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Stan Grant’s new book asks: how do we live with the weight of our history?

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/heidi-norman-859">Heidi Norman</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-technology-sydney-936">University of Technology Sydney</a> This month, journalist and public intellectual Stan Grant published his fifth book, <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9781460764022/the-queen-is-dead/">The Queen is Dead</a>. And last week, he abruptly stepped away from his career in the public realm, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-19/stan-grant-media-target-racist-abuse-coronation-coverage-enough/102368652">citing</a> toxic racism enabled by social media, and betrayal on the part of his employer, the ABC. “I was invited to contribute to the ABC’s coverage as part of a discussion about the legacy of the monarchy. I pointed out that the crown represents the invasion and theft of our land,” <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-19/stan-grant-media-target-racist-abuse-coronation-coverage-enough/102368652">he wrote</a> last Friday. “I repeatedly said that these truths are spoken with love for the Australia we have never been.” And yet, “I have seen people in the media lie and distort my words. They have tried to depict me as hate filled”. Grant has worked as a journalist in Australia for more than three decades: first on commercial current affairs – and until this week, as a main anchor at the ABC, where he was an international affairs analyst and the host of the panel discussion show Q+A. The former role reflects his global work, reporting from conflict zones with esteemed international broadcasters such as CNN. His second book, <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9781460751985/talking-to-my-country/">Talking to my Country</a>, won the Walkley Book Award in 2016. <hr /> Review: The Queen is Dead – Stan Grant (HarperCollins) <hr /> In this new book, Grant yearns for a way to comprehend the forces, ideas and history that led to this cultural moment we inhabit. The book, which opens with him grappling with the monarchy and its legacy, is revealing in terms of his decision to step back from public life. Released to coincide with <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronation-arrests-how-the-new-public-order-law-disrupted-protesters-once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity-205328">the coronation</a> of the new English monarch, Charles III, The Queen is Dead seethes with rage and loathing – hatred even – at the ideas that have informed the logic and structure of modernity. Grant’s work examines the ideas that explain the West and modernity – and his own place as an Indigenous person of this land, from Wiradjuri, Kamilaroi and Dharawal country. That is: his work explores both who he is in the world and the ideas that tell the story of the modern world. He finds the latter unable to account for him. “This week, I have been reminded what it is to come from the other side of history,” he writes in the book’s opening pages. “History itself that is written as a hymn to whiteness […] written by the victors and often written in blood.” He asks “how do we live with the weight of this history?” And he explains the questions that have dominated his thinking: what is <a href="https://theconversation.com/whiteness-is-an-invented-concept-that-has-been-used-as-a-tool-of-oppression-183387">whiteness</a>, and what is it to live with catastrophe? <h2>The death of the white queen</h2> In his account, his rage is informed by the observation that the weight of this history was largely unexplored on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II’s death last September. The death of the white queen is the touchpoint always returned to in this work – and the release of the book coincides with the apparently seamless transition to her heir, now King Charles III. <figure class="align-right zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="" /></a><figcaption></figcaption></figure> In the lead-up to the coronation, “long live the king” echoed across the United Kingdom. Its long tentacles reached across the globe where this old empire once ruled, robbing and ruining much that it encountered. The death of the queen and the succession of her heir occurred with ritual and ceremony. Small tweaks acknowledged the changing world – but for the most part, this coronation occurred without revolution or bloodshed, without condemnation – and without contest of the British monarchs’ role in history and the world they continue to dominate, in one way or another. Grant argues the end of the 70-year rule of Queen Elizabeth II should mark a turning point: a global reckoning with the race-based order that undergirds empire and colonialism. Whereas the earlier century confidently pronounced the project of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-power-of-yindyamarra-how-we-can-bring-respect-to-australian-democracy-192164">democracy</a> and liberalism complete, it seems time has marched on. History has not “ended”, as Francis Fukuyama <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-end-of-history-francis-fukuyamas-controversial-idea-explained-193225">declared</a> in 1989 (claiming liberal democracies had been proved the unsurpassable ideal). Instead, history has entered a ferocious era of uncertainty and volatility. Grant reminds us that people of colour now dominate the globe. Race, <a href="https://theconversation.com/racism-is-real-race-is-not-a-philosophers-perspective-82504">as we now know</a>, is a flexible and slippery made-up idea, changing opportunistically to include and exclude groups, to dominate and possess. Grant examines this with great impact as he considers the lived experience of his white grandmother, who was shunned when living with a black man, shared his conditions of poverty with pluck and defiance, then resumed a place in white society without him. And writing of his mother, the other Elizabeth, Grant elaborates the complexity of identity not confined to the colour of skin, but forged from belonging to people and kinship networks, and to place – which condemns the pseudoscience of <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/about/news/speeches/power-identity-naming-oneself-reclaiming-community-2011">blood quantum</a> that informed the state’s control of Aboriginal lives. This suspect race science has proved enduring. Grant’s account of the death of the monarch is a genuine engagement with the history of ideas to contemplate the reality of our 21st-century present. <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="" /></a><figcaption>Grant argues the end of the queen’s 70-year rule should mark ‘a global reckoning with the race-based order that undergirds empire and colonialism’. Yui Mok/AP</figcaption></figure> <h2>Liberalism and democracy = tyranny and terror</h2> In several essays now, Grant has engaged with the ideas of mostly Western philosophers and several conservative thinkers to explain the crisis of liberalism and democracy. Grant argues that, like other -isms, liberalism and democracy have descended into tyranny and terror. The new world order, dominated by <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-stan-grant-on-how-tyrants-use-the-language-of-germ-warfare-and-covid-has-enabled-them-204183">China</a> and people of colour, is in dramatic contrast to the continued rule of the white queen and her descendants. In this, perhaps more than his other books and essays, Grant moves between big ideas in history – the <a href="https://theconversation.com/criticism-of-western-civilisation-isnt-new-it-was-part-of-the-enlightenment-104567">Enlightenment</a>, modernity and democracy – to consider himself, his identity, and his own lived experience of injustice, where race is an undeniable organising feature. In this story he explains himself, as an Indigenous person, “an outsider, in the middle”; “an exile, living in exile, struggling with belonging”; living with the “very real threat of erasure”. <h2>Love, friendships, family, Country</h2> In the final section of the book, Grant’s focus switches to the theme of “love”, and to friendships, family and Country. He speculates that his focus on these things is perhaps a mark of age. Now, he accounts for the things in life that are truly valuable – and this includes deep affection for the joy that emanates from Aboriginal families. Being home on his Country, paddling the river, he finds quiet and peace. The death of the monarch of the British Empire, who ruled for 70 years, should speak to the history of empire and colonial legacy and all its curses – especially in settler colonial Australia. Yet her passing – which coincides with seismic change in the global economic order with China’s ascendance and the decline of the United States and the UK, the global cultural order and the racial order – has been largely unexamined in public discourse in Australia. The history of colonisation and of ideas that have debated ways to comprehend the past have been a feature of Grant’s intellectual exploration, including on the death of the queen. As he details in his new book, the reaction from some quarters to this conversation has exposed him to unrelenting and racist attack. In this work and in others, exploration of the world of ideas to understand the past and future sits alongside accounts of the everyday; of the always place-based realities of Aboriginal accounts of self. The material deprivations and indignities, the closely held humility that comes with poverty and powerlessness - shared socks, a house carelessly demolished, burials tragically abandoned – are countered by another reality: the intimacy of most Aboriginal lives, characterised by deep love, affection, laughter and belonging. These place-based, “small” stories Grant shares sit alongside the bigger themes of modern history, such as democracy and freedom. In this latest work, Grant details his sense of “betrayal” at the discussion he sought about the monarch’s passing and the discussion that was actually had, the history of ideas and his own place in this. And now, of course, he has announced his intention to exit the public stage. Racism, we are reminded, is an enduring feature of the modern world – a world yet to allow space for an unbowing, Wiradjuri-Kamilaroi-Dharawal public intellectual.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204756/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/heidi-norman-859">Heidi Norman</a>, Professor, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-technology-sydney-936">University of Technology Sydney</a> This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/stan-grants-new-book-asks-how-do-we-live-with-the-weight-of-our-history-204756">original article</a>. Images: Q+A / ABC

Books

Preppers is a deep reading of colonial violence – and a hilarious, must-watch Aussie TV comedy

A sophisticated multi-layered critique of colonialism, capitalism and patriarchy with an all-star Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cast (along with some well-known non-Indigenous personalities playing an assortment of “allies”), Preppers is hilarious. Trying to navigate being the only Indigenous person on an all-white TV morning show, Wake up Australia, and dealing with <a href="https://www.booktopia.com.au/unmasking-the-racial-contract-debbie-bargallie/book/9781925302653.html">daily microaggressions</a>, Charlie (Nakkiah Lui) finds herself suffering feelings of inadequacy and soothing herself with self-help affirmations. Then, after a series of unfortunate events, she wakes to find herself at a doomsday preppers hold out known as “Eden 2”. The six-part series then unfolds in an isolated camp where power relations shift as everyone prepares for the end of the world. The core cast of seven is led by a group of brilliant Blak actors: Lui is joined by Jack Charles, Meyne Wyatt, Ursula Yovich and Aaron McGrath, with non-Indigenous actors Eryn Jean Norvill and Chum Ehelepola rounding out the preppers. Many other wonderful actors move in and out of the series, including Miranda Tapsell, Luke Carroll and Christine Anu, as it tackles some big issues such as colonial violence, frontier wars, inter-generational trauma and the politics of identity. But it does this all in the great Aussie tradition of <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-84796-8_6">taking the piss</a>: making fun of the things that are absurd, risible, offensive and hurtful. <iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nvb1Mx34TiA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe> <h2>A story of allyship</h2> <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-84796-8_10">Much has been written on the topic of allyship</a> with Indigenous people, particularly the danger that, in seeking “ally” status one is really seeking to position oneself as the “good white person”. If white allies are motivated solely by a desire to be seen as a “good person”, there is a danger they might remain <a href="https://ro.uow.edu.au/lhapapers/2070/">ignorant of or indifferent</a> to larger structures of power. Preppers explores this complexity in a way that will make us all laugh, while also revealing how allyship operates to silence or take from Indigenous people. <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430732/original/file-20211108-25-bmjnpb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430732/original/file-20211108-25-bmjnpb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="A white woman dressed like a coloniser, and an Aboriginal woman dressed as an Aussie flag thong." /></a> Is this allyship? ABC TV In one episode, the group is accidentally locked in the bunker. Jayden (Aaron McGrath) calls on Kirby (Eryn Jean Norvill) to be sacrificed before they run out of air. As Jayden describes it, this would be “the ultimate display of white allyship”. Kirby, not very happy to comply, responds by stating she should survive to go on and tell the story. “We don’t need another white person to tell a Black story,” says Jayden. <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430731/original/file-20211108-10550-nd7vuv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430731/original/file-20211108-10550-nd7vuv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="A white woman with a shotgun mike, looked on by three Aboriginal people." /></a> ‘We don’t need another white person to tell a Black story’, Jayden tells Kirby. ABC TV Becoming an ally is no simple or straightforward matter. Instead, it requires constant reflection on your social position, and remaining accountable to those with whom you are “allied” – but you probably won’t be called to self-sacrifice to ensure enough air is left in your doomsday bunker. In true Hollywood end-of-days fashion, the group turns on itself. Kirby declares Charlie (Lui) will be the one to die. Charlie’s reward will be becoming the namesake for a future child of born again Christians Lionel (New Zealand-Sri Lankan actor Chum Ehelepola) and Kelly (Ursula Yovich). Not the first or the second child but one of the later ones, Kelly notes. An annual day of honour will also be bestowed upon Charlie – “a day of mourning and dancing and stuff”. Thankfully, they are saved by the arrival of Charlie’s mum, Marie (Christine Anu). <h2>Tough truths through comedy</h2> Preppers unpacks what we think we know – and what has been taught to us as truth – about colonisation. In one scene, bones are found. The preppers suspect the bones could be those of an Aboriginal person killed during the frontier wars. The truth of these atrocities is questioned by some members of the group. “Don’t they teach you that in school?”, Jayden asks. “We used to make boomerangs out of Popsicle sticks, does that count?”, asks Lionel. <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430733/original/file-20211108-10010-1o9yuk7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430733/original/file-20211108-10010-1o9yuk7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="Jack Charles" /></a> Through Monty (Jack Charles), Preppers tells the truth about Australia’s history. ABC TV The resident Elder, Monty (Jack Charles), reveals he may have some records of local frontier wars and quips “that is the thing with you white fellas. You deny it but you wrote it down”. Describing <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/this-interactive-map-highlights-150-indigenous-massacres">frontier violence</a> as an apocalypse, Monty shows the group a series of slides of colonial soldiers and settlers killing Aboriginal people, declaring they were “led by a cruel man, a real dog. He shot, burnt, beat, hung local Aboriginal people”. Even though Preppers is a comedy, the show provides a deep reading often left out of recollections of colonial violence. Indigenous people were not just passive victims of the heinous crimes. They were people who fought for their lives and Country. “They ambushed this colonial dog and his men, stole their weapons and turned the guns back on them. The Blackfullas had their revenge”, says Monty. <h2>Blackfulla deadly</h2> From Charlie, whose anxiety manifests into uncontrollable flatulence, to a Black <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2019/04/is-you-vs-wild-real-netflix-bear-gryllls.html">Bear Grylls</a>-alpha-male-wannabe (Guy, played by Meyne Wyatt), to a pair of amorous born again Christians practising abstinence, Preppers includes brilliant performances from all in the cast. Preppers embodies the true definition of Blak humour in all its intricacies, and the unique ways Indigenous comedy can address the complexities of everyday life of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in contemporary Australia. The series is, to quote a line in one of the episodes, “like deadly, like Blackfulla deadly, not like gammin [fake or pretend]” - a must watch! Preppers is on ABC from November 10.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170100/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/bronwyn-carlson-136214">Bronwyn Carlson</a>, Professor, Indigenous Studies and Director of The Centre for Global Indigenous Futures, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/macquarie-university-1174">Macquarie University</a> This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/preppers-is-a-deep-reading-of-colonial-violence-and-a-hilarious-must-watch-aussie-tv-comedy-170100">original article</a>. Image: ABC

‘An idealised Australian ethos’: why Bluey is an audience favourite, even for adults without kids

Bluey, the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-01/bluey-abc-kids-show-wins-international-emmys-childrens-award/12111308">Emmy award-winning</a> animated series about a family of anthropomorphized cattle dogs, has become a <a href="https://www.kidspot.com.au/lifestyle/entertainment/the-most-downloaded-show-on-the-abc-is-not-what-youd-expect/news-story/6c1fdef918c5890b23695538c8c136b2">ratings phenomenon</a> since it was first broadcast on the ABC in 2018. Bluey follows the eponymous six-year-old Blue Heeler, her younger sister, Bingo, and their playful parents, Bandit and Chilli. As part of our new research project, <a href="https://www.actcresearch.com/">Australian Children’s Television Cultures</a>, we are <a href="https://swinuw.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2nLAOj9X5VUfPvw">surveying audiences</a> about how they interact with Australian children’s programming. From over 700 adult responses, Bluey was the TV program parents were most keen to watch with their children. Respondents celebrated its unambiguously Australian setting, irreverent humour, and family orientated themes at a time when other children’s content, such as the dead-eyed nursey rhymes of YouTube channel <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbCmjCuTUZos6Inko4u57UQ">Cocomelon</a>, seem to only offer generic, computer-generated distractions. Indeed, many adults without children said they watch Bluey. One respondent described Bluey, which is set in Brisbane, as “representative of an idealised Australian ethos — relaxed, curious, and hard-working”. Another, an early childhood educator, emphasised that “Australian children need Australian shows”. And as a parent explained, <blockquote> It’s nice for children to see familiar landmarks and have issues that are current to them, as opposed to Peppa Pig and needing to explain why we don’t have snow at Christmas". </blockquote> One aspect of Bluey audiences consider particularly relatable is the family dynamic, including the games Bluey and Bingo play with their resourceful parents. One locked-down Australian mother has even created “<a href="https://looseparts.com.au/bluey/">50 Days of Bluey</a>”, guidelines for home activities inspired by the show. <iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EuSpVc9z3Rk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe> Bluey’s games include: “Daddy Robot” in which a “malfunctioning” Bandit teaches Bluey and Bingo the importance of tidying up; “Rug Island”, a kids-only oasis that the Heelers create in their backyard; and “Mount Mumandad”, in which Bluey and Bingo climb their exhausted parents after they have collapsed on the couch. Then there’s the humour: described by one respondent as full of Australian cultural nuances. As one parent noted, <blockquote> Bluey ‘gets’ parents perfectly … we enjoy watching it so we steer our kids towards it. </blockquote> <h2>Read on many levels</h2> The show can be read on multiple levels, which is why it can appeal to adults too. For instance, a recent Father’s Day episode saw Bluey’s dad, Bandit, discuss his conflicted feelings about getting a vasectomy with another dad. As Bandit explained, “I’m keen to get it done, but, Chilli, [his wife] she wants to keep her options open”. This adult moment in what is ostensibly a kids’ cartoon generated much discussion on social media. One fan tweeted <blockquote> I’m a grown man wondering if a cartoon dog family is going to have a baby. Weird life this is. </blockquote> From election day barbecues to Queenslander houses and backyards, early audience responses to our study agree Bluey offers a snapshot of Australia. However, many were quick to point out this snapshot doesn’t provide the full picture. Bluey has been <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/everyday/can-bluey-show-be-more-representative/100042084">gently criticised</a> for a perceived lack of diversity. The show centres on a hetero-normative nuclear family in a world largely populated by able-bodied characters, with Anglo-Australian names and accents. As one respondent noted <blockquote> We’re definitely getting better [at reflecting Australian culture] with shows like Bluey, but as a gay man I would love to see more LGBT representation in kids’ shows. It would be nice as a kid to know you’re valid. </blockquote> Nevertheless, many of this study’s early participants felt that on the whole, kids’ TV was becoming more reflective of wider Australia. Children’s content praised for providing greater diversity of representation included Indigenous Australian-led shows Little J & Big Cuz and Jarjums. National babysitter Play School was celebrated for its continued commitment to featuring hosts from a variety of backgrounds, and the greater diversity in The Wiggles’ new line-up was applauded. <h2>Taking ‘bush wees’ global</h2> One respondent wondered if the humour and references in Bluey were “lost on audiences outside of Australia”. However, since the Walt Disney Company acquired the show’s international broadcasting rights in 2019, Bluey has been reaching a wide <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/jun/13/australias-bluey-goes-global-after-fetching-deal-with-disney">overseas audience</a>. While some small accommodations have been made for international viewers — “capsicums” became “peppers” in the UK and a gag with a pooping pony was cut for Disney Junior — the show has resisted being watered down. As such, it is taking bilbies and “bush wees” to global audiences. At a time when the commercial broadcaster quotas that previously protected local kids’ TV have been <a href="https://theconversation.com/cheese-n-crackers-concerns-deepen-for-the-future-of-australian-childrens-television-147183">scrapped</a> and international shows like Paw Patrol and Peppa Pig can be instantly summoned by tapping on a smart-phone, the local enthusiasm for Bluey is heartening. “I have friends in the US whose kids watch Bluey and they say their kids are talking in Aussie accents,” noted one respondent with pride. Said another: “Bluey will be forever iconic not just to kids but their parents, not just in Australia but all over the world”. Our research project, <a href="https://www.actcresearch.com/">Australian Children’s Television Cultures</a>, aims to better understand the role and responsibility of local Kids’ TV. You can participate in this research by clicking on the following <a href="https://swinuw.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2nLAOj9X5VUfPvw">link</a>. You can also follow us on <a href="https://twitter.com/_ACTC_?s=20">Twitter</a>.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168571/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/liam-burke-109751">Liam Burke</a>, Associate Professor and Cinema and Screen Studies Discipline Leader, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/swinburne-university-of-technology-767">Swinburne University of Technology</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/djoymi-baker-1269345">Djoymi Baker</a>, Lecturer in Cinema Studies, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/rmit-university-1063">RMIT University</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jessica-balanzategui-814024">Jessica Balanzategui</a>, Senior Lecturer in Cinema and Screen Studies, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/swinburne-university-of-technology-767">Swinburne University of Technology</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/joanna-mcintyre-333903">Joanna McIntyre</a>, Lecturer in Media Studies, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/swinburne-university-of-technology-767">Swinburne University of Technology</a> This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-idealised-australian-ethos-why-bluey-is-an-audience-favourite-even-for-adults-without-kids-168571">original article</a>. Image: ABC TV

Now Kate’s friend threatens to sue Christian Porter

In walking away from his defamation action against the ABC, cabinet minister Christian Porter has opened a fresh round in the battle over the allegation of historical rape against him by a now-deceased woman, known just as Kate. Jo Dyer, a friend of Kate – whose claim Porter denies – on Tuesday threatened to sue him, accusing him of impugning “my honesty and integrity”. There is also now a battle over the settlement concluded between Porter and the ABC. The federal court has yet to ratify the settlement, which involves expunging from the court record part of the ABC’s defence in the defamation case. But news organisations are seeking to have the material made public. Justice Jayne Jagot said on Tuesday the issue might not be a matter for the parties. “There has to be a reason for the removal of a document from a court file,” she said. “It’s not done just because a party wants to do it.” If a document is removed from the court file, there cannot be applications to see it. ABC journalist Louise Milligan, who Porter also sued in his case against an ABC article reporting the accusation without naming him, tweeted on Monday “We are still absolutely committed to the 27 redacted pages being in the public domain”. Dyer brought the successful legal action that resulted in Porter’s high profile barrister Sue Chrysanthou being prevented from appearing in the defamation case because of a conflict of interest. Dyer said in her statement her lawyers had sent a second “concerns notice” to Porter over his “continuing defamatory comments”. “He should be on notice that if I launch legal proceedings, I tend to see them through to their conclusion,” she said. She alleged two defamations by Porter. She said that on May 12, he implied her legal proceedings were “part of an improper last minute legal strategy to disrupt his now discontinued action”. “He did this despite knowing the real reason for the court action, and the lengths to which I had gone over the preceding two months to avoid court,” she said. “Yesterday Mr Porter alleged that, after ‘coaching’ from Ms Milligan, I had destroyed important communications that may have had a bearing on his now discontinued action against Ms Milligan and the ABC. "This is absurd. As I stated in court under oath, a number of people, of whom Ms Milligan was but one, encouraged me to treat all communications about our dear friend Kate, and the allegations she made against Mr Porter, with the care and respect she and they warranted. "I endeavoured to do so by both filing and deleting correspondence between me and other individuals as appropriate. "There was nothing improper, illegal or sinister in my decisions to save or delete certain messages, decisions that were taken well before Mr Porter launched his now discontinued action against Ms Milligan and the ABC.” Dyer said the allegations Kate made against Porter “remain completely untested. Until they have been investigated, it is untenable for Mr Porter to remain in cabinet.” Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said an independent inquiry was needed into whether Porter was fit to continue as a cabinet minister. Dreyfus also said the ABC material should be publicly available.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161911/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/michelle-grattan-20316">Michelle Grattan</a>, Professorial Fellow, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-canberra-865">University of Canberra</a> This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/now-kates-friend-threatens-to-sue-christian-porter-161911">original article</a>.

Relationships

Here's a mental health workout that's as simple as ABC

While we take physical workouts very seriously, there is much less said about the “workouts” that help us remain mentally agile and healthy. But just as with physical health, there are simple and practical ways that can help everyone to enjoy good mental health. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0531556516306167">Our research</a> has led us to a method for promoting mental health and wellbeing within communities, which follows a simple model that can be adopted by anyone. An earlier study showed that <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14623730.2017.1290540">people intuitively know</a> what enhances their mental health, but they don’t think about it on a daily basis. Unlike their physical health, people rarely consider what they could or should be doing for their mental health. At present, the <a href="http://www.who.int/mental_health/publications/action_plan/en/">focus</a> in mental health campaigns is on treatment for mental disorders, the removal of stigma from talking about mental health problems, early intervention and the reduction of risk factors which lead to illness. But the burden of mental illness continues to rise – it is thought that an estimated 50% of people in <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/health_glance-2017-en/1/2/3/7/index.html?itemId=/content/publication/health_glance-2017-en&_csp_=980fcbc145e1f57ab4011c6cda9e970d#sect-39">OECD countries</a> will experience mental illness in their lifetime, so there is a <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(18)30057-9/fulltext">need</a> to raise awareness in communities and to promote simple and practical steps to achieving and maintaining good mental health. By building on research into what people can do to improve their mental health, we have developed an “ABC” model that can be easily adopted in everyday life. Known as “Act-Belong-Commit”, the approach promotes keeping active, building stronger relationships with friends, family and community groups, and committing to hobbies, challenges and meaningful causes. Together they constitute a simple “do-it-yourself” approach to enhancing mental health. By encouraging people to follow these principles, as well as collaborating with community groups that offer activities and opportunities for social participation, the method – currently implemented in <a href="https://www.actbelongcommit.org.au/">Australia</a> and <a href="http://www.abcmentalsundhed.dk/">Denmark</a> – seeks to bring about long-term benefits to mental health in populations. <h2>Act</h2> <blockquote> Keep alert and engaged by keeping mentally, socially, spiritually and physically active. </blockquote> Research has credited a lifestyle with plenty of activities outside work as fostering <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ageing-and-society/article/critical-review-of-the-literature-on-social-and-leisure-activity-and-wellbeing-in-later-life/2F2A22FDE0F28D435F56D6E69B25FF9E">positive emotions</a> and <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa022252">protecting our brains</a> from decline. An active mind and body, particularly in the company of others, can be naturally rewarding and a healthy alternative to worrying, overthinking or engaging in substance use. <h2>Belong</h2> <blockquote> Develop a strong sense of belonging by keeping up friendships, joining groups, and participating in community activities. </blockquote> Research has shown that our relationships with one another are fundamental to mental health in terms of <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1088868314523839">providing a sense of identity</a>, acting as a source of <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10865-006-9056-5">support</a>, and being an important <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022146510395592?journalCode=hsbb">coping resource</a> for dealing with <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/srep25267">pain</a>, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1348/014466605X37468">stress</a> and difficult life events. <h2>Commit</h2> <blockquote> Do things that provide meaning and purpose in life like taking up challenges, supporting a good cause and helping others. </blockquote> A sense of meaning and purpose is vital to our well-being and has been shown to help extend our <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(13)61489-0/abstract">lives</a> and maintain a <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40473-016-0096-z">healthy brain</a>. Committing to a hobby, a challenge, a good cause or <a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7pf57270">helping others</a> can all boost feelings of self-worth and protect against feelings of <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2014-35224-001">hopelessness and worthlessness</a>. Participating socially and contributing to the community can <a href="https://academic.oup.com/psychsocgerontology/article-abstract/73/3/522/4079956?redirectedFrom=fulltext">preserve brain function</a>, promote thoughts of “<a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/002214650704800408">making a difference</a>” and reduce feelings which aren’t helpful for well-being, such as <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0146167296223006">self-centredness</a>. To show that these principles promote and protect mental health, we recently completed a series of observational studies on a nationally representative sample of adults in Ireland. People were interviewed at the start of the survey and then re-interviewed two years later. We categorised the activities of participants into indicators of acting, belonging and committing. Engaging in various social and recreational activities, such as sport, going to films, eating out or travelling for pleasure were indicators of Act. Staying in touch with friends, family and community groups served as an indicator of Belong and the frequency of engaging in social and recreational activities was an indicator of Commit. The results of these studies together demonstrate that higher levels of all three measures enhance <a href="http://abcmentalsundhed.dk/media/1387/abc-styrker-den-mentale-sundhed-i-irland.pdf">quality of life, life satisfaction, and self-rated mental health</a>, protect people against developing <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0531556516306167">depression, anxiety and brain function decline</a>, and lower the risk of people becoming dependent on <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037687161730474X">alcohol</a>. Our research has also shown that the approach is helping patients with <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1753-6405.12514">mental illnesses</a> and is now being used as a tool for recovery by mental health professionals. <h2>The campaign</h2> The Act-Belong-Commit campaign aims to harness resources already present in communities – because the behaviours that promote mental health and well-being are everyday activities that most people are already doing or are readily available. Hence the campaign’s focus is on raising awareness of this fact and validating the belief that these behaviours are good for mental health. In both <a href="https://www.actbelongcommit.org.au/assets/resources/publications/13.-implementing-mental-health-promotion%2c-the-act%2c-belong%2c-commit-mentally-healthy-wa-campaign-in-western-australia.pdf">Australia</a> and <a href="http://www.abcmentalsundhed.dk/media/1152/from-rethoric-to-action-adapting-the-act-belong-commit-mental-health-promotion-programme-to-a-danish-context.pdf">Denmark</a> the campaign connects academics who can advise on the ABC method with a diverse range of community groups, including theatres, women’s health groups and sport teams. These partners are provided with training and resources such as <a href="https://www.actbelongcommit.org.au/assets/resources/education/general/6.-Act-Belong-Commit-Self-Assessment.pdf">self-help guides</a> while advertising and event sponsorship help spread the campaign’s message. Particular targets include schools, workplaces and people recovering from mental illness. In Australia, an annual <a href="https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/17465721211289365">survey asks people</a> if they have heard of the campaign and, if so, how their beliefs and actions around mental health have changed. Twice a year, <a href="https://www.actbelongcommit.org.au/resources/publications-and-reports">surveys ask partners</a> how the campaign has affected their activities. Similar approaches are being used in Denmark. In this way, the campaign stays in touch with communities to constantly improve its methods. By encouraging people to follow and prioritise this ABC approach, the campaign’s simple messages could resonate in communities worldwide and sustain the mental health and well-being of people well into the future.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98124/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ziggi-ivan-santini-343563">Ziggi Ivan Santini</a>, Postdoctoral associate, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-southern-denmark-1097">University of Southern Denmark</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/rob-donovan-1875">Rob Donovan</a>, Adjunct professor, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-western-australia-1067">University of Western Australia</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/vibeke-jenny-koushede-497353">Vibeke Jenny Koushede</a>, Senior researcher, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-southern-denmark-1097">University of Southern Denmark</a> This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-a-mental-health-workout-thats-as-simple-as-abc-98124">original article</a>.

Mind

Natural history on TV: how the ABC took Australian animals to the people

Most of us will never see a platypus or a lyrebird in the wild, but it’s likely we’ve encountered them on television. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10304312.2019.1669533">Our new research</a> looks at the vital role early ABC television played in making Australian animals accessible to audiences. In the early years of ABC TV, there was very little locally produced animal content. When animals were on the small screen, they were usually imported from the BBC. Foremost among the imports was David Attenborough’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0918481/">Zoo Quest</a> (1954–1964), following the young naturalist’s exploits in Guyana, Borneo and Paraguay collecting live animals for London Zoo. Zoo Quest was formative in the development of natural history television. It launched Attenborough’s career and established many of the cultural conventions of the format: the authoritative and intrepid male narrator venturing to exotic places in search of animals being their wild selves. For Attenborough, the thrill of showing animals in their natural states gave the show “<a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=1lHs8bTVh8oC&pg=PA8&lpg=PA8&dq=%22the+spice+of+unpredictability%22&source=bl&ots=PHg_-HorBL&sig=ACfU3U2rfkJS_gutZ9keb76WpQ2Ogzn7Iw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwid_7WvyK7lAhVDuI8KHVWSDJEQ6AEwAXoECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22the%20spice%20of%20unpredictability%22&f=false">the spice of unpredictability</a>”. From the farm to the bush The initial strategy for local animal content by ABC TV was to use familiar radio techniques – panel talks and natural sounds – and just add pictures. Junior Farmer Competition, for instance, was a successful radio show. When it moved to television in 1958, live cattle, sheep and poultry were brought into the studio and competitors were asked to handle them before the cameras. This show was a remarkable experiment in visualising a radio format – but it didn’t last. The logistics of wrangling livestock in a TV studio proved too difficult. During the 1960s, the ABC began screening locally made wildlife shows. Wild animals were no longer somewhere else, in Africa or South America: they were all around us. Wildlife Australia (1962-1964) was written by ornithologist and radio broadcaster, Graham Pizzey and produced with the CSIRO. The series took viewers into unique Australian environments, and explored the native wildlife in these habitats. Other shows offered variations on this theme of an emerging environmental nationalism. Around the Bush (1964) starred naturalist and educator <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/environment/green-before-it-was-fashionable-20070912-gdr373.html">Vincent Serventy</a> out in the field; Wild Life Paradise: Australian Fauna (1967), was filmed at the Sir Colin Mackenzie Sanctuary (later Healesville Sanctuary) and offered content about what made Australian animals unique. As recurring references to Australia in these titles suggest, these shows were determinedly national. They often represented animals as living in “the bush” or “the environment”. This early reference to “the environment” framed it as a zone where nature and culture interacted – usually with bad outcomes for nature. As early as 1962, audiences were invited to look at animals as both fascinating and vulnerable. Animals and their habitats were framed as in need of public attention and concern in order to limit human intrusion and impact. While nature conservation movements had been around since the post WWII period, they often focused on preservation of scenic sites for human pleasure. This early environmentalism gave <a href="https://www.mup.com.au/books/defending-the-little-desert-paperback-softback">conservation a more political edge</a>. It valued nature in its own right and questioned development at all costs. Dancing Orpheus Probably the most groundbreaking early natural history show made by the ABC was <a href="https://aso.gov.au/titles/tv/dancing-orpheus/">Dancing Orpheus</a> (1962). Celebrated for its visual and technical prowess in capturing the secretive superb lyrebird, the most powerful scene showed a cock bird performing its elaborate courting display. The narration by John West offered scientific explanation, but the focus was on the extraordinary aesthetics of this pure natural expression. Dancing Orpheus was celebrated not just because it captured a rare and beautiful lyrebird performance, but because it also showed the emerging power of television to make remarkable Australian animals visible to audiences. Dancing Orpheus was one of the catalysts for the development of natural history television at the ABC, which really took off with the watershed series <a href="https://beyondtheestuary.com/fire-and-water-vale-charles-ken-taylor-poet-filmmaker-1930-2014/">Bush Quest with Robin Hill</a> (1970). Bush Quest featured the artist and naturalist Hill observing and sketching the wildlife of central and coastal Victoria. It established a new audience for Australian wildlife, breaking with earlier presentations of the remote bush or outback. Bush Quest cultivated a new environmental ethos in viewers increasingly aware of nature’s fragility. An ongoing legacy The ABC’s Natural History Unit was created in 1973. This small unit produced a suite of top rating programs that publicised a huge variety of Australian animals, way beyond the usual kangaroos and koalas. Its watershed moment was the internationally acclaimed series <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4590316/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Nature of Australia</a> (1988). Nature of Australia offered audiences an experience of national identification and pride based on our remarkable natural – rather than cultural or military – history. It put nature at the heart of definitions of national uniqueness. Early natural history television on the ABC showed audiences animals and places they didn’t even know existed, and explained natural processes in ways that were accessible and engaging. It also showed audiences how vulnerable these animals and habitats were to human actions and intervention. Natural history television on the ABC didn’t just make animals entertaining: it implicated audiences in their lives and survival, a significant factor in building environmental awareness. Written by Gay Hawkins. Republished with permission of <a href="https://theconversation.com/natural-history-on-tv-how-the-abc-took-australian-animals-to-the-people-125221">The Conversation.</a>

Art

Brave Australian woman who helped lock Rolf Harris behind bars goes public: "Bad day with a dirty old man"

An Australian woman has bravely unveiled her mask of anonymity to tell the harrowing story of her own molestation by disgraced entertainer, Rolf Harris. Suzi Dent was an anonymous character witness who testified in Harris’ trial in the UK. She aided in putting him behind bars after he was charged with 12 counts of indecent assault of girls and a young woman between 1968 and 1986. Ms Dent told ABC’s 7.30 she was just 24 when she met Rolf as a make-up artist after being offered the opportunity to work at a Channel 7 studio. While she said she was “very excited” to meet the TV star back in 1986, she now looks back at that “bad day with a dirty old man,” with no fondness. “I had an all-day groping experience with a man who couldn't keep his hands off me,” she said. “As soon as he sat in my make-up chair - I was wearing baggy pants at the time, baggy shorts - he'd run both hands up my legs all the way up my shorts right up to my thighs. “He would grab the leather belt and pull me towards him so he could crotch-grind, which never quite happened, but he certainly tried.” <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/BqQdBzXFTFi/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="12"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BqQdBzXFTFi/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">A post shared by TV SHOWS THAT SHOULDNT HAPPEN (@tv_trauma)</a> on Nov 16, 2018 at 1:56pm PST </div> </blockquote> The situation caused her to freeze up. “I didn't jump or move or anything like that, because it's my job as a make-up artist to not upset the talent,” she explained. “So if I had said something to him or, you know, slapped his hand away - which I might add is not what we did in 1986 - it was not acceptable behaviour for women to stand up for themselves like that, they had to cop it on the chin and grin and bear it and be polite.” Ms Dent further explained the actor had made “disgusting” comments about her legs and body, making her feel like a “piece of meat.” “I had a rip in my shorts, and he was trying to stick his fingers in there. I'd slap his hand away like he was a naughty boy,” she said. “No one did anything to stop him, and I couldn't fight back because the number one rule back then – and now - was you never upset the talent. “I had to be a good little girl, and it was the mentality that boys will be boys.” <img style="width: 500px; height: 281.8877551020408px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7832625/abc-1.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/53232819fd0144ccb5851be6c11e00a5" /> Ms Dent as a young woman Despite confiding in a colleague for comfort and support, the former makeup artist was shocked by their response. “She said to me, much to my surprise, ''Oh, I thought you knew that - his nickname's The Octopus'',” Ms Dent recalled. “He does that sort of thing all the time to make-up artists and he doesn't keep his hands to himself. He's like an octopus but because he puts his hands everywhere.” Ms Dent says that when the day of horror was over for her, it was her job to remove all makeup from Harris’ face. “There was absolutely no way I was going back into the makeup room by myself. I felt unsafe. I knew I was putting myself at physical risk if I went into the room alone with him,” she said. <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bd-QvsnHh9I/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="12"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bd-QvsnHh9I/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">A post shared by sinti mosi 🎛 (@sintimosi)</a> on Jan 15, 2018 at 6:05am PST </div> </blockquote> “If he was going to behave like that in a room full of people, who knows what he would have done in a room with me alone. I was not stupid. “I decided to hide in a broom cupboard. I could see up the hallway, and I saw him standing there waiting for me. “Eventually the bosses came down and assumed I'd already left, so he was escorted out the door.' When Harris was charged for his crimes, it came as little to surprise to Ms. Dent, and immediately contacted British authorities to see how she could help to prosecute during the trial in the following year. “I didn't need to come forward for me, because it wasn't about me. I came forward to support the women who were little girls,” Ms Dent said. “'I came forward for the women who were little girls when they were molested by Rolf Harris. “All I had to do was tell the truth about a man who couldn't keep his hands off me, and what it was like and how he behaved.” “They were little girls and there were other things that he did that he shouldn't have done, physical things, invasive things, that is just line crossing.” Thanks to Ms Dent and other women’s accounts with similar experiences, Harris was found guilty on 12 counts of indecent assault, and was sentenced to five years and nine months in jail in 2014. “There are women from, I think, four or five different countries around the world who say that it did [happen] and we all had very similar stories,” she said. “I was thrilled. I was thrilled for the process. I was happy for his victims, that maybe they would get a little bit of closure now. And be happy that they came forward to tell their story.” Harris, now 89, was released on parole in May 2017 after three years behind bars. He now lives life as a recluse in Berkshire looking after his wife of 61 years, who has Alzheimer’s disease.

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"They threatened us": ABC "quashed" story about Jeffrey Epstein due to pressure from British Royal family

In a leaked footage released Tuesday, US anchor Amy Robach said her network “quashed” a story about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein due to threats from the British royal family. Robach, reporter and anchor for ABC America, is seen in the clip speaking about her frustration that the network did not air her 2015 interview with one of Epstein’s alleged victims, Virginia Giuffre (formerly Virginia Roberts). <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> WE NEED YOU <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/VeritasArmy?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#VeritasArmy</a>! Sign the petition, DEMAND ANSWERS: <a href="https://t.co/hGPzzXgbnT">https://t.co/hGPzzXgbnT</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EpsteinCoverup?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EpsteinCoverup</a> <a href="https://t.co/qKGA8mst7b">pic.twitter.com/qKGA8mst7b</a> — Project Veritas (@Project_Veritas) <a href="https://twitter.com/Project_Veritas/status/1191746719714811904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 5, 2019</a></blockquote> In the video, Robach said she was told, “Who’s Jeffrey Epstein? No one knows who that is. This is a stupid story.” Robach also said the British Royal Palace pressured ABC not to air her interview with Giuffre. “The Palace found out that we had her whole allegations about Prince Andrew and threatened us a million different ways,” she said. She suggested the network feared that airing the interview would hurt the network’s ability to gain an interview with Prince William and Duchess Kate. “We were so afraid that we wouldn’t be able to interview Kate and Will. That also quashed the story.” Robach said Giuffre had given her news crew “everything”, including photographic evidence. “She was in hiding for 12 years, we convinced her to come out, we convinced her to talk to us. It was unbelievable what we had,” Robach said. “I tried for three years to get it on to no avail and now it’s all coming out and it’s like these new revelations and I freaking had all of it. “Brad Edwards [Giuffre’s lawyer], the attorney, three years ago saying, ‘There will come a day, when we will realise Jeffrey Epstein was the most prolific paedophile this country had ever known.’ I had it all three years ago.” Project Veritas, a conservative organisation which released the clip, said it came from an “ABC insider”. Following the video’s release, ABC denied that outside pressure influenced the network’s decision to reject the 2015 story. “At the time, not all of our reporting met our standards to air, but we have never stopped investigating the story,” ABC News said in a statement Tuesday. “As a journalist, as the Epstein story continued to unfold last summer, I was caught in a private moment of frustration,” Robach said. “I was upset that an important interview I had conducted with Virginia [Giuffre] didn’t air because we could not obtain sufficient corroborating evidence to meet ABC’s editorial standards about her allegations. My comments about Prince Andrew and her allegation that she had seen Bill Clinton on Epstein’s private island were in reference to what Virginia [Giuffre] said in that interview in 2015.” In an interview published by <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.npr.org/2019/08/22/753390385/a-dead-cat-a-lawyers-call-and-a-5-figure-donation-how-media-fell-short-on-epstei" target="_blank">NPR</a> in August, Giuffre said she “viewed the ABC interview as a potential game-changer”. “Appearing on ABC with its wide viewership would have been the first time for me to speak out against the government for basically looking the other way and to describe the anger and betrayal victims felt.” Epstein was arrested in July on sex trafficking charges and died in prison the following month. Epstein had been associated with Prince Andrew and former US president Bill Clinton. Both the prince and Clinton have <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/news/news/prince-andrew-finally-breaks-silence-on-friendship-with-jeffrey-epstein" target="_blank">denied</a> any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and illicit activities.

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Sneak peek photos of the Dirty Dancing remake

When Dirty Dancing first hit screens in 1987, it captured our hearts. The film became an international sensation and Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey had a chemistry like no other. ABC have released photos of their TV movie remake that will be first released in America at the end of May. Although no one can beat Patrick and Jennifer, these photos are getting us excited. This remake will stay true to the original plot as it follows Baby falling in love with the camp dance instruct at a summer resort. To see the behind the scenes pictures, scroll through the gallery above. Are you excited about this remake? Let us know in the comments below. Image credit: ABC

Movies

2-year-old girl’s passionate rendition of ABCs is the sweetest

A video of an adorable little girl belting out the alphabet song has gone viral. Two-year-old Violet Ogeam, from Louisiana, is passionate about her ABCs and she wants the whole world to know. Luckily, the girl has a set of pipes on her with many praising Violet’s vibrato. Listen to little Violet’s dramatic rendition of the alphabet song above. We’re certain she’ll be a future star on Broadway! Have you grandchildren surprised you with any hidden talents? Share with us in the comments below. Related links: <a href="http://www.oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/family-pets/2016/07/how-to-find-your-balance-as-a-grandparent/">How to find your balance as a grandparent</a> <a href="http://www.oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/family-pets/2016/07/parents-beliefs-about-failure-are-crucial-for-kids/">Parents’ beliefs about failure are crucial for kids</a> <a href="http://www.oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/family-pets/2016/07/how-to-pass-family-history-onto-grandkids/">How to pass family history onto grandkids</a>

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"They threatened us": ABC "quashed" story about Jeffrey Epstein due to pressure from British Royal family

Sneak peek photos of the Dirty Dancing remake

2-year-old girl’s passionate rendition of ABCs is the sweetest