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The Art House and Words on the Waves Presents
Words on the Waves Opening Address
Join us for the 2025 Words on the Waves Writers Festival Opening Address.
Together, we will hear fiery dispatches from three acclaimed speakers, each pondering the festival theme: burning bright.
Esteemed social psychologist and 'national treasure' Hugh Mackay has always sensed the winds of change before anyone else. He'll encourage us towards kindness and finding the best...in ourselves and in others. Wiradjuri man and public intellectual Stan Grant will share a personal and poetic paean to peace, forgiveness and 'deep respect'. And much-loved, much-respected journalist Kumi Taguchi will take us on a highly evocative journey of understanding.
Don’t miss this inspiring event, which also launches the festival's fifth celebratory year here on the Central Coast.
Local independent bookseller, Umina Beach Book Nook, will be on site on the evening to sell copies of authors’ books for signing after the event.
Authors: Stan Grant, Hugh Mackay, Kumi Taguchi
ABOUT WORDS ON THE WAVES
Words on the Waves Writers Festival is a celebration of words and ideas set on the scenic Central Coast, NSW, Australia. With author talks and panels, as well as evening conversation events, writing workshops, local book launches, family fun day, schools program and more, since launching in 2021, the festival has welcomed over 13,000 book-loving attendances and hundreds of writers from all over Australia. In 2025 the festival celebrates its fifth year from May 28 – June 1, with the theme burning bright.
Cast & Creatives
STAN GRANT
Stan Grant is a Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi man. He is a public intellectual who has worked as a journalist, presenter, filmmaker and author. In his journalism he has reported from more than 80 countries, won three Walkley Awards, a Logie Award and four Asia TV Awards. As a writer he has published seven books including the bestselling Talking to My Country, which won the Walkley Book Award. In 2016, he was appointed to the Referendum Council on Indigenous recognition. In 2018, he was appointed Professor of Global Affairs at Griffith University. The full-length documentary film The Australian Dream won the 2019 AACTA Award for best feature documentary and the 2019 Walkley Documentary Award. In 2020, he became the International Affairs Analyst at the ABC and the Vice-Chancellor's Chair of Australian-Indigenous Belonging at Charles Sturt University. From 2022–23, Grant hosted the ABC’s current affairs panel program Q+A.
HUGH MACKAY
Hugh Mackay is a social psychologist and bestselling author. His non-fiction covers social analysis, psychology, communication and ethics. He is also the author of nine novels. Hugh has had a sixty-year career in social research and was a weekly newspaper columnist for twenty-five years. He is a fellow of the Australian Psychological Society and the Royal Society of New South Wales and has been awarded honorary doctorates by five Australian universities. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2015 and is currently an honorary professor in the School of Medicine and Psychology at the Australian National University. He lives in Canberra.
KUMI TAGUCHI
Born in Melbourne, Victoria to her Japanese father and Australian mother, Kumi Taguchi grew up in rural New South Wales learning classical violin from the age of five. She has worked in the media for over 25 years in Australia and overseas and is currently the host of SBS's Insight.