Healing, Teaching, Law with Wesley Enoch

What stories shape us — and how do we learn to tell our own?

In this episode, Julie Arnold speaks with playwright, director and creative leader Wesley Enoch about the power of storytelling in education, the importance of honouring lived experience, and the joy of building spaces where students feel seen and heard. This episode is a warm, wise, and energising conversation for teachers who want to help students express identity with clarity and confidence.

Wesley Enoch AM is a playwright and director of Indigenous theatre. He hails from Stradbroke Island (Minjerribah), and is a Nunukul Nuugi man of the Quandamooka Nation. Wesley has been the Artistic Director of six major festivals across Australia including the Sydney and Brisbane Festivals, and was the Artistic Director of Queensland Theatre Company from 2010 to 2015. His play The 7 Stages of Grieving, co-written with Deborah Mailman, is a widely studied and performed landmark of contemporary Australian theatre. Wesley is currently Professor of Practice (Drama) at QUT and the inaugural Indigenous Chair in the Creative Industries.

Shownotes:

📚 Recommended Reading:
 • Boas, E. & Kerin, R. (2021). Novel Ideas: Teaching fiction in the middle years. AATE.
• Shipp, C. (2023). Listening from the Heart. AATE.
• Worrell, T. (2022). Profiles of practice: Influences when selecting texts to include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in English. English in Australia, 57(1), 5–14.

📦 Where to buy books:
 • Black Inc.
• Magabala Books

🛠️ Classroom Resource:
 • You Can Teach: Teaching First Nations Perspectives 

Find out more about Wesley Enoch at:
 🔗 Wesley Enoch’s page at QUT

Join our community at:
 🔗 ETAQ Website

Enter the conversation at:
 🔗 ETAQ Facebook
🔗 ETAQ Instagram

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