Arts & Culture

These posts are about museums, visual arts, literature, music and also Indigenous culture.

From ‘souvenir’ to ‘fine art’ – Indigenous women triumph

At La Perouse, finely wrought “souvenirs” of shells reveal a powerful story of Aboriginal women’s artistry, resilience and sea-country knowledge.…
Why you must visit La Perouse, Sydney

About 20 minutes from Coogee, La Perouse is my favourite place to walk, swim and think. But it’s far more…
The future of La Perouse Museum?

What should the future La Perouse Museum and First Nations Cultural Precinct look like? Drawing on Kamay’s layered histories, I…
Dharawal Resting Place: Bringing Aboriginal ancestors home to Country

Since 1970’s Aboriginal Australians have been pressing for the repatriation of the ancestral remains held in museums. Twelve years after…
Unexpected cultural depths: Art history at Sydney’s eastern beaches

From the impressionist painters who made Coogee worth picturing, to Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s monumental Wrapped Coast at Little Bay —…
Sea Country and the fight for Indigenous sea rights

The Yirrkala Bark Petition of 1963 set in motion a decades-long fight for Indigenous sea rights in Australia. I came…
You will never guess my favourite museum

From childhood atlas dreams of Winnipeg to standing inside the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, this post traces how one…
“A Mile in My Shoes”

In a world lacking in empathy, museums can create opportunities to experience it and build social cohesion. (5 min read)
Coogee reading list

From the shark murder mystery to the ladies-only ocean pool, Coogee has inspired some remarkable books. Here is my personal…
Some great Aussie movies

A curated collection of Australian films — from Indigenous stories and feminist pioneers to larrikin comedies and wartime epics —…
Aussie music for the walk from Coogee to Bondi

A curated Spotify playlist of 30 Australian songs — from Gurrumul to Kylie, Paul Kelly to Midnight Oil — with…
Some reading suggestions

Paul McCarthy has written two books about saints that have inspired him (St Ignatius of Loyola and St Francis of…
Meet me in the library – I love books

Let me introduce myself through my love of books. From novels that survived a flood to saints’ lives, Spiritism, Islamic…
The perfumed underpass

A stopover in Abu Dhabi — a perfumed underpass, a woman in silver shoes, the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque (the…
Pilgrimage for the feast of St Francis of Assisi

A parish address for the feast of St Francis of Assisi — on the real Francis, untamed and radical, not…
Pilgrimage to the shrine of Padre Pio

Padre Pio — the greatest mystic of the 20th century, who bore the stigmata for fifty years and promised to…
My favourite town in Italy

Assisi — my favourite town in Italy, and the most powerful pilgrimage site I have ever visited. Holy places, extraordinary…
Francis of Assisi and the Holy Land

What we owe to St Francis of Assisi in the Holy Land — how his extraordinary visit to the Sultan…
Doughnuts with an ultra-orthodox Jew

A walking tour of ultra-orthodox Jerusalem with Kitty — bad wigs, long temple curls, charity boxes on every corner, and…
Taking a tour on pilgrimage is akin to wearing a swimsuit to church

A tour of the holy sites of Galilee — Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee — that left me feeling more…
Returning a “global citizen” after 3.5 years of travel

After 3.5 years of sacred travel across four continents — what changes, what doesn’t, and why coming home feels like…
Singing and dancing in Assisi

A musical theatre production, St Clare and an unexpectedly joyful evening in Assisi — proof that the sacred and the…
Musee d’Orsay rehang

A visit to the newly rehanged Musée d’Orsay in Paris — impressionism, the new layout, and personal reflections on what…