Material Crimes

Material Crimes
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How can a mine, a road or a prison be criminal? Material Crimes answers this question, investigating the “true crimes” of infrastructure. We explore how the physical sites of everyday life are connected to global histories of conquest, resource extraction, profit-making – and resistance! Check out our website: materialcrimes.com Get in touch: materialcrimespodcast@gmail.com Instagram: instagram.com/materialcrimespodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episodes

  1. 7h ago

    Location, Location, Location (Ari Jerrems)

    Modular housing units sit among decaying workers’ blocks on a quiet street in the remote town of Port Hedland in Western Australia. The Pilbara region where the town is located is at the centre of Australia’s booming iron ore industry yet sits at a remote edge of its territory. As Ari Jerrems discovers, distance is at the core of what makes this place work. Ari investigates how the violence of immigration detention comes together with the history of mining at this unassuming location overlooking the Indian Ocean. Speaking to Savitri Taylor, Amy Nethery, Peter Mares, Linda Briskman, Bradon Ellem and Brett Neilson, he connects the dots between the crimes of empire, extractive industries and systems of detention, in Australia and beyond. We also hear the voices of those detained who resisted and made visible the overlapping violence they were caught up in. Useful links Asylum Seeker Resource Centre: https://asrc.org.au/ Australian Human Rights Commission: https://humanrights.gov.au/resource-hub/asylum-seekers-and-refugees-projects-reports/immigration-detention-reports-and-photos Refugee Action Coalition:  https://refugeeaction.org.au/ RISE. Refugees, Survivors and Ex-Detainees: https://www.riserefugee.org/ Further Reading  Behrouz Boochani. No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison (Pan Macmillan: 2018).   Linda Briskman and Lathan, Susie & Goddard, Chris. Human Rights Overboard: Seeking Asylum in Australia (Scribe Publishing: 2008).  Peter Mares. Borderline: Australia’s Treatment of Refugees and Asylum Seekers (UNSW Press: 2001).  Amy Nethery. “Incarceration, Classification and Control: Administrative Detention in Settler Colonial Australia,” Political Geography 89: 102457 (2021).  Archival Materials “An Introduction to the Pilbara Region of Western Australia.” Recorded by the Premier's Department, Government of W.A [video recording] (1970). Held at the State Library of Western Australia and reproduced with their permission. Gyzele Osmani and Ann-Mari Jordens. Gyzele Osmani interviewed by Ann-Mari Jordens [sound recording] (2006). Held at the National Library of Australia and reproduced with their permission. This episode was supported by the Independent Social Research Fund and the Leverhulme Trust.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Location, Location, Location (Ari Jerrems)

  2. 4d ago

    [S1: E1 Re-release] A Very British Massacre (Daniel Selwyn and the London Mining Network) with Surviving Society Productions

    **TW: This episode contains discussions of state violence that some people might find disturbing** On the 10th anniversary* of the massacre of 34 striking mine workers at Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana, our host for this episode, Daniel Selwyn, investigates the transnational complicity of state and corporate actors, while amplifying voices from the ongoing struggles for justice and reparations. For listeners in London and the UK this episode is particularly close to home, as a massacre at a South African mine unravels into a story about the crimes of global capitalism in which we are all implicated. We’ll learn just how entangled Marikana is with the city of London, the suburbs of Germany, and corporate interests that ensnare the most powerful figure in South African politics. During the episode, Daniel speaks to community activists from Sinethemba Women’s Organisation, Thumeka Magwanqwana and Gabisile Khanyile, as well as a Marikana mine worker Bongisisa Gwiliza. He also speaks with the attorney for hundreds of incarcerated mineworkers, Andries Nkome, and Maren Grimm, who is part of the international solidarity movement with the communities in Marikana. *This episode first aired in 2022. 4 years later the families of the murdered mineworkers are still awaiting criminal accountability. **This episode was executively produced by Maia Holtermann Entwistle and Sharri Plonski. Surviving Society Productions co-produced, hosted and recorded episodes. Sound mixing and design by Bronte Dow and Surviving Society creative director George “Adders” Ofori-Addo. Interview with Surviving Society’s executive producer and host, Chantelle Lewis, alongside Tissot Regis.** Useful Links: London Mining Network: www.londonminingnetwork.org Marikana Solidarity Collective: www.facebook.com/MarikanaSolidarity Plough Back the Fruits: www.basflonmin.com Lonmin’s Wall of Shame: https://londonminingnetwork.org/lonmin-wall-of-shame/  Further Reading: Kerima Modideen and Richard Harkinson. “London’s Mining History, From Colonialism to Apartheid: Why Rhodes Must Fall,” 10 February 2016, https://londonminingnetwork.org/2016/02/londons-mining-history-from-colonialism-to-apartheid-why-rhodes-must-fall/. Hennie van Vuuren. “Apartheid, Guns and Money: A Tale of Profit,” (London: Hurst, 2018). Marinovich, Greg. “Murder at Small Koppie: The Real Story of the Marikana Massacre,” (London: Penguin Random House, 2016). Maren Grimm, Britta Becker and Jakob Krameritsch. “Business as Usual after Marikana: Corporate Power and Human Rights,” (South Africa: Jacana Media, 2018). This episode was supported by the Economics and Social Research Council and Queen Mary University of London.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    [S1: E1 Re-release] A Very British Massacre (Daniel Selwyn and the London Mining Network) with Surviving Society Productions

  3. Jul 20

    Stop that Train (Dom Davies)

    “But didn’t colonialism give them railways?” The “Cape-to-Cairo” railway was meant to stretch from Africa’s southern tip to Egypt in the north. It was the unrealised fantasy of an unruly cast of imperial hustlers, including most infamously Cecil Rhodes. As Dom Davies traces the legacy of this unfinished railway across Africa, he finds that tracks of colonial plunder, resource extraction, and white supremacy continue to haunt the continent. Talking to Adam Elliott-Cooper, Megan Jones, Uhuru Portia Phalafala, Sara Salem, and Jonny Steinberg, he explores the violence of the Cape-to-Cairo railway as both a symbolic and material crime. Using songs and poetry of resistance, he also unravels how fantasies of a connected Africa energised successive generations of activists, from Black Consciousness poets to Rhodes Must Fall.  Useful Links Global History of Capitalism Project, Case Study #31: Rhodes Must Fall: https://globalcapitalism.history.ox.ac.uk/files/case31-rhodesmustfallpdf The Last Will and Testament of Cecil John Rhodes: https://info.publicintelligence.net/RhodesLastWill.pdf UCT Rhodes Must Fall Mission Statement: https://www.lse.ac.uk/sociology/assets/documents/events/UCT-Rhodes-Must-Fall-Statement.pdf Further Reading Dominic Davies. The Broken Promise of Infrastructure (Lawrence Wishart, 2023). Megan Jones. "The Train as Motif in Soweto Poetry," Literature, Critique, and Empire Today 53:1 (2018), pp. 21-42. Uhuru Portia Phalafala. Mine Mine Mine (University of Nebraska Press, 2023). Sara Salem. "Cape to Cairo." The Architectural Review (June 2025), pp.50-53. This episode was supported by the Independent Social Research Fund, Leverhulme Trust, and City St. George’s Department of Media, Culture, and Creative Industries.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Stop that Train (Dom Davies)

  4. Jul 8

    Season 3 Trailer

    This season on Material Crimes...How can infrastructure be criminal? How does a road, a train or even a piece of real estate become a perpetrator of violence? Listen to Season three of material crimes as we try to answer these questions. Out 21st July! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Season 3 Trailer
  • 4 Episodes

About

How can a mine, a road or a prison be criminal? Material Crimes answers this question, investigating the “true crimes” of infrastructure. We explore how the physical sites of everyday life are connected to global histories of conquest, resource extraction, profit-making – and resistance! Check out our website: materialcrimes.com Get in touch: materialcrimespodcast@gmail.com Instagram: instagram.com/materialcrimespodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Information

  • Creator
    Material Crimes
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    4
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Maia Holtermann Entwistle & Sharri Plonski
  • Show Website
    Material Crimes