Children and young people have been engaging in potent storytelling for centuries – think Anne Frank and, more recently, Malala Yousafzai, Greta Thunberg, and Zach Doomadgee. And yet too often adults minimise children's voices by saying they are too young to have a useful perspective or should “stick to being kids”. Join Kate Douglas (Flinders University), Gai Lindsay (University of Wollongong), and Sandra Phillips (University of Queensland) as they discuss how art and storytelling make for culturally-engaged and empowered children, and how connecting with young people’s stories and perspectives can promote change. Chaired by Dr Barbara Piscitelli AM, researcher and founder-collector of the Children's Art Archive.

This discussion is linked to Big Voices: Children's art matters, an exhibition at State Library that celebrates the power of children to express themselves through art and features paintings and drawings from the renowned Dr Barbara Piscitelli AM Children’s Art Archive.

Register to join us online and be part of this exciting event.

About the panellists

Professor Kate Douglas is a Professor in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Flinders University. Her primary research interest is how children read and interpret 'true' stories and how children share aspects of their own life stories every day.

Dr Gai Lindsay is a lecturer in The Early Years degree at the University of Wollongong. Before entering academia, Gai worked for more than twenty years as a preschool teacher, director and early childhood consultant.

Associate Professor Sandra Phillips is an Aboriginal woman from the North Burnett region of Queensland. Raised on-Country, Sandra takes her First Nations status from her mother’s lineages of Waka Waka and Gooreng Gooreng. Sandra’s late father was from the Aboriginal community of Cherbourg. Sandra has an extensive history in Australian book editing and publishing. She is currently Associate Dean (Indigenous Engagement) with the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at The University of Queensland.

Dr Barbara Piscitelli AM (Chair) is a collector and curator of children’s art. Barbara's research explores childhood, cultural policy and cultural institutions for children, and visual arts education in early childhood.

Presented by State Library of Queensland and The Conversation, the world's leading free, fact-based news source written by academics and edited by journalists.

About The Conversation Series

State Library and The Conversation join forces to bring you a series of virtual events with subject matter experts from universities and research institutions discussing, challenging and reflecting on the issues that concern us.

Be part of the discussions – based on evidence not alarm – that encourage a better understanding of current affairs and complex issues.

The recorded introduction to this event will be subtitled, and the panel discussion and audience Q&A will be Auslan interpreted.

The views expressed by the speakers are their own and the promotion of products/services is not endorsed by State Library.

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Credit: Dolita Delta, Self Portrait, 2009. Dr Barbara Piscitelli AM Children's Art Archive. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Acc. 7116/8/25