Missing Perspectives

This year marks 50 years of NAIDOC Week. In honour of this milestone, the 2026 theme is ‘50 Years of Deadly’ – paying homage to the “community, culture and leadership across generations” over the past five decades. As the National NAIDOC Committee explains here, the week pays attention to the “stories, the marches, the languages, the art, the leadership” of Indigenous people over the years, and also “the strength it took to get here” across various generations who “refused to be silenced”.

We’re halfway through the year already, and our Book Club pick on Booksmart this month is Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. This debut fiction novel draws on our growing cultural fascination with “tradwife” influencers, the alarming rise of conservative values among young women, and the “angry women” who can’t bring themselves to look away from them – no matter how hard they try.

The news of an Asian-specific category at the 2027 Grammys has continued to fuel widespread debate almost a week since it was announced. Last week, the Recording Academy of the United States announced the ‘Best Asian Pop Music Performance’ category, which recognises “artistic excellence in Asian pop music performances originating from or widely recognised within Asian markets, including but not limited to K-pop, J-pop and C-pop, with meaningful use of one or more Asian languages”.

Two women sitting outside their tents on Beirut’s waterfront told me that the life awaiting them would be hellish, even in the best circumstances. Tomorrow seemed too far away. Their concern was simpler: finding lunch for their families. Life in a tent, still unfamiliar to most Lebanese women, resembled what we had long heard about Palestinian and Syrian refugee women, and displaced women across the Middle East. The Arabic word is qahr قهر. It means more than oppression or domination.

When it comes to stories about being a woman in media, there’s definitely something in the air at the moment. We recently dropped a Booksmart podcast episode that explored If I Ruled the World – a novel based on Amy DuBois Barnett’s real-life experiences working as a Black editor at major American magazines. Now, Booksmart looks at a new release closer to home, as hosts Sunny Adcock and Allie Daisy King sit down with Georgie Tunny to discuss her book, Over To You.

Whether it’s less pay, poorer training conditions or missing out on a primetime TV slot… it’s never been a level playing field for women in sport. Yes, we’ve seen gradual progress in recent years. For example, the record in-person crowds watching the Matildas during the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023. Or cricket inching somewhat closer – albeit rather slowly – to pay parity. It’s also no secret that women’s sport has traditionally received less media coverage.

I started my career as a student midwife. In the healthcare system, I repeatedly witnessed women being caught out without period products. It wasn’t a rare occurrence; it was a constant, underlying friction. The products simply were not where women needed them to be and that stayed with me. Years later, I left healthcare and transitioned into brand marketing.

If I Ruled the World, which has been compared toThe Devil Wears Prada and Empire, takes readers on a wild and immersive journey through cut-throat NYC in the late 90s – based on DuBois Barnett’s real-life experiences working as a Black editor at major American magazines. To set the scene, the central character is Nikki Rose – the only Black editor in her team at a prestigious fashion magazine that she believed would help her rise to the top of the industry as an editor-in-chief.

The accusation that women are merely ‘whingeing’ about their workplace experiences has long been a tool of dismissal – a well honed mechanism for keeping structural inequality comfortably intact. It’s both a weapon and a barricade, custom-built to ensure  we don’t get that mythical ‘fair go’ we’re so often patronisingly  promised.

I didn’t grow up thinking I’d study computer science. I came from a design background. I thought visually. I cared about how things looked, how they felt, how people experienced them. Technology, on the other hand, felt like a different world – intimidating, rigid, and reserved for people who were naturally “good” at it. For a long time, I told myself I wasn’t one of those people. To be honest, people around me reinforced that belief too. But I couldn’t shake the curiosity.