Callaloo & Wattleseed: A Symposium on Caribbean Culture in Australia will take place on May 3, 2024, in Parramatta CBD, Australia. (See more information below.) Callaloo & Wattleseed forms part of a broader project, Creole Voices in the Caribbean and Australia, which is led by Ben Etherington and Sienna Brown.

Speakers include: Athésia, Sienna Brown, Maxine Beneba Clarke, Councillor (Waskam) Emelda Davis, Nancy Denis, Denis Gonzalez, Anne Hickling-Hudson, Cath Moore, Karo Moret, Zahra Newman, Amma Owusu, Caryn Rae Adams, Consuelo Martinez Reyes, JJ Roberts.

Description: 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. [. . .]

See full program here: https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/2032818/Final_program_V2_1.pdf

For more information, see https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/writing-society/events/literary_events_and_conferences/callaloo_and_wattleseed

[Artwork above: ‘zinc house pon mountain top’ © Acquille Dunkley, 2024.]