Stan Grant’s moving lecture draws standing ovation
Stan Grant delivers the #byronwf2016 Thea Astley Lecture. #stangrant pic.twitter.com/vbtWYbSJ3w
— byronwritersfest (@bbwritersfest) August 6, 2016
Stan Grant’s Thea Astley Lecture in the Feros Marquee at Byron Writers Festival 2016 was filled to overflow as he spoke about the impact African-American author James Baldwin’s Go Tell It On The Mountain has on him.
Grant, a Wiradjuri man and renowned journalist, said he turned to Baldwin when he heard the news that another indigenous child had taken her life.
Stan Grant's literary lifechanger: James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain. #theaastleylecture #byronwf2016
— byronwritersfest (@bbwritersfest) August 6, 2016
'I know how it felt to be trapped by the tyranny of low expectations' – Stan Grant #byronwf2016
— Sarah Holland-Batt (@the_shb) August 6, 2016
"Each line quotable and a lesson in life… Baldwin gave voice to what I knew but could not say." #stangrant #theaastleylecture #byronwf2016
— byronwritersfest (@bbwritersfest) August 6, 2016
‘We were living in a world that could not see us,’ Grant said. ‘Baldwin made me visible.’
Grant’s memoir Talking to My Country has been described as a powerful meditation on race.
"It takes courage for a black person to speak to a white world." #stangrant #theaastleylecture #byronwf2016
— byronwritersfest (@bbwritersfest) August 6, 2016
His eloquence and the power of his argument has led many to call him to run for parliament but that is not in his plans.
Stan Grant 'I did not seek it but find myself w the burden of leadership …But politics demands a certainty I do not possess' #byronwf2016
— Sarah Macdonald (@sarahvmac) August 6, 2016
Instead Grant prefers to ‘live in the world of words and stories’. He urged for Australians to read Australia’s ‘great Indigenous writers’ such as Bruce Pascoe and Kim Scott, saying it was a ‘national disgrace’ that they were not more widely read.
'Defiance and survival' the great hallmarks of indigenous literature in Australia – Stan Grant #byronwf2016
— Sarah Holland-Batt (@the_shb) August 6, 2016
The often emotional and moving speech brought people to their feet.
Standing ovation for Stan Grant after an extremely moving address @bbwritersfest #byronwf2016 pic.twitter.com/MzWIlVkmpu
— Sarah Holland-Batt (@the_shb) August 6, 2016
Report by Southern Cross University Reporters.
