How do archives and archiving operate as technologies of settler colonialism? Why have Palestinians been disappeared at both ends of the story - both from Nakba and assimilation? How does Micaela’s award-winning book Meet Me at the Jaffa Gate (NewSouth, 2025) provide a counter archive that allows Palestinians to assert authority over their own stories of exile and homecoming? And how can a single key embody a Palestinian past and present in the midst of an ongoing genocide?

In this very special final episode of Season 7 (yes, already!) - recorded live on Gadigal land at the 2025 Sydney Writers Festival — Yves and Clare probe Australian-born Maori poet Anne-Marie Te Whiu (Mettle) and Queensland-born author and journalist Lech Blaine (Australian Gospel) about the promises and pitfalls of working with stories close to home.

Why rattle the bones of family skeletons? How important it is to have one member of the family who is a hoarder of seemingly minor items or insignificant facts that can, to a writer, be like shards of gold? How to navigate the ethical and emotional minefield of finding uncomfortable truths about loved ones and forebears? And what does excavating the roots of the family tree do to the writer themselves?

As collections manager at the National Herbarium of Victoria, which dates back to 1853, Alison stewards a vast archive of past and present biodiversity that illuminates our social and ecological history and provides tools to build a better future.

Why did a 500-year-old aquatic moss from Switzerland end up in drawer in Naarm/Melbourne? How is the Herbarium at once a colonial institution and a resource to remedy environmental ills of colonisation? What does repatriation mean in the context of botanical archives? And whose are the hidden hands that built this continent’s oldest settler scientific institution?

In this episode, Yves and Clare talk to Dr (Dr) Matthew Lamb about his colossal biography of colossus intellect, activist, journalist, novelist, publisher and archivist, Frank Moorhouse.

How does a biographer navigate a living subject, especially when that person is a self-proclaimed chameleon? Do the personal archives of such a protean figure help or hinder truth-telling about a man who urged: ‘when the facts conflict with the legend, print the legend’. And where does responsibility lie when your subject commands ‘make it salacious’—but also requires discretion about his sexuality and gender?

From her formative childhood experiences in Beijing, to stumbling upon a human tooth in a Queensland court file, to reckoning with the human face of anti-Chinese racism, Sophie walks us through the time capsules of human drama she uses to tell the stories of Chinese Australia.

What does a former market garden reveal about Chinese and First Nations cooperation? How could language be a technology of resistance for racialised migrants? And why did her ex’s probate records provide a lightbulb moment about migration?

Today on Archive Fever, Wiradjuri librarian and museum educator Nathan Sentance illuminates the challenges and possibilities of bringing Indigenous epistemologies and voices into the GLAM sector.

Why is it vital to close the gap between First Nations lived experience and the white-dominated written record? How can institutions move away from old models of colonial extraction, and instead build up First Nations collections via authentic collaboration and consent? And why are art and creativity key to making this thing we call ‘decolonisation’ actually happen?

In this very special episode, Yves and Clare are joined by legendary octogenarian photographer Juno Gemes to discuss her lifelong pursuit of creativity, community, independence and social justice.

hy did Juno follow in the footsteps of Richard Avendon and not James Baldwin? What role does photography play in the political and artistic pursuit of truth-telling? Can landscape be a portrait? And why is living in an archive both a privilege and a responsibility?

Never one to shy away from the underside of history, William takes us into murky terrain: from the dust and sweat of archaeological digs, to his own family’s imperial villainy, to the deep antiquity and current genocide of the Palestinian people.

Why did an underground tunnel turn teenage William into an archive addict? How did a tiny jade bead from India end up in a Viking charnel house in Scotland—and what does that tell us about histories of trade and colonisation? And why have we forgotten that ancient Gaza was once famous for sweet wine and erotic poetry?

If you, or someone you know, need assistance and support through domestic and family violence in Australia you can call the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service: 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).

Recorded live online with an audience via zoom, 20 August 2020.

At this special live recording at the Wheeler Centre, hosts Clare Wright and Yves Rees are joined by historian Noah Riseman and trans scholar and activist Julie Peters to discuss the absence of queer people, especially trans and gender diverse people, from conventional records and historical data.

Where else might we go to locate a trans or non-binary lineage? What records may LGBTIQA+ elders and predecessors have kept, and how we can recover and integrate queer figures and stories into our broader understanding of Australian history? Join us as we discuss how to set the record queer.

Recorded live at the Wheeler Centre, Melbourne on 28 November 2019.