In this powerful panel, three queer First Nations writers with ancestral connections to different continents – Ellen van Neerven (Mununjali Yugambeh), Victoria Alondra (Mestizx), and Billy-Ray Belcourt (Driftpile Cree) – discuss how they survive and resist oppressive social structures, finding love, joy and solidarity in community, culture and country, as well as through writing and art.

This conversation is facilitated by Wiradjuri writer, poet and academic, Jeanine Leane. Billy-Ray Belcourt joins the conversation via videolink from Vancouver. 

CW: This discussion briefly references suicidal ideation.

In this powerful panel, three queer First Nations writers with ancestral connections to different continents – Ellen van Neerven (Mununjali Yugambeh), Victoria Alondra (Mestizx), and Billy-Ray Belcourt (Driftpile Cree) – discuss how they survive and resist oppressive social structures, finding love, joy and solidarity in community, culture and country, as well as through writing and art.
This conversation is facilitated by Wiradjuri writer, poet and academic, Jeanine Leane. Billy-Ray Belcourt joins the conversation via videolink from Vancouver. 
CW: This discussion briefly references suicidal ideation.

The NT Writers Festival is an annual celebration of stories, language, culture and ideas shaped by place that alternates each year between Mparntwe/Alice Springs and Garramilla/Darwin. In 2023, NTWF returned to Mparntwe and explored the theme of mwantye-le awaye | listen deeply. In Arrernte, mwantye-le awaye means to listen closely, to give things attention. In 2023, NT Writers Festival brought readers, writers and lovers of stories together to listen deeply – to each other, and to a diverse line-up of writers from across the country who shared truths, invited us to listen to the land, and helped us imagine a different future. 


Recorded by 8CCC Community Radio. Theme music composed by Vito Lucarelli. 

The <a href="https://www.ntwriters.com.au/nt-writers-festival/">NT Writers Festival</a> is an annual celebration of stories, language, culture and ideas shaped by place that alternates each year between Mparntwe/Alice Springs and Garramilla/Darwin. In 2023, NTWF returned to Mparntwe and explored the theme of mwantye-le awaye | listen deeply. In Arrernte, mwantye-le awaye means to listen closely, to give things attention. In 2023, NT Writers Festival brought readers, writers and lovers of stories together to listen deeply – to each other, and to a diverse line-up of writers from across the country who shared truths, invited us to listen to the land, and helped us imagine a different future. 
 Recorded by 8CCC Community Radio. Theme music composed by Vito Lucarelli.

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