In the firing line of change
[ The University of Melbourne Voice Vol. 5, No. 3
8 June - 12 July 2009 ]
Even in difficult economic times, the drumbeat of climate change, how to respond to it and what to do about it in matters large and small, keeps thumping away. By Patrick McCaughey, Director, Festival of Ideas
Everybody in Australia knows that they are in the firing line of climate change. The danger is that climate change fatigue will set in. Tired with ominous warnings about the future of the planet, we will put it all in the too-hard basket and carry on regardless.
The first Festival of Ideas at the University of Melbourne takes the theme of Climate Change/Cultural Change as a way of keeping the issue robust and relevant where solutions and answers, even visions, as to how we can change our culture to meet this unstoppable challenge of our time – the big issue of the new millennium. The Festival aims for a week of non-stop stimulus, controversy and enlightenment and not for five long days of Jeremiads!
The Festival has assembled some of the nation’s finest minds to debate and discuss these issues. From our Nobel Laureate Peter Doherty and such leading climate change thinkers and critics as David Karoly and Ross Garnaut to a panel of new and younger voices eager to join the battle for our environment, you will not want to miss a single one of the five Keynote Lectures or one of the daily panels.
Change is going to overtake our cities and suburbs. Where we live and how we live, what we eat and drink and how we transport ourselves around our sprawling metropolises – all these form topics of discussion at the Festival.
Other big changes are going to shape the future of Australia. We have all witnessed the effect of the economic and financial crisis on the western world these last few months. We are surely right to ask the question: what is the future of the west? How will the USA and Europe emerge from the present turmoil?
To answer those questions we have such experienced people as Don Russell, former Australian Ambassador to the US, principal economic adviser to the Keating Government and now an international banker, to deliver a Keynote Lecture and the Honourable David Daley, Head of the EU Legation to Australia and New Zealand, together with such notable figures as Don Watson, the author of American Journeys, Leslie Rowe, former Australian Ambassador to Russia, and Philomena Murray, Director the Contemporary Europe Research Centre.
China is the 100 tonnes gorilla in the Australian living room. Everybody knows that China is central to the country’s economic future and the renewal of Australian prosperity. But what does China think of us? Our population is approximately the same as greater Shanghai. Are we simply a quarry or are we an ally? To lead the discussion of that issue, the Festival will bring Professor Wang Gungwu from the National University of Singapore to reflect on the puzzling past and the uneasy present of China’s relationship to the west.
The political and economic ramifications of the Australia-China relationship will occupy much of a single day at the Festival with speakers ranging from Professor Antonia Finnane and John Garnaut, Beijing correspondent for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, to Saul Eslake, Chief Economist of ANZ.
Most importantly we consider how China regards itself beyond “the official line”. Today China has one of the most dynamic contemporary art movements in the world. It has enthralled and excited collectors and museums and become a major presence in the international art market. What do these avant-garde China artists mean? What are they saying about China today? Two of the leading interpreters of contemporary Chinese art are Claire Roberts and Geremie Barmé of the Australian National University and they will form a panel to give a critical account of the movement.
Australian cultural life punches over its weight. From the middle of the 20th century to the present day, there has been an unbroken stream of major writers – novelists, poets, playwrights – and important artists of all persuasions from painters and sculptors to artists in the new media of video and environmental installations. The Festival will ask what the role of the writer is in a time of change. Do the world-wide effects of climate change overwhelm the voice of the writer? Kate Grenville, the major Australian novelist winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize, will respond directly to that challenge in the final Keynote Lecture of the Festival. The following day there will be panels of poets and novelists who will discuss the issue of change and read from their work. It will bring the Festival to a resounding close and suggest a vision of our future.
Every event at the Festival is free and open to the general public. All the events – Keynote Lectures, panels and a concert – will be held in the Carrillo Gantner Theatre in the Sidney Myer Asia Centre just metres from the No. 1 Swanston St tram stop! It could not be more accessible. We look forward to welcoming you to the Festival of Ideas – five days that will shake Melbourne!
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