War is traditionally a masculine pursuit, so what do women writing about war bring to the narratives?
Three (female) observers of war discuss whether women approach or write war stories differently and how writing about war differs from writing about other topics.
From anti-war, academic and journalistic viewpoints, this discussion between pacifist Biff Ward, anthropologist and academic Christine Helliwell, and journalist Karen Middleton will bring a unique lens to the national obsession of war stories.
Tickets: $10
A friendly suggestion for the safety and well-being of yourself and other patrons that although face masks are not required, they are strongly encouraged while attending the event.
Christine Helliwell is a New Zealand-born anthropologist, author and academic, currently Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University. She has been carrying out research on Borneo’s indigenous Dayak peoples – including living with them in their communities for months at a time – for almost forty years, and has written widely on Dayak social and cultural life. Her book Semut – on the most important of the Borneo ‘Z’ operations – took her almost four years to write, and is the recipient of the Society for Army Historical Research’s First Runner Up Templer Medal.
Karen Middleton is Chief Political Correspondent for The Saturday Paper, and author of An Unwinnable War – Australia in Afghanistan on the political backstory to Australia’s role in the war, and a biography of the now prime minister Anthony Albanese, Albanese – Telling it Straight. A regular contributor to ABC radio, ABC TV’s Insiders and The Drum, the Nine Network’s Weekend Today and Network Ten’s The Project, she is a correspondent for Radio New Zealand, Monocle24 radio London and Turkey’s international TV network TRT World. She is a former Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery president and a Churchill fellow. In 2020, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Canberra.
Biff Ward is a longtime feminist and activist, active in the Ban the Bomb movement, Vietnam, women's liberation, radical education, Close Pine Gap, Extinction Rebellion and support for Indigenous causes and the Greens. The author of the groundbreaking Father-Daughter Rape, a memoir, In My Mother's Hands and now The Third Chopstick, an account of her obsession with the Vietnam War, from 70s pacifist to supporter of Vietnam vets.