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A group of multietnic students celebrating their graduation by throwing caps in the air. Education, qualification and gown concept.
A group of multietnic students celebrating their graduation by throwing caps in the air. Education, qualification and gown concept.

Award-winning author Jackie Ryan on why ‘humanity needs the humanities’

“The arts are a fundamental part of our humanity; we need them to enrich our lives. But in my lifetime, the arts have never been less supported or more important.”

Last week award-winning Ascot author Dr Jackie Ryan addressed a University of Queensland Conferring of Awards ceremony. She spoke about the skills graduates need to face the future and she described a world that has never needed critical thinking and creativity more. She has kindly provided her thought-provoking speech for us to share.

It’s a great honour to be here today.

The invitation to address the graduates prompted me to look back upon the arts degree that I completed at UQ — last century — and to speculate on what may have changed.

When I was going through in the 90s, the joke was: Q: What do you say to an arts student?

A: Can I have fries with that? I imagine that over the years this may have morphed into jokes about Subway or extra avocado with your Guzman y Gomez burrito.

The implication, of course, is that arts students have chosen something that lacks the clearly defined career path of disciplines such as dentistry or accounting.

I’m here today to tell you that that is absolutely correct. Arts students have more options. Their core capacities for creativity and critical thinking are transferable across myriad industries and are designed for adaptation.

Graduates at last week’s UQ award ceremony. Photo. supplied.
Graduates at last week’s UQ award ceremony. Photo. supplied.

My own path has ranged across short film and music video directing, newspaper and magazine design work, comic book creation, writing and visual art commissions, and theatrical salons. After returning to UQ—this century—for a doctorate in history and political science, I wrote a book on World Expo 88 that was published by UQP.

All of these activities benefited from the skills I learned at UQ—particularly in relation to acquiring and objectively weighing knowledge. Some of my projects have been rewarded with peer recognition and indispensable friendships.

As I look back over the years that have passed since those McDonalds jokes, I think to myself: I could have had a nice franchise by now. What I’ve had instead is the luxury of pursuing my interests and never having to wonder, ‘what if?’.

Jackie Ryan's award-winning book 'We'll Show the World Expo 88'. Photo. supplied
Jackie Ryan's award-winning book 'We'll Show the World Expo 88'. Photo. supplied

Many of the graduates here today have also eschewed more clearly defined career paths in pursuit of their interests. And as with those of us who passed through here last century, some people may feel you have doubled down on the ostensible risk: you chose to study arts in a city maligned as a cultural desert?

And while that criticism has never been entirely fair, it describes the sort of place that needs humanities the most.

Author Dr Jackie Ryan delivered her speech to graduates at the University of Queensland last week. Photo. supplied.
Author Dr Jackie Ryan delivered her speech to graduates at the University of Queensland last week. Photo. supplied.

The arts play an essential role — here and around the world — in creating beauty, in helping us interpret our environment, in challenging prejudice, in critiquing those who would govern us.

The job’s still the same, but I suspect my cohort had it easier. Because there are other differences between my time and yours: expertise was not derided as elite; opinion was susceptible to fact; arguments were not won with volume; failing profits hadn’t kneecapped journalism; fewer major political parties demonised dissent.

And while the arts were mocked and occasionally neglected by various governments, they weren’t often hidden. Folded—as per the announcement last week — into a monster Federal department that would even strip the word ‘arts’ from its name. As though it were Voldermort.

Why we need the arts more than ever

It’s not because the arts are inconsequential that some dare not speak the name. And it’s not because they’re expensive that some would seek to control or defund them. It’s because of how consequential they can be.The arts can help the powerless challenge the narratives of the powerful. This makes them a target for those who seek to go unchallenged.

But such calculations stifle countless other benefits of the arts.

Jackie Ryan is also the creator of award-winning comic series Burger Force. Picture: Chris McCormack.
Jackie Ryan is also the creator of award-winning comic series Burger Force. Picture: Chris McCormack.

To return to Expo 88, this is an event that is commonly credited as the catalyst for Brisbane’s coming of age. More than thirty years after its conclusion, people still light up when they talk about it. Expo wasn’t a sporting event. And it wasn’t a mine. It was the arts. It was a cultural phenomenon that changed Brisbane. And it was very well funded by the government. One of my interview subjects, Deputy Director of Entertainment Barbara Absolon, had this to say about its significance:

‘I think Expo – in a very basic way for people who may never have been to the theatre or opera or ballet or dance or anything like that . . . who, when they read that stuff about culture, go “what a load of baloney – we should be spending our money on education, hospitals and police” . . . Expo is such a great example of the value of spending money on cultural exploits, because it just changed the psyche of hundreds of thousands of people. It lifted their expectations; it changed their lives in ways that they may not perceive – and they don’t quite understand that, if the money is not put into things other than the basics of life, then life becomes basic.’

The arts are a fundamental part of our humanity; we need them to enrich our lives. Their contributions are social, political, and economic. But in my lifetime, the arts have never been less supported or more important. The answer isn’t to permit more funding but with tighter government control. That’s adjacent to propaganda. It’s for governments to accept that some arts contributions are also challenges—and to publicly and financially support them not in spite of this, but because democracy will be stronger for it.

Jackie Ryan gave a passionate speech about why the world needs the Arts more than ever. Picture: Chris McCormack.
Jackie Ryan gave a passionate speech about why the world needs the Arts more than ever. Picture: Chris McCormack.

I’ve spoken about some of the things that have changed over the last few years. Here are some things that haven’t: Franchises aren’t for everyone. We cannot live on mining and dentistry alone. Humanity needs the humanities.

Welcome to the flexible, choose-your-own-adventure career path that is the arts. You’ve honed your talents and your capacity for critical thinking in this grand institution. Now use it to help us be less basic. Make beauty. Spread joy. Challenge assumptions. Protect facts. Enjoy the luxury of pursuing your interests and not having to wonder ‘what if?’. Good luck.

Jackie Ryan is the author of the 2018 Queensland Premier’s Award for a Work of State Significance for her book We’ll Show the World.

Ryan was short-listed for the Courier Mail People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award.

She is a UQ alumni and got her PhD in 2016 and was an Honorary Research Fellow in 2017.

This speech was delivered at the University of Queensland Conferring of Awards Ceremony on December 11, 2019.

Original URL: https://www.couriermail.com.au/questnews/in-depth/awardwinning-author-jackie-ryan-on-why-humanity-needs-the-humanities/news-story/934a583c71c47fefde6a7bfcfa872a11