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Bluey and Kylie Minogue … rather than being Australia’s hard or soft power globally, they represent its “formative power”.

From Kylie to Bluey: Let me tell you about Australia’s secret superpower

I’ve come to know that my adopted country is a global influencer. We have much to cherish – and preserve.

  • Nick Bryant

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Mary Featherston at the NGV International, where she will give a talk this week for Melbourne Design Week.

Desks and chairs are straitjackets for kids, says rock-star designer

The radical mid-century furniture she designed with her husband put Melbourne on the global design map. Now Mary Featherston says we need to harness natural curiosity of children, and change the spaces in which they learn.

  • Kerrie O'Brien
Neesha Sinnya growing up mixed race in Australia

My grandmother wore a sari every day. But I hid who I really was growing up as a mixed-race Australian

It wasn’t that my Nepalese heritage was too much for Australia to understand – it was too much for me to understand.

  • Neesha Sinnya
James Valentine - best wishes and get well soon

Witty and warm, James Valentine lifted the spirits of a city

James Valentine had a crazy-brave attitude to radio that left his fellow presenters in awe and his audience devoted.

  • Richard Glover
Rhoda Roberts. artist, activist, optimist.

‘A champion for Indigenous artists’: Pioneer Rhoda Roberts leaves a huge mark

She brought us a key part of the Olympics opening ceremony and the Welcome to Country. Journalist, actor, theatre maker and activist Rhoda Roberts made a mark.

  • Karl Quinn
Margot Robbie in a scene from Neighbours in 2009. 

Margot Robbie and I started out with ‘bogan’ accents. I’ve still got mine

I’ve been taunted about my ocker twang ever since Pauline Hanson emerged, but I’m getting the last laugh.

  • Amy Fallon
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Despite being booked through to Brisbane, our suitcases turned up on the luggage carousel.

An experience at a Paris airport showed me what it really means to be Australian

A strong sense of patriotism doesn’t come naturally to many of us, but there’s nothing like being in a foreign country to realise how you have been shaped by your own.

  • Zoya Patel
Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst.

‘Ferocious and relentless’ Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst was band’s power and passion

The late rock legend penned some of Midnight Oil’s most successful songs from Power and the Passion to Beds are Burning and Dead Heart.

  • Glenn A. Baker
“I’ve never seen myself as anything but Aussie” … Gurmesh Singh, the new leader of the NSW Nationals.

What does ‘Australian’ look like? Our identity crisis is hiding in plain sight

What truly defines “Australian”? Appearance or values? 

  • Jasmine Batra
Gray was said to be “one of the contemporary masters of poetry in English”.

‘A great humanist’: One of Australia’s greatest poets dead at 80

Friend of 56 years and fellow poet Geoffrey Lehmann pays tribute to Robert Gray’s unrivalled talent.

  • Geoffrey Lehmann