Read The Play

BlakCast Podcast Network
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Join your favourite “nerds on the frontline” Professor Chelsea Watego & Dr. David Singh as they embark on an ambitious new podcast to showcase the power and possibility of Indigenous critical race theory.  Over 13 jam-packed episodes, Chelsea & David examine key concepts and ideas in Indigenous critical race theory to help listeners learn to “read the play” in the ongoing war on race. They dig into big questions about the ethics of anti-racist research and practice. They foreground the importance of working from Aboriginal terms of reference, and the power and joy of building intellectual collectives grounded in Indigenous Intellectual Sovereignty.  Expect incisive interviews, gut-punch analysis, and the occasional belly laugh as Chelsea & David grapple with the life and death stakes of race in the colony and the work that mob across the continent are doing to fight back.

  1. 29/10/2025

    Justice is what love looks like in public (Justice for Stevie-Lee)

    Welcome back to our second-last episode of Read the Play, and another heavy and vital conversation about the everyday violence of racism, and the powerful love, resistance, and presence of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities that confronts it head on. In this episode, Chelsea and David share a few pieces of material recorded at different points over the past few years with Gunggari scholar, writer and mother, Dr. Raylene Nixon. Over a series of interviews and recordings, Dr. Nixon shares the heart-breaking story of her son, Stevie-Lee Nixon McKellar, who was killed in police custody in Toowoomba in 2021. First up, you’ll hear an interview that Chelsea and David recorded with Raylene in September 2023, as the family was preparing to go into the coronial inquest into Stevie-Lee’s death in Toowoomba. Then, you’ll hear some recordings from the protest organised by the family on the first day of the inquest, where family and friends gathered to remember Stevie-Lee and demand accountability from the people and institutions that killed him. We then hear Raylene reading the full statement that she and her family prepared for the inquest, which they were not allowed to read in the courtroom. And finally, we hear Raylene speaking earlier this year at the National Symposium Unifying Anti-Racist Theory and Practice, reflecting on what justice looks like from her vantage point as an academic, an activist, and a mother with a broken heart.  Reading list https://www.classpr.com.au/2023/11/21/final-statement-from-the-family-of-steven-nixon-mckeller/ Radio Reversal podcast. Episode 19: What If the Catastrophe Has Never Ended? n.d. https://www.radioreversal.org/episode-18-what-if-the-catastrophe/ Credits Recordings and Production: Some of the podcast materials are drawn from Triple A Murri Country’s Let’s Talk Black Politics and Black Knowing, recorded in the studio between 2023-2024, hosted by Professor Chelsea Watego and Dr David Singh in addition to excerpts from QUT Carumba Institute’s National Symposium Unifying Anti-racism Research and Practice, all of which were produced by Anna Carlson. Music: We wish to sincerely thank Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra for granting permission for free use of ‘Live, Laugh, Decolonise’ and ‘Eat the World’   Production & Sound Design: BlakCast Productions Artwork: graphic by Rachel Apelt, Artbalm. This podcast was supported (partially) by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council's Discovery Indigenous Projects funding scheme (project IN210100008). The views expressed herein are those of the presenters and are not necessarily those of the Australian Government or Australian Research Council. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    1hr 21min

  2. 21/10/2025

    Racism is a matter of life and death (Justice for Dougie)

    This episode of Read the Play is a heavy one, but it is vital listening if we are to properly understand the stakes of Indigenous Critical Race Theory in this moment. In this episode, Chelsea & David return to Indigenist Health Humanities to understand the violence that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience within colonial health settings.   First up, you’ll hear a powerful interview with Gamilaroi Dunghatti man, Uncle Rick Hampson, who shares the harrowing story of his fight for justice for his son, Dougie Hampson. Dougie died in preventable circumstances at the Dubbo Hospital in 2021, and his family have been fighting ever since to hold the institutions and individuals responsible for his death to account. In this conversation, recorded just before the coronial inquest into Dougie’s death in 2024, Uncle Rick talks about the role of racism in his son’s death, and their ongoing struggle to hold the hospital accountable. We end this episode with a sobering reminder from Metis & Duck Bayand Lake Manitoba First Nations man, Dr. Barry Lavallee, speaking at the 2025 National Symposium Unifying Anti-Racist Research and Practice. Dr. Lavallee reminds us that whether here in so-called australia, or on the lands claimed by Canada and the United States, it is no accident when Indigenous people experience violence in colonial health systems. Rather, he argues, these systems are operating precisely as they were designed, to ensure the premature death, ill-health, and eventual disappearance of Indigenous peoples.   Reading list Watego, Chelsea, David Singh, George Newhouse, Helena Kajlich, and Ricky Hampson Snr. ‘“I Catch the Pattern Of Your Silence”’. Meanjin Spring 2022, no. Is it just me? (2022). https://meanjin.com.au/essays/i-catch-the-pattern-of-your-silence/CCPA Manitoba, dir. Speaking Up Nov 10, 2022 with Dr. Barry Lavallee. 2022. 39:50. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRDyuay6O50 Credits Recordings and Production: Some of the podcast materials are drawn from Triple A Murri Country’s Let’s Talk Black Politics and Black Knowing, recorded in the studio between 2023-2024, hosted by Professor Chelsea Watego and Dr David Singh in addition to excerpts from QUT Carumba Institute’s National Symposium Unifying Anti-racism Research and Practice, all of which were produced by Anna Carlson. Music: We wish to sincerely thank Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra for granting permission for free use of ‘Live, Laugh, Decolonise’ and ‘Eat the World’   Production & Sound Design: BlakCast Productions Artwork: graphic by Rachel Apelt, Artbalm. This podcast was supported (partially) by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council's Discovery Indigenous Projects funding scheme (project IN210100008). The views expressed herein are those of the presenters and are not necessarily those of the Australian Government or Australian Research Council. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    57 min

  3. 13/10/2025

    Telling the Truth

    In this week’s episode of Read the Play, Chelsea & David ask: what does it mean to tell the truth about the nature of racism in the colony? And how can we dedicate ourselves to truth-telling in all the work we do? Through a series of short excerpts, this episode weaves together an account of truth-telling in the colony: refusing colonial mythology, disrupting the lies that sustain it, and killing the cop (or colonist!) in our heads. Over a jam-packed episode, you’ll hear white Jewish scholar Dr Elizabeth Strakosch on truth-telling in academic work; Palestinian poet and lawyer Sara Saleh on linguistic violence, genocide and resistance; Meriam, Munbarra, and Nywaigi artist and abolitionist Neta-Rie Mabo on telling the truth about policing and prisons in this country; Waanyi and Jaru Associate Professor Gregory Phillips on telling the truth about Indigenous sovereignty and refusing to operate on colonial frames of reference; as well as Prof Watego, Dr. Amy McQuire & Deb Kilroy speaking at a public protest in Magan-djin in May 2025, in response to the death in police custody of Walpiri man Kumanjayi White. Reading list Macoun, Alissa, and Elizabeth Strakosch. ‘The Ethical Demands of Settler Colonial Theory’. Settler Colonial Studies (Abingdon) 3, nos. 3–4 (2013): 426–43. Saleh, Sara. ‘Punctuation as Organised Violence’. Meanjin, 30 November 2022. https://meanjin.com.au/essays/punctuation-as-organised-violence/ Saleh, Sara. Songs for the Dead and the Living. Affirm Press, 2023. Saleh, Sara. The Flirtation of Girls / Ghazal El-Banat. UQP, University of Queensland Press, 2023. National Network of Currently and Formerly Incarcerated Women. ‘Another Police Shooting: We Must Name This for What It Is — State Violence’. Media Releases, 11 June 2025. https://thenationalnetwork.com.au/another-police-shooting-we-must-name-this-for-what-it-is-state-violence/ Mabo, Boneta-Marie. ‘The Mabo Centre at Melbourne University: A Legacy Betrayed’. IndigenousX, 9 May 2025. https://indigenousx.com.au/the-mabo-centre-at-melbourne-university-a-legacy-betrayed/ al Encounters’. In The Limits of Settler Colonial Reconciliation. Springer Singapore, 2016. Credits Recordings and Production: Some of the podcast materials are drawn from Triple A Murri Country’s Let’s Talk Black Politics and Black Knowing, recorded in the studio between 2023-2024, hosted by Professor Chelsea Watego and Dr David Singh in addition to excerpts from QUT Carumba Institute’s National Symposium Unifying Anti-racism Research and Practice, all of which were produced by Anna Carlson. Music: We wish to sincerely thank Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra for granting permission for free use of ‘Live, Laugh, Decolonise’ and ‘Eat the World’   Production & Sound Design: BlakCast Productions Artwork: graphic by Rachel Apelt, Artbalm. This podcast was supported (partially) by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council's Discovery Indigenous Projects funding scheme (project IN210100008). The views expressed herein are those of the presenters and are not necessarily those of the Australian Government or Australian Research Council.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    1hr 15min

  4. 06/10/2025

    Resisting Complicity

    In this episode, Chelsea & David dig into one of the key conceptual frameworks that Indigenous critical race theory offers: complicity. Through three conversations with people engaged in very different kinds of political and intellectual work, they draw out the role of Indigenous critical race theory in offering a language to describe the ongoing attempts of colonial institutions to incorporate, recruit, and co-opt our movements and struggles, and the strategies that activists and scholars are using to resist those processes. To start, you’ll hear a conversation recorded in 2024 with Yuin lawyer and legal theorist Assoc/Prof Amanda Porter, who talks us through some of the challenges that she has faced while working in the “crime scene” of the colonial university: making a case for why academics and students must actively refuse to be complicit in the colonising violence of these institutions. We then catch up on an interview with Eelam Tamil settler, writer and community organiser Jonathan Sriranganathan, who talks about some of his experiences as a city councillor, working to expand the conditions of political possibility and build actively non-reformist modes of political engagement within colonial systems. And finally, we hear an excerpt from white settler lawyer and theorist Dr. Helena Kajlich speaking at the 2024 National Symposium and reflecting on how she came to see the complicity of legal systems in has worked to disrupt colonial complicity in her own research and practice.    Reading list Porter, Amanda. ‘Special Edition: Interrogating Methodologies’. Journal of Global Indigeneity, Decolonising Criminal Justice, vol. 3, no. 1 (2018). Porter, Amanda. ‘Non-State Policing, Legal Pluralism and the Mundane Governance of “Crime”’. The Sydney Law Review 40, no. 4 (2018): 445–67. Sriranganathan, Jonathan. 7 Years as a Local Politician Turned Me off ‘Big Government’ – but There Are Other Alternatives to Neoliberal Capitalism. 18 November 2024. https://www.jonathansri.com/beyondstatism/ Sriranganathan, Jonathan. ‘On Being Doppelgangered’. Jonathan Sriranganathan, 18 April 2024. https://www.jonathansri.com/doppelgangered/ Kajlich, Helena. ‘Racism in the Australian Health Justice System: Racial Logics and the Coronial System’. Phd Thesis, University of Queensland, School of Political Science, 2024. https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:210ce78 Bond, Chelsea J, Lisa J Whop, David Singh, and Helena Kajlich. ‘“Now We Say Black Lives Matter but … the Fact of the Matter Is, We Just Black Matter to Them”’. Medical Journal of Australia 213 (6) (2020): 248-250 Macoun, Alissa. ‘Colonising White Innocence: Complicity and Critical Encounters’. In The Limits of Settler Colonial Reconciliation. Springer Singapore, 2016. Credits Recordings and Production: Some of the podcast materials are drawn from Triple A Murri Country’s Let’s Talk Black Politics and Black Knowing, recorded in the studio between 2023-2024, hosted by Professor Chelsea Watego and Dr David Singh in addition to excerpts from QUT Carumba Institute’s National Symposium Unifying Anti-racism Research and Practice, all of which were produced by Anna Carlson. Music: We wish to sincerely thank Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra for granting permission for free use of ‘Live, Laugh, Decolonise’ and ‘Eat the World’   Production & Sound Design: BlakCast Productions Artwork: graphic by Rachel Apelt, Artbalm. This podcast was supported (partially) by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council's Discovery Indigenous Projects funding scheme (project IN210100008). The views expressed herein are those of the presenters and are not necessarily those of the Australian Government or Australian Research Council. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    1hr 9min

  5. 29/09/2025

    Getting Organised

    This week, Chelsea & David dive into the relationship between Indigenous critical race theory and the long and proud tradition of Aboriginal community-led organising, activism and grassroots struggle on this continent. They kick off with an older interview with Widjabul Wia-bal activist and organiser Larissa Baldwin-Roberts, reflecting on the insights she learned from growing up in a strong tradition of Aboriginal community organising. Then we turn to two recent conversations with Kurdish activist and organiser Roj Amedi and diaspora Palestinian writer and activist Tasnim Samak at the 2025 National Symposium Unifying Anti-Racist Theory and Practice, where they reflect on what they’ve learned from grassroots movements and community organising, and how those lessons have shaped their understandings of race, colonialism, power, and transformation in the colony. Reading list Sammak, Tasnim Mahmoud. ‘Indigenous There, Settlers Here: Palestinians in Australia’. Overland Literary Journal, 16 July 2025. https://overland.org.au/previous-issues/nakba70/essay-tasnim-sammak/. Passing the Message Stick resources: https://passingthemessagestick.org/ Amedi, Roj. Murrawah Maroochy Johnson on Climate Justice, Sovereignty and Self-Determination | Assemble Papers. 10 March 2017. https://assemblepapers.com.au/2017/03/10/speaking-for-country/. Boe Spearim. Let’s Talk with Roj Amedi. n.d. https://triplea.org.au/roj-amedi/. Credits Recordings and Production: Some of the podcast materials are drawn from Triple A Murri Country’s Let’s Talk Black Politics and Black Knowing, recorded in the studio between 2023-2024, hosted by Professor Chelsea Watego and Dr David Singh in addition to excerpts from QUT Carumba Institute’s National Symposium Unifying Anti-racism Research and Practice, all of which were produced by Anna Carlson. Music: We wish to sincerely thank Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra for granting permission for free use of ‘Live, Laugh, Decolonise’ and ‘Eat the World’   Production & Sound Design: BlakCast Productions Artwork: graphic by Rachel Apelt, Artbalm. This podcast was supported (partially) by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council's Discovery Indigenous Projects funding scheme (project IN210100008). The views expressed herein are those of the presenters and are not necessarily those of the Australian Government or Australian Research Council. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    1hr 2min

  6. 22/09/2025

    Building Solidarity

    This week, we move beyond the university to engage with the diverse ways that communities are organising themselves in response to the persistent violence of racism, colonialism, and capitalism in this moment. Through a series of short excerpts from broader conversations with Sam Watson Junior, Dr. Jamal Nabulsi, Dr. Crystal McKinnon, Dr. Jordy Silverstein, Dr. Lina Koleilat and Dr. Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Chelsea & David ask what it will take to build solidarity movements that can confront the scale of the fight ahead.  Reading list Nabulsi, Jamal. ‘“To Stop the Earthquake”: Palestine and the Settler Colonial Logic of Fragmentation’. Antipode 56, no. 1 (2024): 187–205. Radio Reversal podcast. Episode 6: Blackfulla Palestinian Solidarity. n.d. https://www.radioreversal.org/justice-for-palestine-magandjin-podcast-44b/. Simpson, Leanne Betasamosake. As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance. University of Minnesota Press, 2017.  Simpson, Leanne Betasamosake. Theory of Water. Haymarket Books, 2025. McKinnon, Crystal. ‘Enduring Indigeneity and Solidarity in Response to Australia’s Carceral Colonialism’. Biography (Honolulu, United States) 43, no. 4 (2020): 691–704. Flynn, Eugenia, Jordana Silverstein, Crystal McKinnon, et al. ‘The QUT Symposium: Holding the Line against Rising Racism’. Overland Literary Journal, 31 January 2025. https://overland.org.au/2025/01/the-qut-symposium-holding-the-line-against-rising-racism/. Credits Recordings and Production: Some of the podcast materials are drawn from Triple A Murri Country’s Let’s Talk Black Politics and Black Knowing, recorded in the studio between 2023-2024, hosted by Professor Chelsea Watego and Dr David Singh in addition to excerpts from QUT Carumba Institute’s National Symposium Unifying Anti-racism Research and Practice, all of which were produced by Anna Carlson. Music: We wish to sincerely thank Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra for granting permission for free use of ‘Live, Laugh, Decolonise’ and ‘Eat the World’   Production & Sound Design: BlakCast Productions Artwork: graphic by Rachel Apelt, Artbalm. This podcast was supported (partially) by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council's Discovery Indigenous Projects funding scheme (project IN210100008). The views expressed herein are those of the presenters and are not necessarily those of the Australian Government or Australian Research Council. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    1hr 8min

  7. 15/09/2025

    Standing Your Ground

    This week on Read the Play, Chelsea and David consider what it takes to stand your ground in the face of relentless colonial violence. They share an interview recorded with Professor Eddie Cubillo when he was in the depths of a prolonged fight against racism at the Melbourne Law School. In the second part of this episode, Chelsea & David share a recording from the indomitable Palestinian scholar and writer, Dr. Randa Abdel-Fattah, speaking at the 2025 National Symposium Unifying Anti-Racist Theory and Practice. Randa shares her own powerful account of standing her ground as a Palestinian scholar in this political moment: what it means to work from a place of uncompromising love for Palestinians, for Blackfullas, and for all of those facing the violence of colonial systems head on. Essential listening in this moment of intensifying political repression and censorship.  Reading list Abdel-Fattah, Randa. Coming of Age in the War on Terror. NewSouth Publishing, 2021. Cubillo, Eddie. ‘30th Anniversary of the RCIADIC and the “White Noise” of the Justice System Is Loud and Clear’. Alternative Law Journal 46, no. 3 (2021): 185–92. Cubillo, Eddie. ‘NAIDOC Special Edition: Education: Indigenous Programs at Law School’. Law Institute Journal 96, no. 7 (2022): 30–34. Abdel-Fattah, Randa. Discipline. UQP, University of Queensland Press, 2025. Credits Recordings and Production: Some of the podcast materials are drawn from Triple A Murri Country’s Let’s Talk Black Politics and Black Knowing, recorded in the studio between 2023-2024, hosted by Professor Chelsea Watego and Dr David Singh in addition to excerpts from QUT Carumba Institute’s National Symposium Unifying Anti-racism Research and Practice, all of which were produced by Anna Carlson. Music: We wish to sincerely thank Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra for granting permission for free use of ‘Live, Laugh, Decolonise’ and ‘Eat the World’   Production & Sound Design: BlakCast Productions Artwork: graphic by Rachel Apelt, Artbalm. This podcast was supported (partially) by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council's Discovery Indigenous Projects funding scheme (project IN210100008). The views expressed herein are those of the presenters and are not necessarily those of the Australian Government or Australian Research Council. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    1hr 7min

  8. 05/09/2025

    Finding your fight

    In this episode, Chelsea & David ask: what can we learn from paying attention to the work that Blackfullas are doing across diverse frontlines in the war on race? From racial complaints processes, to suing the racists; working to redistribute their resources, or refusing to participate in their systems: Kevin Yow Yeh, Dr. Steven Hagan, Angela Barney-Leitch, and Senator Lidia Thorpe each offer unique insights into the scale of the war on race in the colony, and the many frontlines that Blackfullas and other racialised people are fighting on.  Reading list Watego, Chelsea. ‘Always Bet on Black (Power): The Fight against Race’. Meanjin (Melbourne, Vic) 80, no. 3 (2021): 22–33. Macoun, Alissa, Chelsea Watego, David Singh, Elizabeth Strakosch, and Kevin Yow Yeh. ‘The Human Rights Commission Has Handed down a Report on Racism at Australian Universities. Here’s Why It Fails’. The Conversation, 16 January 2025. http://theconversation.com/the-human-rights-commission-has-handed-down-a-report-on-racism-at-australian-universities-heres-why-it-fails-246422. Singh, David, Chelsea Bond, and Helena Kajlich. ‘Racial Complaint and Sovereign Divergence: The Case of Australia’s First Indigenous Ophthalmologist’. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education (Cambridge, UK) 49, no. 2 (2020): 145–52. Ahmed, Sara. Complaint! Duke University Press, 2021. Hagan, Stephen. ‘The Nexus between Judicial Bias against Indigenous Australians and Community Xenophobia’. Phd, University of Southern Queensland, 2016. Credits Recordings and Production: Some of the podcast materials are drawn from Triple A Murri Country’s Let’s Talk Black Politics and Black Knowing, recorded in the studio between 2023-2024, hosted by Professor Chelsea Watego and Dr David Singh in addition to excerpts from QUT Carumba Institute’s National Symposium Unifying Anti-racism Research and Practice, all of which were produced by Anna Carlson. Music: We wish to sincerely thank Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra for granting permission for free use of ‘Live, Laugh, Decolonise’ and ‘Eat the World’   Production & Sound Design: BlakCast Productions Artwork: graphic by Rachel Apelt, Artbalm. This podcast was supported (partially) by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council's Discovery Indigenous Projects funding scheme (project IN210100008). The views expressed herein are those of the presenters and are not necessarily those of the Australian Government or Australian Research Council. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    1hr 15min

  9. 28/08/2025

    What do we want? When do we want it?

    In this episode, Chelsea & David share a special panel recording from the 2025 National Symposium Unifying Anti-Racist Theory and Practice, bringing together Prof Gracelyn Smallwood, Dale Ruska, Uncle Coco Wharton and Senator Lidia Thorpe to share their responses to the question: “what do we want? And when do we want it?” This rich and far-ranging discussion also offers vital context for our next few episodes, which begin to look at Indigenous critical race theory in practice, and the importance of intellectual work that can confront the scale, urgency, and expansiveness of the war on race in the colony.  Reading list Let’s Talk Black Knowing with Uncle Coco Wharton. With Chelsea Watego, David Singh, and Coco Wharton. Triple A Murri Country, October 25, 2024. https://triplea.org.au/lt-black-knowing-with-coco-wharton/. Gregoire, Paul. “The Burning Question of Sovereignty: Interview with IAPA Candidate Uncle Wayne Wharton.” Sydney Criminal Lawyers, April 16, 2025. https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/the-burning-question-of-sovereignty-interview-with-iapa-candidate-uncle-wayne-wharton/. Smallwood, Gracelyn. Indigenist Critical Realism: Human Rights and First Australians’ Wellbeing. Routledge, 2015 Ruska, Dale, Donna Ruska, Ann Ferguson, et al. Stradbroke Island: Facilitating Change. Edited by Regina Ganter. Queensland Studies Centre, 1997. https://www.lidiathorpe.com/ Credits Recordings and Production: Some of the podcast materials are drawn from Triple A Murri Country’s Let’s Talk Black Politics and Black Knowing, recorded in the studio between 2023-2024, hosted by Professor Chelsea Watego and Dr David Singh in addition to excerpts from QUT Carumba Institute’s National Symposium Unifying Anti-racism Research and Practice, all of which were produced by Anna Carlson. Music: We wish to sincerely thank Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra for granting permission for free use of ‘Live, Laugh, Decolonise’ and ‘Eat the World’   Production & Sound Design: BlakCast Productions Artwork: graphic by Rachel Apelt, Artbalm. This podcast was supported (partially) by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council's Discovery Indigenous Projects funding scheme (project IN210100008). The views expressed herein are those of the presenters and are not necessarily those of the Australian Government or Australian Research Council.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    1hr 6min

  10. 21/08/2025

    Insisting on Indigenous Humanity

    This week on Read the Play, Chelsea and David reflect on what it means to insist on Indigenous humanity: a humanity that is not defined by proximity to whiteness or power, but rather grounded in sovereignty, spirit, and struggle. First up, you’ll hear an interview with Darumbal and South Sea Islander scholar and writer, Dr. Amy McQuire, who reflects on the insights she has learned from working alongside the families of disappeared Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. We then listen back to some beautiful presentations from the 2025 National Symposium Unifying Anti-Racist Theory and Practice, including a powerful address from diaspora Palestinian scholar and activist Dr. Jamal Nabulsi, a beautiful dialogue between Amy and Palestinian poet, writer and lawyer Sara Saleh, and a powerful call to arms from Waitaha, Kāti Mamoe and Kai Tahu Professor Donna McCormack. Reading list McQuire, Amy. “Disappearing Aboriginal Women: Speaking Back to Silences.” University of Queensland, School of Political Science, 2023. McQuire, Amy. “The Act of Disappearing.” Meanjin, October 2022. https://meanjin.com.au/essays/the-act-of-disappearing/. McQuire, Amy. Black Witness. University of Queensland Press, 2024. Nabulsi, Jamal. “Affective Resistance: Feeling through Everyday Palestinian Struggle.” 2023. Nabulsi, Jamal. “Reclaiming Palestinian Indigenous Sovereignty.” Journal of Palestine Studies 52, no. 2 (2023): 24–42.  King (Te Aūpouri, Te Rarawa, and Kāti Māmoe) Cormack (Kāi Tahu. “Indigenous Peoples, Whiteness, and the Coloniality of Co-Design.” In Handbook of Critical Whiteness. Springer, Singapore, 2023. Credits Recordings and Production: Some of the podcast materials are drawn from Triple A Murri Country’s Let’s Talk Black Politics and Black Knowing, recorded in the studio between 2023-2024, hosted by Professor Chelsea Watego and Dr David Singh in addition to excerpts from QUT Carumba Institute’s National Symposium Unifying Anti-racism Research and Practice, all of which were produced by Anna Carlson. Music: We wish to sincerely thank Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra for granting permission for free use of ‘Live, Laugh, Decolonise’ and ‘Eat the World’   Production & Sound Design: BlakCast Productions Artwork: graphic by Rachel Apelt, Artbalm. This podcast was supported (partially) by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council's Discovery Indigenous Projects funding scheme (project IN210100008). The views expressed herein are those of the presenters and are not necessarily those of the Australian Government or Australian Research Council.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    1hr 7min

  11. 14/08/2025

    Building Critical Black Consciousness

    This week, Chelsea and David bring together two key thinkers in the war on race: Uncle Graham Brady and Uncle Philip Mills. First up, we hear Uncle Graham’s generous and thoughtful opening keynote from the 2025 National Symposium Unifying Anti-Racist Theory and Practice in which he reflects on the long history of Black struggle in so-called queensland. In the second part of the episode, we turn to an older interview that Chelsea and David recorded as part of Let’s Talk Black Knowing in 2024 with Uncle Phillip Mills, who reflects on his own work developing and implementing the Torres Model of Care, and explains why care needs to be at the heart of all of our movements for justice. Across this episode, Chelsea and David reflect on the work of rebuilding a unified and critical Black consciousness grounded in sovereignty, spirit, and care.  Reading list Brady, Graham (et al). Yalanya That’s the Way It Is: The Life and Story of Pastor and Activist Don Kawanji Brady. Jawiyaba Warra, 2024. Watego, Chelsea, David Singh, and Graham Brady. Let’s Talk Black Knowing with Uncle Graham Brady. Triple A Murri Country, February 24, 2024. https://triplea.org.au/lt-black-knowing-with-uncle-graham-brady/. Mills, Phillip. “We Don’t Want ‘Equity’, Acknowledge Our Sovereignty – IndigenousX.” IndigenousX, n.d. https://indigenousx.com.au/we-dont-want-equity-acknowledge-our-sovereignty/ 2024 QUT Meanjin Oration feat. Uncle Graham Brady, Aunty Cheryl Buchanan, Uncle Phillip Mills and Uncle Joe Geia. QUT Gardens Point, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eVZtDO2haE. Credits Recordings and Production: Some of the podcast materials are drawn from Triple A Murri Country’s Let’s Talk Black Politics and Black Knowing, recorded in the studio between 2023-2024, hosted by Professor Chelsea Watego and Dr David Singh in addition to excerpts from QUT Carumba Institute’s National Symposium Unifying Anti-racism Research and Practice, all of which were produced by Anna Carlson. Music: We wish to sincerely thank Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra for granting permission for free use of ‘Live, Laugh, Decolonise’ and ‘Eat the World’   Production & Sound Design: BlakCast Productions Artwork: graphic by Rachel Apelt, Artbalm. This podcast was supported (partially) by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council's Discovery Indigenous Projects funding scheme (project IN210100008). The views expressed herein are those of the presenters and are not necessarily those of the Australian Government or Australian Research Council. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    1hr 9min

  12. 31/07/2025

    Indigenous Intellectual Sovereignty & Aboriginal Terms of Reference

    In this first episode, Chelsea & David catch up with three powerhouses of critical Indigenous studies in this colony: Professor Lester Rigney, Dr. Aunty Lilla Watson, and Dr. Aunty Mary Graham. Together, they ask: what does it mean to work from Aboriginal terms of reference? What does Indigenous intellectual sovereignty mean in practice? And what tools do Indigenous knowledges offer for the fight ahead? Through these wide-ranging conversations, Chelsea & David work to build the intellectual foundations of Indigenous critical race theory and the toolkit for Reading the Play  Reading list Rigney, Lester-Irabinna. Global Perspectives and New Challenges in Culturally Responsive Pedagogies: Super-Diversity and Teaching Practice. Routledge, 2023. Rigney, Lester-Irabinna. Indigenist Research and Aboriginal Australia. Routledge, 2017. Mary Graham. “Some Thoughts about the Philosophical Underpinnings of Aboriginal Worldviews: [Paper in: The Ecological Humanities].” Australian Humanities Review, no. 45 (2008): 181–94. Phillips, Gregory. “Patterns, Power and Place—On Whose Terms?” Meanjin Spring 2023 (forthcoming). https://meanjin.com.au/essays/patterns-power-and-place-on-whose-terms/. Lilla Watson. “The Commonwealth Games in Brisbane 1982 - Analysis of Aboriginal Protests.” Social Alternatives 7, no. 1 (1988): 37–43. Watego, Chelsea, Lisa J. Whop, David Singh, et al. “Black to the Future: Making the Case for Indigenist Health Humanities.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18 (16), (2021): 8704 Credits Recordings and Production: Some of the podcast materials are drawn from Triple A Murri Country’s Let’s Talk Black Politics and Black Knowing, recorded in the studio between 2023-2024, hosted by Professor Chelsea Watego and Dr David Singh in addition to excerpts from QUT Carumba Institute’s National Symposium Unifying Anti-racism Research and Practice, all of which were produced by Anna Carlson. Music: We wish to sincerely thank Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra for granting permission for free use of ‘Live, Laugh, Decolonise’ and ‘Eat the World’   Production & Sound Design: BlakCast Productions Artwork: graphic by Rachel Apelt, Artbalm. This podcast was supported (partially) by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council's Discovery Indigenous Projects funding scheme (project IN210100008). The views expressed herein are those of the presenters and are not necessarily those of the Australian Government or Australian Research Council. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    1hr 24min
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About

Join your favourite “nerds on the frontline” Professor Chelsea Watego & Dr. David Singh as they embark on an ambitious new podcast to showcase the power and possibility of Indigenous critical race theory.  Over 13 jam-packed episodes, Chelsea & David examine key concepts and ideas in Indigenous critical race theory to help listeners learn to “read the play” in the ongoing war on race. They dig into big questions about the ethics of anti-racist research and practice. They foreground the importance of working from Aboriginal terms of reference, and the power and joy of building intellectual collectives grounded in Indigenous Intellectual Sovereignty.  Expect incisive interviews, gut-punch analysis, and the occasional belly laugh as Chelsea & David grapple with the life and death stakes of race in the colony and the work that mob across the continent are doing to fight back.

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