When? 6pm – 7.30pm, Wednesday 23 May

Where? Bunyapa Park, West End

What? Critical conversation and public discussion

Join us to hear Dr. Chelsea Bond and Dr. Paige West in conversation about racism, colonialism, representation and violence in Australia and PNG.

About the speakers
Dr. Chelsea Bond is an Aboriginal (Munanjahli) and South Sea Islander Australian and a Senior Lecturer with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit. Dr Bond has worked as an Aboriginal Health Worker and researcher in communities across south-east Queensland for the past 20 years and has a strong interest in urban Indigenous health promotion, culture, identity and community development. Dr Bond is also a board member of Inala Wangarra (an Indigenous community development association), and Screen Queensland, an affiliate member of UQ Poche Centre for Indigenous Health Research and regular guest host of 98.9FM’s Let’s Talk program.

Dr. Paige West is the Claire Tow Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University in New York. Her broad scholarly interest is the relationship between societies and their environments. More specifically, she has written about the linkages between environmental conservation and international development, the material and symbolic ways in which the natural world is understood and produced, the aesthetics and poetics of human social relations with nature, and the creation of commodities and practices of consumption. Since the mid 1990s she has worked with indigenous people in Papua New Guinea. In addition to her academic work, Dr. West is the co-founder of the PNG Institute of Biological Research, a small organisation dedicated to building academic opportunities for research in PNG by Papua New Guineans. She is also the co-founder of the Roviana Solwara Skul, a school in PNG dedicated to teaching at the nexus of indigenous knowledge and western scientific knowledge.

As usual, the event is free and open to everyone.

We acknowledge that we gather on unceded Aboriginal land, on the territories of Jagera and Turrbal peoples. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded.
Accessibility information for this event:

• The venue is a park. The event is child-friendly, and we welcome families to attend. However the park is not fenced and there will not be a separate space for children. We can provide some engagement materials (drawing supplies etc) on request.
• This venue is wheelchair accessible, although much of the park is grassed
• There is an accessible ambulant toilet with a change-table.
• Some comfortable seating is provided, and priority will be given to those with mobility difficulties.
• Online notes are not available for our speakers, though copies of other materials they have written can be provided on request.
• An Auslan interpreter will not be present.
• Very limited First Aid will be available on site.