SUNDAY 18 OCTOBER 2025
TATHRA HALL
LAUGHING IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY
Lucy Nelson & Rhett Davis with Myoung Jae Yi 9:30am - 10:30am, TATHRA HALL
LUCY NELSON
Lucy Nelson is a writer of fiction and non fiction. Her work has been published in Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Big Issue, Southword and elsewhere. She has received the Newcastle Short Story Award, the Writing NSW Varuna Fellowship, the Templeberg Fellowship from Writers Victoria and was shortlisted for the Seán Ó Faoláin International Short Story Prize. Formerly, Lucy led Word on the Street, a creative writing education program run by Upbeat Arts for adults experiencing disadvantage or disability. She cut her community arts teeth in the early years of You Are Here Festival, filling empty city spaces with weird and beautiful art, hosting a community radio show for emerging writers and co-founding the Canberra chapter of global dance community No Lights No Lycra. She studied Professional Writing and Editing at RMIT in Melbourne. She is represented by Shaw Literary Agency. Wait Here is her first book. She lives on unceded Dharawal and Wodi Wodi Country, where she is currently at work on a novel.
RHETT DAVIS
Rhett Davis is the author of Arborescence, a novel about what trees might do if we weren’t careful. His first novel, Hovering, won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript and was shortlisted for the Readings New Australian Fiction Prize and the Aurealis Award for Science Fiction. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and a PhD from Deakin University. Rhett has also been a manager, a consultant, a business analyst, a bookseller, and a writing and literature academic. He lives, works and writes mostly on Wadawurrung land in Geelong.
TRUTH-TELLING: DJIRRINGANJ COUNTRY
Ellen Mundy, David Dixon & Marcus Mundy with Mark McKenna - 11:00am - 12:00pm, TATHRA HALL
MARCUS MUNDY
I became a father at 16 and by the age of 22 I had three children. I have worked in Education from the age of 18 - 14 almost 15 years in total . Most of those years I have worked as an Aboriginal Education Officer and spent some time working in corporate as an Aboriginal Community Liaison Officer for the Batemans Bay Education Officer. Growing up I spent and sat around my elders learning the true history of my people, the good and the bad. I have been privileged enough to have been given many opportunities, many that my aunties, uncles and elders never got. I have found a passion in language revival and have been highly involved in the creation of the Djirringanj Language Resource.
MARK MCKENNA
Mark McKenna is one of Australia’s leading historians. He is the author of From the Edge: Australia’s Lost Histories (MUP, 2016), which won the NSW Premier’s Prize for Australian History; An Eye for Eternity: The life of Manning Clark (MUP 2011) which won five national awards, including the Prime Minister’s Prize for Non-Fiction (2012). Looking for Blackfellas’ Point: An Australian History of Place (UNSW Press) which won the Book of the Year and the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction in the 2003 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards; and Return to Uluru (Black Inc. 2021), which was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History. His most recent book is The Shortest History of Australia, Black Inc. 2025.
TRUTH-TELLING BREAKOUT SESSION (FREE, PLEASE REGISTER)
12:00pm - 1:00pm, *TATHRA UNITING CHURCH
ESSAYS FROM A CREATIVE LIFE
Quentin Sprague In Conversation with Kim Mahood
1:30pm - 2:30pm, TATHRA HALL
Authors Kim Mahood and Quentin Sprague are known for their non-fiction writing about the various obsessions of the creative life. Join them for a discussion about the tangible and intangible aspects of creativity, and what must be left unsaid – indeed may be unsayable – when turning art and the human encounters it engenders into prose.
QUENTIN SPRAGUE
Quentin Sprague is the author of The Stranger Artist, which won the 2021 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Nonfiction, and a monograph on the late Australian painter Ken Whisson. His art criticism appears widely, including regularly in The Monthly, as well as in monographs and exhibition catalogues published by the National Gallery of Victoria, Monash University Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. He has worked variously as a curator, an academic, an art coordinator and an artist, and lives in Canberra, on Ngunnawal Country, where he is the inaugural Hassall Writers' Fellow at the Australian National University's Drill Hall Gallery.
KIM MAHOOD
Kim Mahood is an award-winning writer and visual artist. She is the author of three works of non-fiction; Craft for a Dry Lake (Random House 2000), winner of the Age Book of the Year and the NSW Premier’s prize; Position Doubtful – Mapping Landscape and Memory (Scribe 2016), which received multiple short-listings; and Wandering with Intent (Scribe 2022), which also won the Age Book of the Year for non-fiction. Her essays have been published in art, literary and public affairs journals, and her artwork is held in state, territory and regional collections. She has worked as a writer and consultant on national Indigenous art exhibitions, including the Canning Stock Route Art Project and Songlines for the National Museum of Australia. She continues to develop cross-cultural mapping projects with Aboriginal organisations in remote, regional and urban Australia. Her mapping work is designed to foster communication and understanding between traditional custodians of country and the non-Indigenous stakeholders with an interest in the same country.
SNAKE TALK: How the world’s ancient serpent stories can guide us
Tyson Yunkaporta & Megan Kelleher with Mark McKenna - 3:00pm - 4:00pm, TATHRA HALL
TYSON YUNKAPORTA
Tyson Yunkaporta’s bestselling Sand Talk and Right Story, Wrong Story cast an Indigenous lens on contemporary society. Snake Talk is the third book in this trilogy. Co-authored with Megan Kelleher, Snake Talk explores Indigenous thinking through the symbol of serpent, a common foundational narrative. Snake myths echo from a time before truth, and retain the capacity, at this inflection point in history where truth is daily manipulated by bad actors, to unify, humble and inspire us.
The serpent in Australian Aboriginal stories is both a creator and destroyer, dwelling in the liminal spaces between physical and spiritual worlds, story and history. What if this ancient lore extended around the globe? What if the creation stories of the Basilisk, Wyvern, Naga, Quetzalcoatl and many others carried secrets that might help resolve global issues of existential crisis?
In this exhilarating book, the authors speak to elders from Kathmandu to Aotearoa to South America and Europe about a pluriverse of serpent stories, seeking answers to the age-old riddle of how to align the genius of our species with the regenerative patterns of creation. They speak to the makers—the artists and craftspeople who keep the sacred lore of these serpent entities in the ritual images and objects they create. They explore everything from artificial intelligence to immigration through the lens of global serpent lore—through the eye of the snake.
MEGAN KELLEHER
Megan Kelleher belongs to the Barada and Kapalbara peoples of Central Queensland and the branch of the Kelleher clan living in regional Victoria. She is currently on sabbatical from undertaking her PhD at RMIT University in the School of Media and Communication and was honoured to be awarded one of RMIT's Vice Chancellor’s Indigenous Pre-Doctoral Fellowships in 2018. Megan is investigating whether the affordances of blockchain technology are culturally appropriate for Indigenous governance, and is undertaking this research as a core member of the Digital Ethnography Research Centre (DERC) and as a PhD Candidate within The ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S). When she is not training to be an academic, Megan is a devoted mother of her three beautiful children, Eden, Diver and Onyx.
TATHRA UNITING CHURCH
DJIRRINGANJ LANGUAGE: Creating a living lexicon Ellen Mundy, Marcus Mundy & Michelle Dixon with Alasdair McDonald - 4:30pm - 5:30pm, TATHRA UNITING CHURCH
MICHELLE DIXON
I am a proud Djirringanj, Ngarigo, and Gamilaraay woman. I was born in the Bega Valley, which is where I now live and work. I am passionate about language revitalisation and cultural preservation. For 15 years, I’ve been committed to using language to construct songs about cultural heritage. I have created language resources for beginner language learners, and materials that facilitate a deeper understanding of everyday use. Over a decade, I’ve been a dedicated educator, integrating Indigenous perspectives into learning practices. Working with young people to foster understanding and appreciation for Indigenous culture and languages, empowering young people to recognise the importance of their own cultural identities. As a small business owner, I deliver music programs that focus on teaching an instrument and songwriting fundamentals, using language. This approach, not only enhances musical skills, but also encourages the value of language in storytelling and creative expression.
HOW DO WE STOP THE VIOLENCE?
Jess Hill & Sonia Orchard with Vesna Andric
1:30pm - 2:30pm, TATHRA UNITING CHURCH
Rates of violence against women and children in Australia remain alarmingly high despite increased efforts over recent decades. Jess Hill’s groundbreaking work on gendered violence and Sonia Orchard’s part-memoir and part-investigation add valuable insight into the institutional, legal and cultural roadblocks to real progress. They will be joined by Vesna Andric from Staying Home Leaving Violence, Bega. *Content Warning: This session contains reference to acts of grooming and family and sexual violence.
JESS HILL
Jess Hill is an Industry Professor researching gender-based violence at the University of Technology, Sydney. Named marie claire’s 2023 Changemaker of the Year, she is a journalist, author, and educator who has achieved global renown for her ground-breaking work on gendered violence. Her journalism has won many awards, including three Walkley awards. Her first book, ‘See What You Made Me Do’, became a bestseller and was awarded the 2020 Stella Prize and the ABA Booksellers Choice non-fiction book of the year. 'See What You Made Me Do' has become a seminal text on family violence and coercive control in Australia and overseas, has been translated into five languages and has also been adapted into a three-part television series for SBS. Since then, she has written a Quarterly Essay on how #MeToo is changing Australia, made a podcast series on coercive control titled The Trap, and another three-part series on Consent, titled Asking For It. Her most recent Quarterly Essay, 'Losing It' critically analyses Australia's efforts to reduce gender-based violence, and last year, she was appointed to the Australian government's Rapid Review into Prevention. In her work as an advocate and educator, Jess has made hundreds of media appearances and has fronted almost 400 events to speak about coercive control across the country.
SONIA ORCHARD
Sonia Orchard is an award-winning author, survivor advocate, writing teacher, speaker and festival founder and director. She has authored four books: a memoir ‘Something More Wonderful’; two adult novels ‘The Virtuoso’ and ‘Into the Fire’, and her most recent memoir ‘Groomed’, which follows her journey through the justice system as a complainant in a historical sexual abuse case and coming to terms with the impact of her teenage experience of sexual abuse while parenting teenage girls. She also writes opinion pieces on issues including the environment, parenting and social justice. In 2019, she founded and was the festival director of the Mountain Festival, Australia’s first writers’ festival to focus exclusively on the environment. She lives on Wurundjeri country, one hour from Naarm/Melbourne, with her family and many pets.
THE LAST DAYS OF ZANE GREY: The untold story of a Hollywood legend in Australia and his hunt for the great white shark
Vicki Hastrich with Mike Kermode
3:00pm - 4:00pm, TATHRA UNITING CHURCH
VICKI HASTRICH
Vicki Hastrich’s biography The Last Days of Zane Grey vividly examines the life of the American western writer, celebrity and big game-fisherman Zane Grey via the untold story of Grey's two trips to Australia in the 1930s. Known for her keen eye and deep understanding of storytelling and history, Vicki is the author of two novels, Swimming with the Jellyfish and The Great Arch, and the memoir Night Fishing: Stingrays, Goya and the singular life (2019). Writing in the Times Literary Supplement, critic Beejay Silcox has called Night Fishing 'the literary equivalent of a glass-bottomed boat, a frame for wonderment'.
MIKE KERMODE
Mike Kermode is a shortform audio storyteller with the ABC’s Audio Innovation team. As former producer for long-running fishing podcast Tales from the Tinny, he’s always keen to bring stories of fishing glory and woe to life. He grew up in Tathra and is a passionate fisho, spearfisher and surfer.
WORKSHOPS, TATHRA BEACH HOUSE
*WORKSHOPS ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THE WEEKEND OR DAY PASSES
WORKSHOP - WRITING THROUGH SOUND: Crafting audio fiction
Jessica Hamilton - 9:30am - 12:00pm, TATHRA BEACH HOUSE
This workshop will guide participants through a sound-based writing practice, from place-based active listening to crafting creative audio fiction. It will be an immersive and interactive session that gives an introduction into writing for audio, considering sound as a character and creating a fiction podcast. Suitable for writers with projects at any stage, whether you already have an idea for a fiction podcast or are simply curious to take a new approach to your writing practice.
JESS HAMILTON
Jess Hamilton is a Gadigal/Eora-based writer and audio storyteller working across creative documentary and fiction podcasts. Her fictional work includes the short, immersive podcast ‘Flirties’ (Audiocraft) and the independent musical audio fiction Slaughterhouse Road. She has also produced creative non-fiction audio work, including the Rose D’Or winning ASMR memoir/documentary, Pillow Talk (Audible, Easy Tiger) and the impactful climate podcast Heaps Better (Greenpeace/Audiocraft). Her podcast work has been awarded by the Australian Podcast Awards, ACRA, and shortlisted for Third Coast & BBC Audio Drama Awards. Jess currently produces an independent podcast called Seaweed People, which features conversations with scientists, artists and conservationists working in coastal restoration She is also is the producer and co-creator of the narrative documentary podcast, SOIL, which documents the growing movement of people regenerating the complex webs of life beneath our feet. Jess has a Masters degree with research in marine acoustic ecology, and explores ideas of ecology, active listening and memory through her creative soundscape and composition practice. She is passionate about the intersection of creativity, culture and science, and projects that deepen our connections to each other and the world around us.
THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF HANDMADE BOOKS WITH PIP MARSHMAN
2:00pm - 4:30pm, TATHRA BEACH HOUSE
Pip Marshman is a Tathra local and has a long association with the arts community. She has held exhibitions in New Zealand, Tathra, Cooma, Jindabyne and Bega. Her work is held internationally and in Australia. Making artist books has been a feature of her artmaking, along with painted canvases, drawing, eco dyeing, mono-printing and shibori.
The workshop will be an introduction to the wonderful world of handmade books. No previous experience is necessary.
We will make 2 projects: a folded, sculptural book and a simple book made from a single sheet.
If you have a protractor that would be handy; all other materials provided.
FREE EVENTS AT THE TATHRA HOTEL
9:30am - 11:00am
POETS BREAKFAST & BOOK LAUNCH
Arrangements by Gabrielle Journey Jones
Gabrielle Journey Jones is an award-winning performance poet from Māori and African bloodlines, born on sovereign Gadigal Land. Speaking truth, hope and gratitude for 30 years through spoken word poetry, Gabrielle has been writing locally on Djiringanj Country since 2018. Gabrielle’s fourth collection ‘Arrangements’ will be launched at Poet’s Breakfast.
