We need to talk about Antarctica

Populism, Race and Democracy

We the PeopleMargins of China

Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy

Festival of DemocracySydney Democracy Network

1-7 September 2016

Credit: deepstereo, 2014

2016 Festival of Democracy Sydney Democracy Network

We Need to Talk about Antarctica

Eid al-fitr & Return of Lost Souls

The Revolution of Dignity

We the People

On the Margins of China

Populism, Race and Democracy

Political Alliances and Priorities in an Age of Bleaching and Leaching

Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy: Old Visions, New Realities

2 Sept. 5pm

2 Sept. 7pm

3 Sept. 5pm

5 Sept. 5pm

6 Sept. 6pm

7 Sept. 6:30pm

7 Sept. 12.30pm

1 Sept. 6pm

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2016 Festival of Democracy Sydney Democracy Network

We need to talk about AntarcticaAnne-Marie Brady, Indi Hodgson-Johnston and Tony Press

Co-hosted with Sydney IdeasNew Law Foyer, Eastern Avenue, 1 September 6pm

For more than half a century, the fragile and frozen continent of Antarctica has been protected by ‘post-sovereign’ governing arrangements that are unusual by global standards. There are now clear signs of their breakdown. State rivalries, environmental damage and a dash for resources, including tourism revenues, are pushing the continent towards a highly uncertain future.

The public forum will tackle the pressing questions: What do scientists working in Antarctica have to teach us? Are military and commercial adventures becoming a reality and does Australia have a ‘national interest’ in the continent? What are the chances of reforming and strengthening the Antarctic Treaty System? Can citizens play a role in shaping its future?

We the PeopleHenrik Bang, Mark Chou, Anika Gauja, Ben Moffitt, Nick Rowley and Adele Webb

Law Lounge, Sydney Law School Annex, Eastern Avenue, 2 September 5pm

Populism is everywhere on the rise. Why is this happening? Why are the peddlers of populism proving so popular? Are there deep forces driving the spread of their style of politics, and what, if anything, has populism to do with democracy? Is it its ‘essence’, as some maintain? Is the new populism therefore to be welcomed, harnessed and ‘mainstreamed’ in support of more democracy?

Or is populism on balance politically dangerous, a cultish recipe for renewing what George Orwell termed the ‘smelly little orthodoxies’ that feed big and bossy power?

Diego Rivera 1929- 35

Credit: OSIRIS Team, NASA

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Supported by Ukraine Democracy Initiative and the Ukraine Embassy in Australia

21 February 2014: the Revolution of Dignity transformed Ukrainian society and democracy. Many Ukrainians from around the world, and from Australia, participated in the revolution, artists and young people were among the first to react.

About the photographerMaksym Trebukhov studied art and painting at Romney Art School under the direction of Anatoliy Kibets. He lives and works in Kiev, and collaborates with various publications, working regularly with online news platform “LB.UA”. For the last decade he has been investigating and reporting on topics critical to democracy and civil society - illegal building systems in Kiev; the activities of radical youth movements; and criminal formations of mercenary agents who came to be called ‘titushky’.

“For me, Maidan began six months before everything happened for real. Since then, I have been watched and, like many other journalists, constantly interrogated by investigators trying to convince me that I am a member of a political party. I went to Maidan with my colleague after the filming of the conflict between employees of the Interior Ministry and Kiev residents who protested against the building system on their yard. Hiding from the police, who were actively pursuing all unruly journalists, we came to Maidan and decided to stay there”.

The Revolution of DignityA photo essay by Ukainian photographer and activist Maksym Trebukhov will be projected throughout the Festival with a special screening at the Law Lounge on Friday 2 September at 7pm.

2016 Festival of Democracy

During the Revolution of Dignity, he participated in all active battles without injury but on 18 February was taken to the hospital with severe head injuries after a fight with members of the ‘titushky’.

“Now with war in my country, and unable to fight on the front line due to ill health, I try to be actively engaged with the thousands of volunteers who help people at the forefront. As a participant and graduate of RISC (reporters instructed in saving colleagues) courses, I work as a paramedic instructor trying to save people and teach others the same. This exhibition is only a small part of the striking events in recent years in Ukraine: it will hopefully attract the world’s attention to our country”.

Credit: Maksym Trebukhov

Credit: M

aksym Trebukhov

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Festival of Democracy The University of Sydney campus and Palace Verona Cinema

Parking is available on campus which is also easily accessible by public transport or bike.

Fee: after 3pm on campus $2 per hour (to maximum $6) or $6 flat rate (valid until 6am next morning).

More information is available at:sydney.edu.au

Festival information and registration at:sydneydemocracynetwork

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Eid al-Fitr and Return of Lost Souls Xiangchen Liu and Wang Ningtong

2016 Festival of Democracy

Margins of China

Xiangchen Liu and Nina Ningtong Wang

The return of China to global prominence has prompted local and foreign observers to ask searching questions: is there an emerging

‘Chinese identity’? When the phrase ‘with Chinese characteristics’ is used, what exactly does this mean? Does it have any meaning at all?

Screened for the first time in Australia, the remarkable documentaries by two of China’s most creative documentary film makers probe these questions, in surprising ways. Return of Lost Souls (魂归何处) (2016), by Nina Wang, and Xiangchen Liu’s Eid al-Fitr (开斋节) (2015), complicate mainstream understandings of Chinese identity. Featuring Muslims living in south-west Xinjiang, and the animist Hmong peoples living on the Laos/China border, the films highlight the resilience of local cultures that function as cross-border imagined communities; the spread of Chinese economic power; women and family life; the challenges posed by rapid urbanisation; and the continuing grip of religious belief in shaping the everyday lives of peoples living at the borders of China.

Verona Cinema, Oxford St, Paddington 3 September 5pm

The Sydney Fringe Festival and Sydney Democracy Network will screen two documentaries Eid al-Fitr and Return of Lost Souls looking at the lives of people on the margins of China, and host question and answer sessions with the film-makers Xiangchen Liu and Nina Ningtong Wang at the Verona Cinema in Paddington. Supported by the China Studies Centre, the University of Sydney. Tickets: $16, includes post-screening reception.

Return of Lost SoulsNina Ningtong Wang

Eid al-FitrXiangchen Liu

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Credit: Xiangchen Liu, Eid al-Fitr, 2015

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Festival of Democracy 2016 Sydney Democracy Network

Law Lounge, Sydney Law School Annex, Eastern Ave

5 September 5pm

Visiting documentary filmmaker Xiangchen Liu will discuss his films and the history and culture of Xinjiang province, with a focus on the Chinese Muslim minority groups, the Kyrgyz and Uyghur peoples.

Xiangchen Liu is widely regarded as one of China’s leading documentary filmmakers. A writer and scholar, he studied visual anthropology at Xinjiang Normal University in China. Among his best-known documentaries is The Sun Tribe (2005), which was screened by CCTV, the National Geographic Channel in the United States and in many other countries. His Jade Mountain (2002), Asiq: The Last Troubador (2011) and The Feast of Kurban Bayram (2012) have all been screened outside of China, and have won many awards, including the best documentary at the Chinese Film Academy awards (2008), China Visual Anthropology Academy Award for Best Visual Effects (2010) and the International Gold Panda (Sichuan 2011). Xiangchen Liu has spent many years recording the daily lives of ethnic minority groups on China’s periphery, especially in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. His latest film, screened for the first time in Australia, is Eid al-Fitr. Based on many months’ fieldwork and filming among the Kyrgyz people of Xinjiang, it examines in detail the lives of China’s Muslims during the Eid al-Fitr festival that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting.

On the Margins of China Xiangchen Liu in conversation

Credit: 袁颖, 2015

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Join us in celebrating the 10 year anniversary of Sydney Ideas and its contribution to public debate on democracy and human rights with special guest Tim Soutphomassane, Race Discrimination Commissioner at the Human Rights Commission

Populism, Race and DemocracyTim Soutphommasane

Co-hosted with Sydney Ideas

The Great Hall, Quadrangle | 6 September 6pm

10 years of Sydney Ideas

Western democracies have seen a resurgence in far-right populist movements. Alongside disaffection with mainstream political parties, there has been agitation against immigration and multiculturalism. How are we to make sense of these developments? What do they mean for race relations? And what implications do they have for our democratic future?

Tim Soutphommasane is Race Discrimination Commissioner and commenced his five-year appointment on 20 August 2013. Prior to joining the Australian Human Rights Commission, he was a political philosopher and held posts at the University of Sydney and Monash University. His thinking on multiculturalism, national identity and patriotism has been influential in shaping debates in Australia and Britain.

Credit: Joe Brusky, 2012

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Political Alliances and Priorities in an Age of Bleaching and LeachingDavid Ritter, CEO Greenpeace Asia Pacific

Law Lounge, Sydney Law School Annex, Eastern Ave

7 September, 12.30pm

Credit: U.S. Geological Survey, 2009

This year has seen the unprecedented bleaching of our Great Barrier Reef as a consequence of climate change. At one level the biological reality of what is happening on the Reef represents the consequence of the maladjustment of Australian politics and political economy.

These times of leaching and bleaching represent both immense crisis and great opportunity. Reflecting on current events and trends in popular analysis, this session will present a participant’s analysis of what is actually happening in Australia now, political priorities going forward and scope for deeper strategic alliances.

David Ritter is the Chief Executive Officer of Greenpeace Australia Pacific. David returned to Australia to take up this role in 2012 after five years working in a senior campaigns position with Greenpeace in London. There he worked on the global issues of destructive fishing, deforestation and climate change. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Law of the University of Western Australia and an Associate of the Sydney Democracy Network at the University of Sydney.

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2016 Festival of Democracy

Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy: Old Visions, New RealitiesRoss Garnaut introduced by Duncun Ivison, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research

Co-hosted with Sydney Ideas

The Great Hall, Quadrangle | 7 September 6:30pm

Credit: Lindy Baker, 2016

For several decades after the Second World War, capitalism regulated by democratic politics proved successful. Rapid growth and equitable distribution supported by open markets ended the pessimism about instability and inequality that permeated Joseph Schumpeter’s classic Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1942) written during the war against Fascism.

Now doubts are rising again: in the developed countries, incomes have stopped growing for most people. Inequality is increasing. Vested interests are blocking stabilising interventions. Democracies are rejecting international exchange. And all this is happening at the very moment market authoritarianism in China is breaking the link between high incomes and democratic government.

Ross Garnaut’s public lecture probes these trends, and the new forces shaping the major global developments of our time. He notes how the abundance of capital, labour shortages and rising prosperity in parts of the global economy are elsewhere matched by political introversion, economic stagnation and rising inequality. The future attraction of democracy, he suggests, now depends on the capacity of democracies to come up with reforms that enable government for as well as by the people.

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Partners

Sydney Democracy Network

Democracy today, democracy tomorrow.

In the face of new, exciting and dangerous political trends, the Sydney Democracy Network is a dedicated network of researchers, activists, policy-makers and citizens concerned with the future of democracy.

Based at the University of Sydney with a strong focus on the Asia Pacific region, the Sydney Democracy Network is non-partisan. It stands for a broad rethinking of democracy, not only as a form of government but as a way of life committed to greater equality and the accountability of power.

Ukraine Democracy Initiative

For academics and researchers - UDI is a space that allows the sharing of ground-breaking research, as well as providing opportunitiesto develop collaborations with policy makers, civic activists and the general public.

For Ukrainian civic activists and pro-democracy NGOs - UDI offers international engagement that allows the sharing of news of struggles for democracy in Ukraine. It also provides the opportunity to link with associates and supporters. UDI initiates, contributes and supports various pro-democratic initiatives aimed at socio-economic growth in Ukraine.

For policy makers - UDI is a go-to platform to source insightful academic research and field-based opinion pieces relevant to current activities of pro-democracy groups in Ukraine.

Reach us via email at team@ukrainedemocracy.org

For more information

Sydney Democracy Network+61 2 9351 3210sdn@sydney.edu.ausydneydemocracynetwork.org

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the country on which the University of Sydney campuses stand and our responsibility to respect and care for country, people and spirit.

10 years of Sydney Ideas

@SydneyDemocracy#SDNFoD

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