In this Conversations from Byron podcast, Mirandi Riwoe speaks with Melanie Cheng about her experience of researching and writing about the Australian gold rush. They discuss Chinese-Australian history and its place within our broader colonial literature, and explore how stories like this one can help bring the once invisible and voiceless to the forefront of our imaginations.

About the book

Family circumstances force siblings Ying and Lai Yue to flee their home in China to seek their fortunes in Australia. Life on the gold fields is hard, and they soon abandon the diggings and head to nearby Maytown. Once there, Lai Yue gets a job as a carrier on an overland expedition, while Ying finds work in a local store and strikes up a friendship with Meriem, a young white woman with her own troubled past. When a serious crime is committed, suspicion falls on all those who are considered outsiders.

Evoking the rich, unfolding tapestry of Australian life in the late nineteenth century, Stone Sky Gold Mountain is a heartbreaking and universal story about the exiled and displaced, about those who encounter discrimination yet yearn for acceptance.

Thanks to Delta Kay, Arakwal Bundjalung woman, for the Welcome to Country on this podcast.

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Nazeem Hussain is a grown man whose Mum won’t let him go to Sri Lanka. At least, not without her by his side. But he’s just had a kid, and he’s started thinking ahead to the questions his son might ask him one day, like ‘why are we brown?’ So Naz flies to Sri Lanka with the echoes of his Mum’s protests in his ears.

In his new Audible Original Podcast, Rogue Son, we follow comedian Nazeem Hussain as he journeys through his ancestral lands, considering what life would’ve been like had his parents not migrated to Australia. Naz tours Sri Lanka at a pivotal time for the country, politically and culturally. A new government is elected while Naz is in the air, so he lands in a strange atmosphere of confusion and change.

In this Conversations from Byron podcast Nazeem talks with friend and fellow comedian Matt Okine about the making of the podcast. They discuss race, identity and the experience of returning to your place of heritage as a first generation migrant.

Thanks to Delta Kay, Arakwal Bundjalung woman, for the Welcome to Country on this podcast.

To listen to the full podcast series of Rogue Son, head to audible.com.

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Kindred, Kirli Saunders’ debut poetry collection, is a pleasure to lose yourself in. Kirli has a keen eye for observation, humour and big themes that surround Love, Connection & Loss in an engaging style, complemented by evocative and poignant imagery. Kindred talks to identity, culture, community and the role of Earth as healer. It has the ability to grab hold of the personal in the universal and reflect this back to the reader.

In this Conversations from Byron podcast, Ellen van Neerven chats with Kirli Saunders about the moments that inspired Kindred, about her role in the Poetry in First Languages project, and about her own personal journey to reclaim language.

Thanks to Delta Kay, Arakwal Bundjalung woman, for the Welcome to Country on this podcast.

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‘It seems that every generation needs to be told why Black Lives Matter. Here we are again.’ 

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S. Shakthidharan’s award-winning play, Counting and Cracking, is a story about Australia as a land of refuge, about Sri Lanka’s efforts to remain united, and about reconciliation within families, across countries and generations. Shakthi’s latest play, The Jungle and The Sea, was due to open on the day of this interview, but has been put on hold due to Covid-19 restrictions.

In this Conversations from Byron podcast, Shakthi talks with Sunil Badami about what makes an Australian story. They discuss multiculturalism throughout our nation’s long history, and explore themes of family, identity and migration. Shakthi also tells us about his path to playwriting, his love of community arts practice, and the realities of making theatre in the time of Covid-19.

Thanks to Delta Kay, Arakwal Bundjalung woman, for the Welcome to Country on this podcast.

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Thanks to Delta Kay, Arakwal Bundjalung woman, for the Welcome to Country on this podcast.

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Jean Kittson’s warm and witty practical guide is a one-stop shop for information on how to support your ageing loved ones: how to protect their health and wellbeing, keep them safe and secure, and enable them to be self-determining and independent for as long as possible. Compelled to discuss some of life’s most confronting questions, Jean shares heartfelt, personal stories alongside expert advice.

In this Conversations from Byron podcast, Jean talks with fellow author and comedian Mandy Nolan about what she learned throughout the writing of this book. Jean shares some of her own family’s experiences, and talks us through the complex aged care system in Australia. Together, Mandy and Jean consider how we might re-frame the way we think about caring for our elderly parents.

Thanks to Delta Kay, Arakwal Bundjalung woman, for the Welcome to Country on this podcast.

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Thanks to Delta Kay, Arakwal Bundjalung woman, for the Welcome to Country on this podcast.

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2038. On a remote island off the Pacific coast of British Columbia stands the Greenwood Arboreal Cathedral, one of the world’s last forests. Wealthy tourists flock from all corners of the dust-choked globe to see the spectacle and remember what once was. But even as they breathe in the fresh air and pose for photographs amidst the greenery, guide Jake knows that the forest is dying, though her bosses won’t admit it.

1908. Two passenger locomotives meet head-on. The only survivors are two young boys, who take refuge in a trapper’s cabin in a forest on the edge of town. In twenty-six years, one of them, now a recluse, will find an abandoned baby — another child of Greenwood — setting off a series of events that will change the course of his life, and the lives of those around him.

Structured like the rings of a tree, this remarkable novel moves from the future to the present to the past, and back again, to tell the story of one family and their enduring connection to the place that brought them together.

In this Conversations from Byron podcast, Michael Christie speaks with Sophie Cunningham about the interconnectedness of people and nature, about families, relationships and love, and about his and Sophie’s shared obsession with trees.

Thanks to Delta Kay, Arakwal Bundjalung woman, for the Welcome to Country on this podcast.

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Tegan Bennett Daylight has led a life in books – as a writer, a teacher and a critic, but first and foremost as a reader.

In this deeply insightful and intimate work, Daylight describes how her reading has nourished her life, and how life has informed her reading. In both, she shows us that it’s the small points of connection – the details – that really matter: what we notice when someone close to us dies, when we give birth, when we make friends. In life’s disasters and delights, the details are what we can share and compare and carry with us.

In this Conversations from Byron podcast, Tegan talks with long-time friend and writing confidant Charlotte Wood about her love of books. They touch on the varied subjects of Tegan’s essays, from her mother’s influence on her reading life, to childhood and its aftermath (as in her celebrated essay ‘Vagina’), the authors who have shaped her, and the power of language to spark joy.

Thanks to Delta Kay, Arakwal Bundjalung woman, for the Welcome to Country on this podcast.

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Narrated by a 13,000-year-old extinct mammoth, this is the (mostly) true story of how a collection of prehistoric creatures came to be on sale at a natural history auction in New York in 2007. By tracing how and when these fossils were unearthed, Mammoth leads us on a funny and fascinating journey from the Pleistocene epoch to nineteenth-century America and beyond, revealing how ideas about science and religion have shaped our world.

With our planet on the brink of calamitous climate change, Mammoth scrutinises humanity’s role in the destruction of the natural world while also offering a message of hope.

In this Conversations from Byron podcast, Tony Birch talks with friend and author Chris Flynn about the writing of Mammoth. Their candid discussion touches on many subjects, including Chris’ Irish upbringing, climate change, fossils, world leaders, and the role of humour in climate fiction.

Thanks to Delta Kay, Arakwal Bundjalung woman, for the Welcome to Country on this podcast.

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Life in a troubled neighbourhood demands too much too young. But Sonny wouldn’t really know.

Watching the world from her bedroom window, she exists only in second-hand romance novels and falls for any fast-food employee who happens to spare her a glance.

Everything changes with the return of Vince, a boy who became a legend after he was hauled away in handcuffs at fourteen. Sonny and Vince used to be childhood friends. But with all that happened in-between, childhood seems so long ago. It will take two years of juvie, an inebriated grandmother and a porn stash for them to meet again.

In this Conversations from Byron podcast, Vivian talks with friend and Executive Director of Story Factory, Cath Keenan, about being published at 19, and how the stories she was told as a child inspired this novel.

Thanks to Delta Kay, Arakwal Bundjalung woman, for the Welcome to Country on this podcast.

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Gabriel Fox, the young son of an old English house, arrives in a land both ancient and new.

Drawn by the promise of his heart’s desire, and compelled to distance himself from pain at home, Gabriel begins his quest into Van Diemen’s Land.

His guide, a Cannibal who is not all he seems, leads him north where Gabriel might free himself of his distracting burden and seek the woman he must find. As Gabriel traverses this wild country, he uncovers new truths buried within his own memory.

In this Conversations from Byron podcast, winner of the 2020 Australian Vogel Literary Prize, Kate Kruimink speaks with fellow Vogel shortlister Emily Brugman about the characters and themes of her novel, about the experience of winning the Vogel, and where her love of literature comes from.

Thanks to Delta Kay, Arakwal Bundjalung woman, for the Welcome to Country on this podcast.

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Christos Tsiolkas’ stunning new novel Damascus is a work of soaring ambition and achievement, of immense power and epic scope, taking as its subject nothing less than events surrounding the birth and establishment of the Christian church. Based around the gospels and letters of St Paul, and focusing on characters one and two generations on from the death of Christ, as well as Paul (Saul) himself, Damascus nevertheless explores the themes that have always obsessed Tsiolkas as a writer: class, religion, masculinity, patriarchy, colonisation, exile; the ways in which nations, societies, communities, families and individuals are united and divided – it’s all here, the contemporary and urgent questions, perennial concerns made vivid and visceral.

In Damascus, Tsiolkas has written a masterpiece of imagination and transformation: an historical novel of immense power and an unflinching dissection of doubt and faith, tyranny and revolution, and cruelty and sacrifice.

Join Christos as he speaks candidly with fellow author and long-time friend Malcolm Knox about his own winding path to Damascus.

Thanks to Delta Kay, Arakwal Bundjalung woman, for the Welcome to Country on this podcast.

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The lives of three women weave together across four centuries in the dazzling new book from Evie Wyld, winner of the Miles Franklin Award.

Surging out of the sea, the Bass Rock has for centuries watched over the lives that pass under its shadow on the Scottish mainland. And across the centuries the fates of three women are linked: to this place, to each other.

Each woman’s choices are circumscribed, in ways big and small, by the men in their lives. But in sisterhood there is the hope of survival and new life. Intricately crafted and compulsively readable, The Bass Rock burns bright with anger and love.

In this Conversations from Byron podcast, Evie speaks with Nicole Abadee about the creation of her three female protagonists, and about violence against women both in the book and in the world around us.

Thanks to Delta Kay, Arakwal Bundjalung woman, for the Welcome to Country on this podcast.

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This debut collection of short stories by Yumna Kassab is remarkable for its minimalism. Set in the suburbs of Western Sydney, it portrays the lives of Lebanese immigrants, and their families. The stories revolve around their hopes and regrets, their feelings of isolation, and their nostalgia for what they might have lost or left behind.

In particular, The House of Youssef is about relationships, and the customs which complicate them: children growing away from their parents, parents anxious about their children’s futures, the intricacies of marriage, the breakable bonds of friendship. The stories are told with an extreme economy – some are only two pages long – and a spareness of detail which heightens their emotional intensity.

In this Conversations from Byron podcast, Sunil Badami talks with Yumna about the writing of the book, its reception, about growing up in Western Sydney, and how our identity informs our writing.

Thanks to Delta Kay, Arakwal Bundjalung woman, for the Welcome to Country on this podcast.

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When urban academic Hayley Katzen moves to a remote Australian cattle property to live with her farmer girlfriend, she hopes, at last, to find home.

But this is no happy-ever-after tree change. Lecture halls, law reform and the arts are replaced with castrating calves, shovelling manure, fire-fighting and anti-gas blockades. In a place that attracts people who live by their own rules, Hayley must confront her limitations and preconceptions to forge her own identity.

In this Conversations from Byron podcast, Hayley speaks with long-time friend Sarah Armstrong about learning to love the bush, about the craft of memoir writing, and about all of the things, the histories and experiences, the people and the landscapes, that ultimately lead us home.

Thanks to Delta Kay, Arakwal Bundjalung woman, for the Welcome to Country on this podcast.

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