Callaloo & Wattleseed
A Symposium on Caribbean Culture in Australia
Western Sydney University
Parramatta City Campus
May 3, 2024
Listen to Interview with Symposium organisers Sienna Brown & Ben Etherington hosted by DJ Fasmwa
Sienna Brown, Maxine Beneba Clarke, Nancy Denis, Denis Gonzalez, Anne Hickling-Hudson, Cath Moore, Karo Moret, Zahra Newman, Amma Owusu, Pat Powell, Caryn Rae Adams, Consuelo Martinez Reyes, JJ Roberts
Building on pioneering efforts to recover the long history of Caribbean people in Australia and to understand movements of people between the regions, Callaloo & Wattleseed focuses for the first time squarely on the cultural contributions of Caribbean Australians. Caribbean artists from various fields will consider through the prism of their practice questions like: do Caribbean artists work within a ‘diaspora’ or ‘community’ in Australia? Or do their experiences tend to be more isolated, on the one hand, or placed into broader groups, such as the global African or South Asian diasporas, on the other? How have Caribbean artists in Australia navigated the experience of being, in many cases, part of minoritized racial groups? What have been the connections and relations between Caribbean and First Nations people? How do the experiences of Caribbean artists compare with those who have emigrated to other parts of the world? This unique one-day symposium will go a long way in providing some the answers. Come join us!
The symposium will take place in the heart of the Parramatta CBD at Western Sydney University’s Parramatta City campus, in conference rooms 1 & 2 on Level 9 of the Peter Shergold Building, 169 Macquarie Street, Parramatta. Enter from Parramatta Square (if arriving by train) or Macquarie St. It is a 3 to 5 minute walk from Parramatta railway station. When you arrive at the building, take the lift to Level 9 and follow signs to ‘Callaloo and Wattleseed Symposium’.
There is no on-campus parking but there are nearby secure, paid carparks available for a daily or hourly rate at 75 George St.(Secure Parking), 80 George St (Wilson Parking), or 1 Horwood Place.
Callaloo & Wattleseed forms part of a broader ARC-funded project Creole Voices in the Caribbean and Australia, which is led by Ben Etherington and Sienna Brown. Ben and Sienna have previously teamed up to produce Caribbean Convicts in Australia (2021), an audio documentary for ABC Radio National’s The History Listen,and are working with The History Lab at UTS’s Impact Studios to produce further podcasts on the history of Caribbean people in Australia.
Callaloo & Wattleseed has been generously funded by the Writing and Society Research Centre and the School of Humanities and Communication Arts at Western Sydney University, and the Australian Research Council. We are grateful to Suzanne Gapps for her assistance, to Kate Fagan, Director of the Writing and Society Research Centre, for her support and encouragement, to Acquille Dunkley for permission to use his art, to Jamaica Delight for catering, to Jamaican Products for beverages, and to our all our wonderful speakers and participants.