Speaker 1
This is a Vision Australia Radio podcast.
Speaker 2
On Vision Australia Radio, welcome to our conversations on the work and experiences of emerging writers. I'm Kate Cooper and our guest today is Jacinta Thompson, Executive Director and Events and Exhibitions Producer of the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre at the University of South Australia. One of the aims of our program is to include reflections from people and organisations involved in supporting, encouraging and promoting writers and writing. So we're delighted to be able to speak with Jacinta today about her work and the role of the Hawke Centre. Jacinta, welcome to the program. Would you begin by telling us about your own background and what inspired you to take on the role of Executive Director at the Hawke Centre?
Speaker 3
Thank you Kate, and thank you for your invitation to speak today. I'm very excited to be here on Vision Australia Radio. To answer your question, prior to joining the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre, I spent my time working in the arts. So from a very young age, I was passionate about the arts and decided to make it a career from high school onwards actually. So I started quite young. After matriculation, I studied technical theatre at the Centre for the Performing Arts, which would now be known as the Arts Centre in Light Square. Then went on to two university degrees, a BA in Educational Theatre and a graduate diploma in Arts and Cultural Management.
During this time, I've worked on both the Fringe and Adelaide festivals, Come Out Youth Arts festivals, Sydney Theatre Company as their Education Manager, Regional Arts Victoria, and also I had a wonderful opportunity as part of an Asia-Link Arts Management Residency. Working at the Esplanade in Singapore, that was about six months working there, which was absolutely wonderful and a great opportunity to meet many artists, not only from Singapore, but from India, Malaysia and beyond. It was a truly wonderful time. I've also spent some time with the Jaipur Literature Festival in India and worked quite extensively on their festivals, being an emcee for the stage and introducing the most extraordinary array of Indian writers especially.
So again, that was a wonderful opportunity. Before moving to the Hawks Centre, I was the artistic director of the Aus Asia Festival from 2007 to 2014. And when the position of Executive Director of the Hawks Centre became available in 2014, I absolutely jumped at applying for the role, as it seemed a perfect fit for my skill set, my sense and belief in compassion and human justice, and I knew would expand my knowledge skill set and push me to develop further as a person.
Speaker 2
And also bring to the Hawke's Centre an extraordinary career in the arts, but also in arts education. And that education of course is an important focus of the work that the Hawke Centre does.
Speaker 3
Absolutely, indeed.
Speaker 2
The Hawke Centre offers a wide variety of events and exhibitions. Would you tell us first about some of the events that you've produced over the years and highlight a few of the ones that have had a special impact on you at a personal level?
Speaker 3
Well, I have presented an extremely vast array of events and exhibitions over the last nine and a half years at the Hawke's Centre. So this is a really tough question, because each year we've had some extraordinary as you know too Kate, some extraordinary writers and thinkers. I would say people from David Suzuki to Stan Grant, Julia Gillard, Impo Tutu, who is Desmond Tutu's daughter, that was, just quickly to let listeners know, that came about by meeting Impo at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival and I managed to just be sitting next to her at the hotel we were staying at and just chatting and I thought, Oh my goodness, wouldn't this be amazing to bring Impo over for the Nelson Mandela lecture.
So Bob Hawke was still alive at that time and I was working closely with him and I reached out to him and said you know would this be an amazing event and he said absolutely but let's present her as part of the annual Hawke lecture which we [indistinct]. I guess George Decay you know from Star Trek series which was an extraordinary lecture that he gave. Behrus Bachani, Tom Karma, many events across varying topics of environment, refugees, incarceration, equal rights, Aboriginal learning, focus on women's science and so on. Most impactful again many artists on the inside, an exhibition of work made by prisoners from the South Australian prisons, NIMI exhibitions providing a platform for communities struggling with mental health.
Again Julia Gillard discussing her book Not Now Not Ever and coming back to environmental activist Davis Suzuki I actually had all his books that he'd written to that point in high school so that was such a treat to meet him and to present him it was one of those dreams that come true.
05:28
Speaker 2
fantastic. And as you say, events at the Hawke Centre have included numerous book launches and promotions... and I've been fortunate to attend a number of these myself over the years and such events in fact are often so popular that they're booked out. What are some past book launch events that spring to mind for you?
Speaker 3
Probably I'll look at people like Rosie Batty who we launched her book Mother's Son - which was incredibly sad and excruciating actually, but a really important discussion to have. Behrouz Buchani, Freedom Only Freedom which was again an extraordinary event. Listening to that wonderful man talk about his life to date and you know what an extraordinary human and a lot to learn from him. Tracy Spicer, Man Made on all the latest issues that are going across AI etc and her book is extraordinary and she was in conversation with Jane Carrow so that was a plus.
And another this was I guess stretching the Hawkes into boundaries a little bit but we presented Eric Idle from the Monty Python fame on his book Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, and what a delightful man he was. Incredibly compassionate, obviously highly intelligent and hilarious. So I think they're the standouts for me if I had to choose some, yes.
Speaker 2
I went to the Eric Eidle book launch and bought the book, but it was brilliant. You're right, he was hilarious. It was a wonderful experience. I went with some friends and we all thought it was fantastic. Now not everyone's able to get to an event in person, so how can our listeners access Hawke Centre events and also exhibitions, which we'll talk about in a moment, online?
Speaker 3
So most of our events include a live stream on the night of the event. So if you are unable to join us in person, you can register for the live stream. Otherwise we record all our events and they are placed on our website under Relive Our Events to watch at your own leisure. So there's an incredible archive of Hawke Centre events on our website, going back over 15 years. And there's quite a few podcasts, but now we record a video, but there's obviously sound included with that.
Speaker 2
Terrific, thanks Jacinta. The Hawke Centre is based in the Hawke building at the University of South Australia. There you have the Allen Scott Auditorium where many events are held and also the Kerry Packers Civic Gallery where you have the permanent exhibition about Bob Hawke and his government - and also feature exhibitions, some of which have become annual events. Would you tell us first about the permanent exhibition?
Speaker 3
Yes. So this exhibition is an informative exhibition tracking the paradigm shift in Australian values, policies and international relations pursued by the Hawke Government. From educational access to Aboriginal advancement to anti-sex discrimination to Medicare, to the saving of the Franklin River and Kakadu, to the lifting of trade barriers and the vital furthering of the China relationship, the reshaping of Australia is embedded in the history of this government.
The special connection to our state lies in the fact that Bob Hawke was the only Prime Minister to have been born in South Australia and the exhibition content has drawn upon the expertise and collections of the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Library in Adelaide. The exhibition was originally showcased in 2012 as part of South Australia's History Festival marking the University of South Australia's 21st.
Speaker 2
Talking now about your annual feature exhibitions, and you mentioned before about art on the inside, originally art by prisoners, and in 2020 this exhibition was subtitled The Written Edition because the impact of COVID meant that prisoners visual art groups weren't able to meet in the usual way. So the 2020 exhibition was online and it presented a compilation of written work from prisoners talking about their experiences in their own words. Now, listeners can access all the poetry and the writings in that exhibition via the Hawke Center website under Art by Prisoners, but would you tell us more about this particular partnership?
Speaker 3
Yes, this is a really wonderful partnership that we created a few years ago with the Department of Corrections and originally it was titled Art by Prisoners. It's now been changed to Artists on the Inside and this year it has come back to the Kerry -Pakasivic Gallery, which is wonderful and it will be an ongoing partnership for the next, well hopefully for many years to come and we're actually looking at how we expand on that exhibition, so in bringing back the written edition but also having some panel sessions because I think you know there's obviously a lot of information but discussions to be heard in relation to rehabilitation, incarceration and especially as discussions recently of not only Aboriginal people but young Aboriginal people who are being incarcerated and having those discussions and what that means and I think potentially needing to make some changes around that area as well.
But what is wonderful about this exhibition, we have it now as part of Sala and people can come in obviously look at the work and they can write comments back to the artists and there's also a people's choice so you can vote for your favourite piece, you can vote for many pieces if you like, which people do but the prisoners really, really appreciate reading the feedback from the general public on their artwork and this is prisons across South Australia and it's male and female prisons.
11:25
Speaker 2
So if it's part of Sala, the South Australian Living Arts Festival, that means it's in August? Correct, every August. Descent to among your other feature exhibitions this year was Fazal, held in Refugee Month, which included a range of stunning visual artworks. One of the works, which really caught my eye, was a photographic poem titled Portraits of Eyes by the Iranian poet and photographer Ali Azadolahi. Would you tell us the story about the Fazal exhibition, what Fazal means, what it stands for, and what the spirit of the exhibition represents?
Speaker 3
Vassil is an ancient word that is shared across many languages including Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Kurdish. This word represents the spirit of union, meeting and connection which perfectly captures the essence of this extraordinary exhibition. Vassil was a stunning collection of artworks from Australian and international contemporary artists who use their artworks to explore their identity, cultural connectedness and the everyday. This exhibition was curated by Elias Alavi, an assistant curator to Chakwaya Mackenzie.
So this exhibition came about when I approached Elias. We have actually worked together for many years now and I commissioned him to present an exhibition during Refugee Week to highlight contemporary artists working across this area topic and also to provide an opportunity to work with a young emerging curator which we ended up bringing on Chakwaya Mackenzie to work on that exhibition and she was absolutely fabulous.
Speaker 2
You mentioned in there about commissioning the exhibition. Would you tell us what that involves? How do you go about commissioning somebody?
Speaker 3
Describe commissioning is when I, so for example, during refugee week, I'm looking at, okay, what can we present during that time? And it's for a month in the gallery. And I like to go out and I guess tap people, artists on the shoulder and say, Would you be interested in curating and bringing together a group of artists and emerging artists and they always artist themselves. And especially Elias from a refugee background, I feel that that is the best way to present that type of work for a particular topic such as refugee week.
And also to provide a platform which the Hawke Centre does to people that wouldn't normally have that platform and you potentially would not find their work being presented in mainstream galleries, for example, or mainstream festivals or mainstream events. So it's really, really important to look at the diversity, cultural diversity, age diversity, their things in relation to the ethos of the Hawke Centre that are really, really important and I'm quite passionate about. And to give, especially bringing in young emerging curators, I think is really important.
Speaker 2
And there'd be a huge amount of work involved in curating an exhibition. I went to Vassel, I really loved it, and I could just wander around at my own pace and look for about half an hour or so just to take in the artworks. But then I think about the stories that sit behind each of those artworks and what's involved, the many hours that must be involved in bringing all that material together and having it flow coherently as well. There's a lot to think about.
Speaker 3
Correct, and that's the beauty about a curator. I mean that's why you bring curators on board to to do that work and also to I guess curate the right artists to be involved as well because it could make or break an exhibition.
15:19
Speaker 2
On Vision Australia Radio, you're listening to our conversation program Emerging Writers. Our guest today is Jacinta Thompson, Executive Director and Events and Exhibitions Producer at the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre at the University of South Australia. Jacinta, the Hawke Centre also hosts special offshore events at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, which in October of this year celebrates its 16th year as Southeast Asia's leading festival of words and ideas. Would you tell us first of all where Ubud is located, and then the story of the Hawke Centre's relationship with the festival?
Speaker 3
Ubud is located north in the hills of Bali, approximately one and a half hours drive from Dampasar Airport, of course depending on traffic which seems to be building up as the years go by so sometimes we're two, two and a half hour drive but in a beautiful part of Bali. So this came about, I instigated a partnership with the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival back in 2017. I had participated in previous years as an audience member but also had a great friendship with the Festival Director Janet Deneef.
I discussed the possibility of a partnership between us and our first was in 2017 when we presented Nusrat Durrani, an Indian activist and filmmaker from New York. In 2018 we presented Jane Kharo, she became like the rock star of the festival actually and in 2019 the wonderful Richard Fidler. Unfortunately due to COVID we couldn't go ahead until now so in 2023 we are ready again and will be presenting Dr Deborah Dank who is a First Nations author and academic who has recently won numerous awards for her book We Come With This Place and she's a really interesting and wonderful author, speaker, you know storyteller. She's a great storyteller.
So I'm extremely excited we've been able to do this and to present her in a few sessions at the Ubud Writers, she hasn't been involved before and it's a great opportunity for the Hawke Centre and the University of South Australia to be I guess what we call offshore and to present this type of work and to reach out to a different audience.
Speaker 2
And how long does the festival last for? A week?
Speaker 3
Yes. And I guess when we talk about what that festival means to me personally, it's such a beautiful part of Bali to hold what I think is an extremely diverse, fun and intelligent festival with an extraordinary line up of speakers and thinkers. They also have a very strong Indonesian component of speakers, workshops, exhibitions, food and film events throughout the festival program. And I really greatly admire Janet for supporting the Balinese community and beyond and that's a really important component of their festival program.
Speaker 2
Do people need to speak Indonesian to be able to participate? How does the language side of things work?
Speaker 3
Yes, so some of the events are held in Bahasa Indonesian, many are in English and sometimes there will be translations so it's really depending on the speaker so obviously Dr Debra Dant will be speaking in English. Again all their events, like us they're recorded and I do believe translations are then placed on the recording for Indonesian speakers to understand and listen to what that event was about as well.
But what's really wonderful that first of all there are numerous young Indonesians attending and students and that is so and they come across from across all over Indonesia to be there and to participate and it's absolutely wonderful to see and they're always the first to ask questions in the audience Q &A and asking some really brilliant questions. It's very encouraging, you know, the new generations coming through.
Speaker 2
So if people look up the Ubud, and that's about U-B-U-D, Writers and Readers Festival, they look that up, they can find out more about it.
Speaker 3
They can. We will also have on our website soon the sessions that Deb is running at the Allboard Writers and Readers Festival so will we have our own page with further information on that as well. That's great.
Speaker 2
Great, thank you. Now we've spoken about some of the past talk centre events and exhibitions, but would you tell us now about what our listeners can look forward to in the weeks and months ahead?
Speaker 3
So this month, being September, we presented Deaf Gain in our gallery, which was a stunning collection of artwork from Deaf artists both locally and nationally. In October we have Match Tournament and now this is an ongoing partnership that we have with the Match Studio, which is part of the University of South Australia. And that is an array of student and academic research working with businesses exploring mental health. So the students are given the task to work on projects with different business organisations to come up with new ideas, new ways of working across mental health, so whether it be new mothers who have just given birth and looking at post-natal depression.
So there was a project last year where students came up with ideas of how to assist these mothers and their newborn babies with some great projects so you get to see the evolution of these projects and the research done. And then quite a few of the businesses actually do pick up on those projects that the students have come up with. So it's a really wonderful way of putting, I guess, students academics in touch and connected with businesses who are already up and running and operating.
21:26Speaker 2
You've talked earlier about the relationships that you have made with artists and with writers and people who you've brought to the Hawke Centre, but it sounds from that like the Hawke Centre is also a facilitator of broader relationships within the community, bringing groups together, connecting students and business in that way. Fantastic potential.
Speaker 3
Yes, and I think ongoing new partnerships, and that's something that is really important looking at the future of the Hawke's Centre and programming, looking at who their new communities are or are their communities that we're not bringing in to support and to work with, and again, businesses as well. I also wanted to mention that at the end of the year, in our gallery, we are presenting Salt Bush Country, and this is regional Aboriginal artists as part of the Tarnundi Festival, so that will run from November through to March next year.
And in this exhibition, there are seven diverse artists telling stories of their culture, community, and connection to country. Often personal and occasionally raw, their work reflects the world as seen through their eyes while expressing their culture, language, and community, a contemporary articulation of Aboriginal life in regional South Australia, and the curator of that exhibition is, again, a young emerging curator by the name of Marika Davies. So, super excited about this exhibition, and it's our first time to partner with Tarnundi, which is wonderful.
Speaker 2
That's great and that's the Tainanthi Festival and people can also look up at the art gallery to find out more about the art gallery.
Speaker 3
A very extensive program actually and the program has now been launched so yeah. So wonderful to I guess again provide a platform for those emerging regional artists and as part of our program but I think also to have it running next year during the Adelaide Festival and Fringe Festival time is really important as well.
Speaker 2
I'm hearing too as you speak that the Hawke Centre is both engaged in partnerships but also modelling different ways of working in partnership, whether with arts communities, with universities, with the art gallery, with the business community, students and so forth. So different ways of bringing people together.
Speaker 3
Absolutely. And I think that's really important as we've discussed before, to keep anything a programme fresh and exciting and new. You don't want to become sort of staid and looking at the same old, same old, same old. And my goodness, there are so many new and exciting, whether it be festivals or writers or artists, I mean there's so much to look out for. I also wanted to mention, I've talked about the gallery space for the next couple of months, but we've got two more events left for the year.
So we have an event called Reading and Writing Dangerously, and this will be a panel session with Geraldine Brooks, very well-known author, Peter Greste, Kylie Moore -Gilbert and Berus Bacchani. And this will take place on Thursday, the 26th of October. Unfortunately, Berus won't be able to join us this time in person, but he will be zooming in from Portugal, but the other three will be in person in the panel session. So that's going to be led by Peter Greste, and again that will be a truly wonderful panel session.
And again, live streamed and then recorded. And then finishing the year off, we've got Lee Sales in conversation with David Pemberthy, and this is her new book called Storytellers, where she's interviewed quite a few extraordinary writers, journalists, in relation to how they get the best scoop, how they've also again, some have been in parts of the world that are considered at the sort of war front. And that will take place in the Allen Scott Auditorium on the 23rd of November at 6 o 'clock.
25:44
Speaker 2
I'm going to make sure that I register early for those events - and so for our listeners who are also keen and some of your events are so popular that they do book out so for listeners who want to get in and make sure they are there in person what are the details of where the Hawke Cdentre...
Speaker 3
So the Hawke Centre is located at 55 North Terrace and that's the City West campus. The Kerry Packers Civic Gallery is located in the Hawke building on level 3 and our web address is hawkcenter .unisas .edu .au and once you are on our homepage there are links to sign up to our mailing list and I highly encourage you to do this because you will receive EDMs about our current exhibitions and events coming up and we also do a newsletter which gives you lots of wonderful you know exciting news as well so yeah and then you don't miss out you can book straight away.
Speaker 2
Thank you so much Jacinta, been great speaking with you about the Hawke Centre. Our guest on Emerging Writers today was Jacinta Thompson, Executive Director and Events and Exhibitions Producer of the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre at the University of South Australia. This programme can be heard at the same time each week on Vision Australia Radio, VA Radio and also on Vision Australia Radio podcasts where you can catch up on earlier episodes.
Speaker 1
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27:50
Speaker 2
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