Welcome to Eureka Street

back to site

Keywords: Eyes Wide Open

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Small stories of redemption in Laos

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 29 August 2013

    A psychologically scarred war veteran struts about dressed as James Brown. An annual 'rocket' festival sees men celebrate explosives, in a country riddled with unspent American bombs. And a ten-year-old boy, who is accused by his grandmother of being a bad luck charm, sets out to prove that he is not to blame for the tragedies his family has endured.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    In bed with Phillip Adams

    • Barry Gittins and Jen Vuk
    • 08 March 2013
    7 Comments

    Adams once told me about his room of gods. It's chockablock with deities from myriad cultures and creeds. While Adams is revered as Godfather to Australia's atheists, at heart he remains a young boy huddled under the covers at night; buried under the considerable challenges due his story of origin.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Vegemite interrogation on the Prague night train

    • Anne M. Carson
    • 19 February 2013

    Cash-strapped, post midnight. Transport police rifle our rucksacks, suspicious of backpackers. One prises open my Kodak canister, sniffs, says 'ach!', fires Czech questions at me. 'Vegemite fur frustuck,' I say, trying to convince Vegemite is not hash resin. I smile the smile of someone who doesn't know how bad it can get.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Mabo 20 years on

    • Frank Brennan
    • 29 October 2012

    'Though land rights and self-determination provide no utopia for the contemporary indigenous Australian community, they have belatedly put right an ancient wrong. The cost and inconvenience are unavoidable. Terra nullius is no longer an option.' Full text is from Fr Frank Brennan's keynote speech at the Central Queensland Law Association Conference, Mercure Capricorn Resort, Yeppoon, 27 October 2012.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Malaysia's migration paradox

    • Joachim Francis Xavier
    • 15 February 2012
    3 Comments

    A large segment of Malaysian society and the government in particular is clearly xenophobic. Yet Malaysia has thrown its arms wide open to asylum seekers heading to Australia. What is the motivation underlying Malaysia's sudden love affair with refugee swap deals?

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Feast of the fantastic

    • Peter Gebhardt
    • 20 December 2011

    This place is bigger than any kingdom. It opens out, boundary-less, to everyone everywhere. It doesn't matter how many come, and the skateboarders will always get a seat at the banquet, where they will taste the wine and food, learn to sing with the host and rejoice in his good.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Atheist critic blind to current religious symbols

    • Rod Pattenden
    • 05 October 2011
    12 Comments

    Controversial Fairfax art critic John McDonald is scathing in his assessment of the 60th Blake Prize for Religious Art. His frustrated search for traditional religious symbols in the works reveals a lack of understanding of the role of images within Australia’s living religious imagination.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Hooked on monogamy

    • Jen Vuk
    • 10 August 2011
    6 Comments

    New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan said recently that  sanctioning gay marriage could lead to demands for the legalisation of polygamy. US author Sidney Callahan argues that, gay or straight, we all strive for 'pair bonding that contributes to equality and unity'.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Despite dementia

    • Various
    • 24 May 2011

    When you tried to walk through the wall you were still living at home. What did you see beyond the opacity of brick? You were so sure it would absorb you that moments passed before reality kicked in ...

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Ten short poems

    • Various
    • 02 November 2010
    4 Comments

    Lost — Waiting for Spring — God owes me Royalties — Niche — Folding & Flying — Judas and Jezebel  — Donne captains a ship of fools — Home — Loose Change — election

    READ MORE
  • EUREKA STREET TV

    Art prize tests religious convention

    • Peter Kirkwood
    • 03 September 2010
    1 Comment

    READ MORE
  • EUREKA STREET TV

    Art prize tests religious convention

    • Peter Kirkwood
    • 03 September 2010

    The annual Blake Prize for Religious Art has never been far from controversy. Works honoured this year include Sydney artist Rodney Pople’s Cardinal with Altar Boy, which is a provocative painting dealing with clergy sexual abuse. Its setting is the interior of a beautiful baroque church, and it portrays a headless prelate dressed in ecclesiastical finery, with an altar boy in his lap.

    READ MORE