Race Matters / Unsettling Zionist funding in the arts

04.05.25
a midnight background, no stars with a plume of smoke on the edge
Aired on 04.05.25, 10:00am

Without truth, what ground is there to stand on?

We started this piece into Creative Australia's appalling decision to rescind Lebanese artist Khaled Sabsabi's position from the Venice Bienele, however over many weeks this piece evolved beyond one act of silencing. We are watching the normalisation of this genocide, enabled by imperial mechanisms of censorship, and as creatives how do we grapple with our responsibilities to this while honoring the fight of Palestinian liberation?

This episode brings together four artists, organisers and truth-tellers, who have been sounding out the call of institutional collapse so we can see these structures for what they are, and resist. Each conversation offers us clarity on the humanity that is at stake and strategies to ground in resistance, alterity and refusal.

Episode credits
Sehej Kaur and Sara El-Youghan speaking with Palestinian artist Feras Shaheen, and poet Omar Sakr
Alicia Zhao with illustrator and organiser Matt Chun
Toobs Anwar in conversation with poet, educator, and arts worker Hasib Hourani
Scripting and narration by Janey Li
Supervising Producer Allison Chan
Creative direction, final mixing and additional Sound design by Executive Producer Shareeka Helaluddin

Above all we honor the martyrs, the fighters and the families of Palestine. We remain committed to the sacredness of all Palestinian life and liberation. We hear the Palestinian call - “We will not be silenced"

Image: Samar Abu Elouf via The Sunday Paper

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Tracklist

Julmud
Basmala
Feras Shaheen on movement as a form to defy colonial bounds and process grief
Interview
Palestinian artist and dancer, Feras Shaheen on his personal grief in this genocide, and how his street dance practice has transformed into resistance. An embodiment of freedom under occupation.
Omar Sakr
Interview
Poet, organiser and father on the human cost of the genocide, poetry as witness and archive, mobilising families in Western Sydney
Matt Chun
Interview
Artist, writer, and co-creator of The Sunday Paper on creating alternative spaces, resisting normalisation and honoring any means to Palestinian liberation.
Hasib Hourani
Interview
Palestinian poet, editor and arts worker on the power of boycott, fighting for lines that matter, radical imagination. Verses from his debut book Rock Flight, woven throughout.