keynote from the 2025 National Symposium Unifying Anti-Racist Theory and Practice in which he reflects on the long history of Black struggle in so-called queensland. In the second part of the episode, we t...

In this first episode, Chelsea & David catch up with three powerhouses of critical Indigenous studies in this colony: Professor Lester Rigney, Dr. Aunty Lilla Watson, and Dr. Aunty Mary Graham. Together, they ask: what does it mean to work from Aboriginal terms of reference? What does Indigenous intellectual sovereignty mean in practice? And what tools do Indigenous knowledges offer for the fi...