Jane Goodall leads WOMAD’s Planet Talks line-up
Festivals
World-renowned primatologist Jane Goodall will open WOMADelaide’s Planet Talks forum this year, appearing via video in a conversation canvassing her work, current threats facing chimpanzees, and the global climate crisis.
The three-day program of environmental talks has become an integral part of the world music festival, with WOMADelaide director Ian Scobie describing it as “an exciting and crucial forum for discussion and debate regarding the challenges and solutions ahead”.
Goodall, who has spent six decades studying chimpanzees after first observing them at Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania in 1960, will appear in a pre-recorded conversation with Australian journalist Natasha Mitchell. The session – titled Jane Goodall’s Survival Guide for Modern Times – will be presented at the first Planet Talks session on March 12, with WOMADelaide saying Goodall will share her insights into “how we find hope and strength in the face of the climate crisis”.
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Other key speakers in the Planet Talks sessions announced today include television and radio host Waleed Aly, who will take part in a live session of Radio National’s The Minefield debating whether children should be given the right to vote, and Dark Emu author Bruce Pascoe, who will lead a discussion on “regenerative agriculture”.
The talks program will also cover topics including humans’ reliance on insects, why the future should be electric, and “what a renewed relationship with the planet could look like”.
As reported previously, WOMADelaide will return to Botanic Park in its seven-stage format in March next year, with a reduced daily capacity and the requirement that people on site have received the COVID-19 vaccination.
The festival is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2022 and has announced a line-up of around 70 musicians including Paul Kelly, Courtney Barnett, Baker Boy, The Cat Empire, and AB Original.
See the full 2022 WOMADelaide program online.
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