Past Programs
Books - 2008
Patricia Wrightson
18/12/2008
Patricia Wrightson began writing children's fiction in the 1950s, after realising that very little literature for young people featured Australian characters and settings.
One of the pioneers of the flowering of Australian children's writing, Patricia Wrightson has won numerous book awards, including the Hans Christian Anderson medal for writing in 1986. Her abiding interest in Aboriginal culture and spirituality has prompted a recurrent theme in her books, as has her love for the Australian environment.
In this program, Patricia Wrightson talks about her passion for writing, and her desire to create a distinct, Australian children's folklore, using the landscape, people and myths that she observed around her.
Oriel Grey
09/10/2008
In the late 1930s and 1940s, playwright Oriel Gray was a bright star in Sydney's bohemian literary and artistic milieu. She began her long career writing political revues and plays for the New Theatre, which operated under the stern patronage of the Communist Party of Australia.
Oriel Gray recalls her childhood, her interest in writing and the stage, and her wartime years involved in radical theatre -- a time of rare unity for the Australian left as they came together in the fight against fascism.
Oriel Grey died in July 2003.
Oodgeroo Noonuccal
21/08/2008
In the fourth program in a series exploring memories of childhood, the poet and activist Oodgeroo Noonuccal recalls her early life growing up on her tribal country, Minjerribah, or Stradbroke Island, off the coast of southern Queensland.
She was born in 1920 and was given the name Kathleen. As an adult Kath Walker took on her Indigenous name, Minjerribah is the traditional country of the Noonuccal people.
Oodgeroo was one of the first Indigenous Australian writers to be published, and her work has received many accolades and awards, including an MBE which she famously returned to the government in 1988, in protest against the Bicentennial celebrations.
