It was a simple act, done in a less-than-simple way. When Johnny Danalis decided to return the “Star of Taroom”, an ancient Indigenous groove stone his father had souvenired in the 1970s, it was simply to give back what was taken. But when he decided to wheel the 160 kilogram stone 500 kilometres from Brisbane to Taroom he had no idea it had the power to teach its people’s history, draw Iman people back to country and heal old wounds.

Earshot

Following The Star of Taroom

What does your voice say about you? Not your choice of words, but all the extra information the voice carries, like our emotions, accents, even apparently our identity. Details that big tech and governments are more and more interested in each day.

My voice is my passport

Under the rule of President Erdogan Turkey has become the world’s biggest jailer of journalists.

You are not alone - Turkey

Stella Nyanzi’s words are searing, she plans to topple a dictator with them.  She was imprisoned for her poem on facebook that called the President of Uganda, Museveni, a diseased foetus that should not have been born.  Her 18 months in prison have made her bolder, angrier and more determined to create change in Uganda.

You are not alone - Stella Nyanzi Uganda's rudest writer

Ma Thida is a major figure in the struggle for democracy in Myanmar.  A surgeon and writer she was initially happy to go to prison to gain experience to write a prison memoir.  However after years in solitary confinement it was only mindfulness meditation and books she had smuggled into jail that got her through.  She speaks to Earshot for this special series marking the anniverary of PEN International from an undisclosed location she has fled to after the February coup in Myanmar.

You are not alone - Ma Thida prisoner of conscience

A series marking 100 years of Pen International, the organisation that advocates for prisoners of conscience around the world.

You are not alone - Uyghur poets

Are white people being silenced by being labelled as racists? Controversial comedian Isaac Butterfield thinks so.  And what about people who publicly call out racism? Are they also silenced? Sami Shah feels frustrated with all this shouting and looks for answers to cancel culture by confronting his own racism.

Let's talk about race: Is it ok to be white?

The idea that immigrants are taking work away from working class white people has created a perfect racist storm.  Where does the idea come from and how do we counter it?

Let's talk about race: Race and class

Why do people who’ve experienced racism dish it out to other racial groups?  Sami Shah investigates a taboo subject that’s like a crack in the mirrorball of multicultural Australia.

The new racists

Comedian and journalist Craig Quartermaine describes white Australia’s reaction to  Indigenous people and their place in our national narrative as “an uncomfortable truth”.  So how do young Indigenous people get around that reality?  Craig talks to two young people who are facing up to racism with bravery and creativity.

An uncomfortable truth

Comedian and journalist Sami Shah had never experienced racism until he moved to Australia from Pakistan. It makes him the best person to prise open the lid on this difficult conversation about what racism means, who experiences it and the impact it’s having on the whole country.

Is Australia racist?

As you enter the town of Lake Bolac in southwest Victoria, you pass a sign that says 'home of aquatic sports', but historically Lake Bolac is famous for its fine quality and abundance of kuyang or short-finned eels. Eels were the most important food source for indigenous communities in this area, but the records that are left are patchworked and few. Walk eel country, following the path of the eel migration and in the footsteps of human history.

Walking eel country

Bev Francis found out by accident she was the strongest woman in the world. It was the late 1970s, and the sport of women’s weightlifting was still new. When international records were compared, no one was as strong as Bev: she could defy gravity, lifting more than three times her bodyweight. Meet this forgotten champion of women’s muscle sports, who’s a firm believer that rules are meant to be broken.

Bev Francis - strongest woman in the world

In July last year, after a surge in Covid outbreaks, 3000 residents in nine public housing towers in Melbourne were forced into hard lockdown. Police surrounded the buildings and no one was allowed in or out. The controversial lockdown drew a lot of criticism. Residents struggled to get hold of essential supplies and the heavy police presence made people feel like prisoners in their homes. One year on, we speak with some of those people who were locked down and locked in.

The Melbourne Towers' hard lockdown - one year on

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners are advised that the following program contains the voice of a person who has died. The Martuwarra Fitzroy River is one of Australia’s most pristine and unregulated river systems. But now the pressure is on to take its water for irrigation. Pastoralists watch the water flowing through their stations and see wasted opportunity. Traditional owners see life and say not one drop is wasted.

Martuwarra Fitzroy River: Then they came for the water

Earshot presents documentaries about people, places, stories and ideas, in all their diversity.