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Susan Ryan: I want to welcome you all here, because this is our way at the Australian
Human Rights Commission of marking the International Day of Older People.
And even though, because of that, most of our guests are people who can relate to the
International Day of Older People, we do have joining us our very young Commissioner, Tim
Soutphommasane -- (Older than I look) -- who is our youngest Commissioner.
And I'm the oldest Commissioner. Tim Soutphommasane: David you're a writer
who's written in ancient settings or about ancient settings and also modern settings,
how do you reconcile old and new or ancient and modern?
I mean, in the Australian case for example, we're often described, or we describe ourselves
as a 'new world country' or a 'young' country but yet we're home to the oldest continuing
civilisation in the world -- how do we make sense of all this.
David Malouf: Well look I think we - and this is part of what we do with the culture altogether
-- as individuals we take what there is of it that we can make some kind of sense of
and it somehow connects with something that we need to question, or answer or talk about.
And I don't think any of us respond to every element in the culture, I mean, when I use
the word 'multicultural' for example - what I mean, is that what there is out there is
a great 50,000 ingredients salad and different people take bits of it and make what they
can of it -- that's what we all do. And so you know, when we talk about the differences,
I mean people who read the Daily Telegraph are different - have different interests and
a different range of needs and (indistinct) from people who read The Australian, or the
Sydney Morning Herald or The Monthly. People who watch this program are different
from people who watch that program. If you follow, you know, Australian Rules football
are different from people who are interested in soccer or Rugby League.
And it goes on and on and on. Different kinds of music, different kinds
of films, people belong to different generations, children have different worlds from adults.
Men have different worlds from women and so on and on and on.
We -- out of that enormous mix -- we take something that we think of as 'our culture'
and make what we can of it. So some of us will look around and say "There's
an Indigenous world there, and that does extraordinary things -- but I'm not interested in it."
And some people will say "That challenges absolutely the way I look at this or that."
-- We're all free to do that.
I'll be eighty in a few months. I don't think -- there's somewhere in my head
here -- I'm sometimes 20 and sometimes five years old and sometimes 45 years old - but
I don't think I ever think of myself as being 79!
And I mean, I might think that. The thing that you do have to say is - OK,
I don't have the energy to do this. Or my eyes won't allow me to do that or if
six people at the table are all talking at once -- I can't follow it -- you've got to
recognise that those things are happening. But apart from that, somehow in our heads
we're sort of ageless. (Claps)
Susan Ryan: Well David, thank you very much, as you can see we're all intensely interested
in what you have to say, as well as what you write and what you broadcast.
It's been an absolute joy to have you with us as our special guest on International Day
of Older Persons. And I know you think that you feel like you're
21 mostly and I guess we do too -- but the fact that you have lived so productively,
so creatively, for a few decades -- is just a source of inspiration for all of us.
So you are our Age Positive hero for International Day of Older Persons.
(claps)