Big Ideas From devil horns to deep listening — Maxine Beneba Clark, Debra Dank, Damon Young on the power of communication
Aug 20, 2025
Join dynamic guests Debra Dank, a Gudanji, Wakaja, Kalkadoon woman and award-winning author, Maxine Beneba Clark, a multi-talented Afro-Caribbean writer, and Damon Young, an acclaimed philosopher and author, as they explore the art of communication. They discuss how poetry and gestures can foster connections and identity, the influence of AI on creativity, and the importance of listening and understanding in diverse settings. Their insights remind us that effective communication can unite us across cultures and generations.
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Episode notes
Finger Talk Across Country
- Debra Dank describes her son interpreting distant 'finger talk' with his grandfather to relay errands and requests.
- The story shows how nonverbal signals encode detailed, culturally specific meaning.
Colonial Losss To Communication
- Colonial language bans stripped relational structures encoded in First Nations speech, erasing complex cultural meanings.
- Longstanding oral traditions and knowledge cannot be fully translated into 1,500-year-old English.
Teach Poetry As Playful Toolkit
- Maxine Beneba Clarke teaches poetry as a plural-answer craft so students can play and experiment with language.
- She shows literary devices in pop songs to make poetry feel relevant and usable.
