Articles, Opinions & Speeches
Click on the links below to read from the selection of articles by John Schumann.
Muted response to Trump's appropriation of Christianity
“…and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be on the alert…” ( Acts 20:29–31). Before the cock crows, I’m happy to admit I was educated in the Roman Catholic tradition under the largely effective tutelage of the Dominican Fathers. Like the Jesuits, […]
Grey on Blue - at sea on HMAS Stuart
For most of us, a Royal Australian Navy warship is a hulking grey shape tethered to a wharf away from the public. Viewed from afar, the ominous profile of radar domes, antennas, missile launch systems and naval guns of varying sizes emanates power and purpose. Other than that, our experience of Navy is confined to […]
The GST - past present, future - and always tense
There’s little elegance in the way Australia approaches tax reform. It’s never a highway cruise. Rather like an old farm ute, it bumps along a winding, corrugated bush track. There are plenty of scratches on the duco as it pushes through the scrub and plenty of barking from the back. The idea of a broad-based […]
Dear Democrats. If you don’t fight you lose.
A few weeks ago, MSNBC journalist and political commentator, Rachel Maddow, asked “How far will the American people allow Trump to go?” Not before time US citizens are finally beginning to organise but they’re crying out for a formidable, unifying leader to take it up to Trump. A leader of the opposition, so to speak. […]
SA’s algal bloom and the big, beautiful, bureaucratic ballet.
The café owner at Edithburgh gave me a wintry smile. We were on Yorke Peninsula to play a concert as part of the opening of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Walk from Coobowie to Edithburgh. I’d just asked her if the algal bloom was affecting her business. “We’re open today, only because of you lot. Maybe […]
Servin USA ,Trump and the demise of democracy
Michael Atkinson and I wrote most of Redgum’s repertoire and, occasionally, we would write together. One of our earliest co-writes was “Servin’ USA”, a parody of the Beach Boys’ “Surfing USA”. An undergraduate critique of the role the United States had arrogantly assumed for itself in post-World War II international affairs, this song was a […]
Prof Brian Ernest Matthews BA. Dip.Ed. MA. PhD. FAHA 27/12/1936 – 2/6/2022
In 2001, Brian Matthews started contributing monthly columns to Eureka Street. He remained an occasional contributor until recently. Most of us, when pushed, can name a couple of teachers who had a profound influence on our lives. For me, Brian Matthews was one such teacher. I enrolled in English at Flinders University in 1972. On […]
Inaugural Brian Medlin Memorial Lecture
On December 8, 1992 Brian Medlin wrote to the Adelaide Review. In an earlier edition Professor Jack Smart had reviewed his monograph “Human Nature, Human Survival” - and one Dr Casely-Smith had entered the fray hoping, it seemed, to have a crack at a tall poppy. Either in cheerful ignorance of Brian, or on the […]
Brian Medlin Celebratory Dinner
I welcome you all here this evening, we who have come from the far corners of Brian Medlin’s life to be here tonight. Apart from Brian and Christine, I don’t think anyone e here knows everyone but we all share one very valuable thing - the friendship of Brian and Christine. There are a few […]
Demise of the Liberal Arts
My son has just finished Year 12 and, like tens of thousands of other young Australian men and women, he is currently sorting through the various academic options open to him. And like tens of thousands of Australian parents I’ve been looking over his shoulder, offering (politely ignored) advice and quietly thanking Providence that it’s […]
Lawson, Long Tan and our National Identity
“So I heard on the radio you and your mates did an album of songs based on Henry Lawson poems.” Mouth full of beer, I could only nod. “Mate, I love Henry Lawson,” my drinking mate continued, sipping from his glass. “The Man from Snow River is one of my favourite poems of his...” “Yeah, […]
Foreword - Roadrunner - The Big Beat
Once upon a time, in a land far away, songwriters mainlined their tunes and rhymes into our hearts and minds. To many young Australians, musicians were god-like beings who ripped thunder and lightning from the sky and dashed them onto the sticky carpets of the nation’s hotels. A night out with your friends either started […]
Redgum versus a redgum
Let me say from the outset that I love trees – especially Australian natives and especially river redgums. And until Dad died in 2002 and I had to spend my Saturdays for the next 10 years trying to prevent its seeds, leaves, bark and branches from burying Mum’s house, I was particularly fond of the […]
Sex, Lies and Rock 'n' Roll - being a witness in a child abuse case
The Brevet Sergeant from the Sex Crimes Unit who came to my office late in 2010 hastened to assure me that there were no allegations against me. He simply wanted my assistance to identify a person under investigation for the sexual abuse of a minor the early 1980s. In matters like this, one instinctively wants […]
Musings on Power and Glory
Readers who follow the AFL might have seen our band, the Vagabond Crew, play a couple of songs at the MCG on Anzac Day in 2009 before the traditional match between Collingwood and Essendon. After we’d played, we were escorted by the very hospitable AFL people to our seats and then ushered into the Legends […]
Subsidies and funding - music and ideology
I’d like to make some observations in the context of my belief that folk music is critical to the ongoing development and maintenance of genuine, genuinely accessible national musical culture. Folk music, all its multifarious guises, has been and continues to be the genesis of vast amounts of successful contemporary popular music. I invite you […]
Dave Flanagan eulogy
I sat on a plane with Davey once, maybe 20 years ago now. At that point in our careers I had done much more flying than Dave. Shortly after the safety briefing, something I’d heard about 8 million times, I turn to Dave and said: “Seriously, if this thing goes down, if we slam into […]
ABC Perspectives
This is the text of a ‘Perspectives’ piece, broadcast on Radio National in February 2006 It was one of those quintessentially Australian beach shacks of the late fifties and early sixties. The garden smelt of decomposing seaweed, the kitchen linoleum was endlessly gritty with sand and every available piece of shelf space was adorned with […]
Bali - After the bomb
John Schumann, lead singer-songwriter of the Australian folk-rock band, Redgum, and the creator of “I’ve Been to Bali Too” first went to Bali in 1976. He formed a lifelong friendship with Tjokorda Krishna Suharsana and was adopted by Krishna’s family – “brothers from a different mother” according to Krishna’s mother, Henni. This story, written shortly […]
Airport Security
There’s no denying the horrific nature of the bikie attack at the Sydney airport on Sunday March 22. As it happened I landed in Sydney from Adelaide about 30 minutes after it happened. My fellow passengers and I were totally unaware of what had transpired but we did remark on the eerie silence and uncharacteristic […]
Our Debt to Veterans 2001
Australia’s proud military history comprises our troops leaving Australia to do battle in someone else’s country, in someone else’s war. Troop departures are characterised by the raising of the national flag, the swelling of the national chest and the dampening of the national eye. The few voices that urge caution and restraint can barely be […]
Political Disenchantment Age 2001
As Australia’s political establishment moves with a grim determination towards the next election, there is mounting evidence that more and more Australians are disenchanted with and disengaged from the political process. For one of the world’s foremost democracies, this is a matter for some concern. In seeking to understand how and why this has come […]
Music and the Internet 2003
On November18 three students were given suspended sentences for using the internet to distribute copyright recordings. The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) celebrated this result with a panoply of press releases and issued a warning that more successful prosecutions would follow. However, in the hoopla that has followed, no-one has thought to observe that internet […]