Reflections on life in the “lucky country” after dancing in Berlin

GAP intern Sophie Mayo reflects on her time in Berlin as a ballet dancer and the experience of adjusting back to life in Sydney on her return.

Remembering Pete Seeger

Can songs change the world for the better? Maybe not, but the long life of American folk singer and activist Pete Seeger shows that songs can help ensure the worst of the world doesn’t change us.

“Alle Shalle Be Wele”

Julian of Norwich was born in the 14th century, into a world ravaged by pestilence, poverty and war, but the lessons taught by the life and works of this medieval English recluse may still have some meaning for people today.

Creating people-to-people links through language and culture tours

In these times of rising international tensions, it is vital that people-to-people links are strengthened through educational and cultural opportunities, for we can all learn from others.

Our booming café culture is fuelled by urban growth

Café culture is now a firm fixture in urban life around the world, providing new social spaces for a diverse range of people. While craft beer is also increasingly popular, more of us are bonding over coffee.

Moving between different cultural worlds

Young Australians from migrant and refugee backgrounds are close to their families, but this can mean they have to negotiate a balance between different cultural expectations.

How creativity can help us cultivate moral imagination

Whether it’s a painting, or a patchwork quilt, when we create something, we step into the future, we trust in the destiny of our own creations. We learn to trust that we can create our own reality.

The ancient roots of your humble garden

You don’t have to be an avid gardener to appreciate the opportunity for reflection that a stroll in the garden can afford us, but gardens are also bound to their political and religious history, traces of which can be found in our ongoing cultural obsession with them.

The unacknowledged fictions of Yuval Harari

Yuval Noah Harari may be a popular and highly influential writer on the past and future of humanity, but replacing one set of myths with another is no basis for confronting the earth’s existential problems.

Rediscovering NSW’s pioneering female cricketers

While the nation follows the fortunes of our men and women’s cricket teams over summer, ANU and the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust are shining a light on the dawn of women’s cricket in New South Wales, pioneered by the Gregory sisters in the 1880s. 

Making New Year’s resolutions more personal could help them stick

Many of us embark on life-improving resolutions in the new year, but few of us maintain the effort. Picking personal goals, rather than those suggested by others, could be the key to success.

Art helps us see when we don’t want to look

Australia’s under appreciated colonial art is a window to the past that can help us understand the fraught and violent history of settlement.