CURIOUS is a series of talks that aims to spark interest and conversation in a series of wide-range contemporary issues.
On a gorgeous Sydney morning, this event, moderated by Santilla Chingaipe and featuring Atong Atem & Shae O Omonijo, was the first talk I attended for the day and it set a high bar. A diverse audience was completely absorbed in a conversation described by Santilla Chingaipe as ‘part book club, part unpacking themes’. Receiving a mixed response when she asked how many people were familiar with Octavia Butler’s novels, she helpfully offered a summary of each novel before diving in with some thoughtful and well-targeted questions. Starting with speculation on the limits of gated communities, Atong Atem offered food for thought, suggesting that individual comfort depends on the discomfort of others and reinforcing that societies build on top of unequal systems. The question of whether Octavia Butler was foreshadowing the future, or whether she was simply paying close attention to her own world was clarified by Shae O Omonijo, framing Butler’s work around the key events that grabbed news headlines in the 1990’s. Extending thought to the nostalgia economy as both soothing the pain of modern life and also as the catalyst for misremembering then sparked curiosity on whether we should look backwards or forwards when seeking to progress as a society.
As a South Sudanese-Australian multidisciplinary artist, Atong Atem offered her perspective as a creative, considering the role of language and the tools of photography when capturing and understanding our world, particularly when representing Africans. Shae O Omonijo continued this thread by considering the perception of black women, who are often made to be invisible until moments of crisis. Returning to the question of Butler’s work as prophetic, she reminded us that Butler’s work doesn’t just warn, but also offers hope, a point that can be lost with Butler’s current surge in popularity.
The conversation delved into speculation about the direction of AI, questioning what we consider to be progress, with concerns about AI’s data collection replicating pre-existing biases and inequities and reinforcing that no technology is neutral. As a humanist, political theorist and intellectual historian, the importance of representation was raised and Shae O Omonijo made the significant point about the governing philosophies of those in power, where two people starting with the same premise can end up with entirely different conclusions. The talk concluded with discussion about dehumanising advances in technology, curiosity about the next generation growing up without a memory of life before AI, and the need to think holistically about the world we want and are heading towards.
This talk left me curious enough to stop by a bookstore on the way home to pick up one of Octavia Butler’s work, and with so many ideas covered, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one.
This talk was held on Sunday, 4 October 2026 at the Sydney Opera House Yallamundi Rooms
