Our Picks From Splendour Forum.

Words by Isabelle Webster

Intro

Take a break from throwing shapes and get curious at the Splendour Forum featuring interviews, talks and panels designed to challenge and inspire you. With a line up of fascinating people from ARIA award winning N’fa Jones to good old Dr Karl, there’s something for everyone. Plus, ever wondered what it looks like to make a podcast? This year, in tandem with the forum, a bunch of Australian podcasters will be recording their shows live on Thursday afternoon, Friday and Sunday so you can take a look behind the podcasting curtain and see the bits you can’t hear.

Generation Fucked

Comedian Nat Damena and journalist Marty Smiley (who also co-host the podcast, Housewarming) prepare to ask those in the know the hairy, scary questions about where everything went wrong, and what kind of future lies ahead. Will the rental crisis ever cease? How can we survive the impending recession? Will I die before I pay off my student loan? And, what can we do to fix it? Joined by Federal Youth Minister Dr Anne Aly (the first woman to sit in any Australian Parliament and the first Muslim woman to hold a ministerial position), Dr Mehreen Faruqi (Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens and Senator for NSW), Harshdeep Kaur (Content and Community Lead at Flux Finance, a financial wellbeing start-up for young Australians), and Joey Moloney (Senior Associate in Grattan Institute’s Economic Policy program). Nothing is off limits, and the chat is sure to be red hot. Perhaps some grim content, but it’s sure to be both entertaining and informative.

2pm Sat

The Voice To Parliament – Explained Saturday kicks off with a deep dive into The Voice to Parliament, hosted by Brooke Boney. The Voice to Parliament panel is made up of passionate and proud members of the Indigenous community including Rachael Cavanagh, Tony Armstrong, Dean Parkin and Carla McGrath who will explain and discuss the impending referendum on Indigenous constitutional recognition through a Voice. They’ll get to the heart of what the Indigenous Voice to Parliament is, exactly, and what a yes will mean across social, political and community perspectives. Come along and utilise this incredible opportunity to get your pre-referendum information from the people it directly affects.

Pussy Riot

Then, last up on Saturday, journalist and host of The Project Hamish Macdonald interviews Nadya Tolokonnikova, creator of global feminist protest art-musicgroup Pussy Riot, internationally renowned conceptual artist, activist, author, and one of Russia’s ‘Most Wanted.’ Macdonald, who has a background in international journalism and has been nominated for both the Walkley Awards and the Quills Australian Journalist of the Year Award, will chat to Tolokonnikova about her truly unique collection of life experiences. A true 21st century punk, she’s protested, been arrested and imprisoned, gone on hunger strikes, boycotted the 2014 Olympics, and continues to perform globally while remaining in exile. She’s written a book Read and Riot: A Pussy Riot Guide to Activism. Recently she caused waves with an installation at LA gallery, Jeffrey Deitch, called ‘Putin’s Ashes’ featuring a film of twelve women torching a ten-foot scale image of Vladimir Putin in the desert (this was the cause of her addition to Russia’s Most Wanted in 2021) and has begun dabbling in NFTs and crypto, in part to raise money for Ukraine. All this, and she’s only 33. Sure to be a wildly compelling and engaging conversation, this is not to be missed.

B etoota Advocate

Betoota Advocate people, need I say more? Can’t say there’s a news team more on the ball than this lot and now you can listen to just how quick they are live in person. As I was writing this KB in the office was reading up on Betoota and said ‘Jesus Christ, they’re gods,’ and honestly that’s where we’ll leave it hey.