Andrew Ford OAM is a composer, writer, and presenter of The Music Show on ABC Radio National. Andrew has written eleven books and his most recent, The Shortest History of Music, is an authoritative tour through several thousand years of music that sets out to understand what exactly music is – and why humans are irresistibly drawn to making it.

Andrew’s music has been performed and recorded around the world, played by ensembles such as the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Brodsky Quartet and the New Juilliard Ensemble, and sung by the likes of Yvonne Kenny, Katie Noonan and Iva Bittová.

David Marr is a journalist, a political and social commentator and one of the country's most accomplished non-fiction writers. His latest book, Killing for Country: A Family Story, is a richly detailed saga of politics and power in the colonial world. David’s other books include Patrick White: A Life, The High Price of Heaven, Dark Victory (with Marian Wilkinson), Panic, My Country and six best-selling Quarterly Essays. He has written for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Saturday Paper, The Guardian and The Monthly. David served as editor of The National Times, a reporter for Four Corners and presenter of ABC TV’s Media Watch.

Join us for a discussion between authors Gari Tudor-Smith, Paul Williams, Felicity Meakins and moderator Daniel Browning for the book Bina.

ABOUT THE BOOK
Australia's language diversity is truly breathtaking. This continent lays claim to the world's longest continuous collection of cultures, including over 440 unique languages and many more dialects. Sadly, European invasion has had severe consequences for the vitality of these languages.

Amid devastating loss, there has also been the birth of new languages such as Kriol and Yumplatok, both English-based Creoles. Aboriginal English dialects are spoken widely, and recently there has been an inspiring renaissance of First Nations languages, as communities reclaim and renew them.

Bina: First Nations Languages, Old and New tells this story, from the earliest exchange of words between colonists and First Nations people to today's reclamations. It is a creative and exciting introduction to a vital and dynamic world of language.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Gari Tudor-Smith is a Barada, Yiman, Gangulu and Gureng Gureng linguist. Gari's focus is on language and cultural reclamation and empowering First Nations communities. They are currently working as a linguist at the University of Queensland, contributing to the development of a Graduate Certificate in Indigenous Language Revitalisation and working on legacy language collections.

Paul Williams is a Gamilaraay man from Tamworth, New South Wales. Since 2020, Paul has worked as a linguist at the University of Queensland, where he has contributed to a number of Indigenous language projects including dictionaries and grammars and working with archival materials.

Felicity Meakins is a professor of linguistics at the University of Queensland. She has worked for over two decades with Indigenous communities documenting their languages. This work extends beyond the traditional boundaries of linguistic research, such as dictionaries and grammars, to projects grounded in the artistic, cultural and land-based practices of these communities.