Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Sunday 11 May
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Cross the political divide with Canadian-born artist Deborah Pearson as she navigates the personal, local and global political landscape. Over the course of Next Wave Festival, Deborah observes newly conservative Australia through a series of one-on-one conversations with conservative voters in the form of a co-piloted canoe ride. The project culminates with this special Breakfast Club event examining Australia’s conversation between left and right, and looking to further understand what it means to identify with a country, a group, or a side of the brain.
With your political compasses at the ready, join Deborah, Liberal politician (and canoe rider) Nick McGowan, and sociologist Professor John Carroll.
Start your weekends with big ideas, breakfast by Yoghurt Culture and coffee from Small Batch by donation.
Next Wave Breakfast Club
Kickstart your brain with a dose of stimulation courtesy of Next Wave. Breakfast Club is your morning shot of artistic and intellectual insight. We’re not interested in expert-led formats or a room full of people thinking the same things; we want big opinions, good discussion and personal stories.
Featuring
Nick McGowan
Nick McGowan is a member of Liberal Party and a humanitarian. He ran in the 2013 federal election, achieving a 9% swing away from the incumbent and drawing 8.02% toward the Liberal Party in the area of Jagajaga. He lives in Eltham with his wife Allison and their three children.
At the age of 12, Nick cleaned toilets and mopped floors at the local youth centre after school. It gave him pocket money and independence.
His early family life had a profound influence on him. Nick’s mother raised him and his brother single-handily. Making ends meet was a constant theme for much of his childhood, as his mum turned her hand to work in a warehouse, at community-based childcare, and clerical duties to raise her boys.
As renters, they moved frequently. He learned early how to embrace change, promote common-ground, and influence positive outcomes. His mum’s devotion to her boys and her resilience provided a perfect role model.
Nick’s determination to find solutions to daily challenges extended well beyond the front door. He was elected to represent his peers on school council, and ran for local government aged 18.
The opportunity to be part of positive change inspired Nick to get involved in broader community activism.
In 1991 he joined the Liberal Party.
Nick’s core beliefs are liberal ones. He believes in equality, freedom of thought, worship and choice, in families fostering respect, and in democracy that champions individual responsibility and reward for effort.
Today Nick is passionate about making a difference.
Deborah Pearson
Deborah Pearson is a live artist and playwright. Her work has toured to four continents and fifteen countries, and has been translated into five languages. She recently published The Future Show with Oberon books. She is the founding co-director of UK artist collective Forest Fringe.
Deborah has won awards for both her solo practice and her work with Forest Fringe, including three herald angels, a Scotsman Fringe First, a Peter Brooke Empty Space Award and the Total Theatre Award for Significant Contribution.
She has a PhD in narrative in contemporary performance from Royal Holloway, where she was a Reid Scholar. Her research was supervised by Dan Rebellato.
She is an associate artist with Volcano in Canada and is a resident artist at Somerset House Studios.
John Carroll
John Carroll is professor of sociology at La Trobe University in Melbourne and author of The Existential Jesus.
His recent books include The Western Dreaming (2001), Terror: a meditation on the meaning of September 11 (2002), The Wreck of Western Culture: humanism revisited (2004), and a new version of Ego and Soul (2008).