Multicultural Australia in partnership with QPAC is excited to present Changing the Conversation, a series of thought-provoking discussions exploring key issues in our increasingly multicultural society.

Bringing together thought leaders from academia, government, business, and the community to engage in robust discussions about multiculturalism in the Australian context, the series explores issues of who and where we are as a nation and what we need to do to create a society that better reflects and cares for all its people.

The final Changing the Conversation event of 2023 focuses on Creating Belonging Through Storytelling and explores how we share and tell stories, and how our stories shape us as a nation, as a community and as individuals.

Facilitated by award-winning writer and actor, Michelle Law, Changing the Conversation is excited to welcome Heru Pinkasova, Omid Tofighian and Dung Tran to this inaugural conversation.

About the Speakers:

Heru Pinkasova
Papua New Guinean-Australian soprano Heru Pinkasova weaves her stories through reimagined Papuan folk songs, en route the classical canon to create soulful operatic cabaret.

Following celebrated performances in Three Marys, an opera by Andree Greenwell, The Beginning of Nature (ADT), Hot Brown Honey, Showboat and Songs My Aunties Taught Me, Heru has lovingly curated a collection of melodies that are part opera, tradition and comedy, and one hundred percent remarkable.

In addition to providing insights on the Changing the Conversation panel, Heru will deliver a special performance to conclude this year's series.

Omid Tofighian
Omid Tofighian is an award-winning lecturer, researcher and community advocate, combining philosophy with interests in citizen media, popular culture, displacement and discrimination.

His publications include Myth and Philosophy in Platonic Dialogues (Palgrave 2016); the translation of Behrouz Boochani’s multi-award-winning autobiographical novel, No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison (Picador 2018); co-editor of special issues for journals Literature and Aesthetics (2011), Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media (2019) and Southerly (2021); and co-translator/co-editor of Freedom, Only Freedom: The Prison Writings of Behrouz Boochani (Bloomsbury 2023).

Dung Tran
Dung Tran is a lived experience anti-racism Story Telling mentor, educator and advocate, and Co-Founder of Our Race – a social enterprise made of story holders, practitioners and researchers who educate and advocate for ethical story telling.

Growing up in Ipswich during the 80s and 90s, where she witnessed and experienced racism regularly, instilled in Dung a strong sense of social and racial justice.

Dung has used her lived experience as one of her greatest strengths, as both a driver to fight for justice and to encourage others to value lived experience as the highest form of expertise.

Presented by Multicultural Australia and QPAC.
Recorded at QPAC’s Concert Hall for Digital Stage.