Arts & Culture
Analysis
The book that taught us to think of witches as women
Written in fury after a failed trial in 1485, the Malleus Maleficarum fuelled 150 years of witch hunts that shaped how Europe imagined, hunted and executed women
Research
Fifty words at a time, this project is helping to preserve Australia’s Indigenous languages
The 50 Words Project is documenting Australia’s Indigenous languages by recording 50 everyday words in as many as possible. It now has 100 languages online, free for anyone to explore and learn
Opinion
In 2026, we still need Robin Hood to be a hero
The new movie, The Death of Robin Hood, insists its weary, violent outlaw is the real man behind the myth, buried by centuries of sanitising. But the medieval Robin was a moral compass, not a villain
Opinion
Australia's arts sector needs more than words to survive
Australian artists are struggling. To support those who tell Australian stories, we need to go beyond the government’s Revive policy
Research
How Pasifika communities are reconnecting with their past in Australian museums
When a Samoan ethnomusicologist visited Melbourne's Grainger Museum as a music student, she found objects her community had no idea were there. Now she's changing that
Opinion
What The Devil Wears Prada 2 says about the state of print media
In 2006, Runway magazine was the place everyone wanted to be. Twenty years on, the fictional fashion media giant is at crossroads – but just how close to reality is Miranda Priestly’s situation?
Research
After 100 years, the song of a lost cricket returns to Venice Lagoon
As part of the Venice Biennale festival, the Adriatic Marbled Bush-Cricket has been reintroduced to lagoons via floating habitats, creating both an art installation and an ecological experiment
Research
Giant jars, ancient bells, buried bones and a mystery that endures
On a remote Laos plateau, thousands of stone jars hold clues to an ancient megalithic culture. An Australian-Lao team is piecing together what survives one artefact at a time
Opinion
The influencers with millions of followers who don't actually exist
They have lucrative brand deals and strong political opinions. They’re also not real. Behind the scenes, a handful of tech companies are rewriting the rules of global culture