Celeste Liddle is an Arrernte woman, an opinion writer, a trade unionist and public speaker. Celeste started her blog Rantings of an Aboriginal Feminist in June 2012. A mere six weeks after she started it, Celeste had a piece picked up for publication by Daily Life and since then has written for a number of publications. Currently a contributor to Crikey and The Guardian, Celeste has also been a columnist for Fairfax, Eureka Street and Tracker magazine, and a freelance contributor to nearly every news outlet in the country (and some overseas). Celeste has also contributed chapters to anthologies such as Black Inc’s Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia and Pan Macmillan’s Mothers and Others.
Celeste Liddle is also an accomplished panellist and public speaker. She has appeared at the Bendigo Writers’ Festival, All About Women, Antidote Festival, Women of the World, and many others. She has been a regular voice on radio as well, in particular giving comment to the National Indigenous Radio Service, CAAMA and ABC Radio National. She has accumulated a vast list of keynote addresses over the years, and has had the privilege of travelling all across the country to address a number of diverse communities.
Celeste Liddle has a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in theatre and drama from La Trobe University, a Graduate Diploma in Arts (political & social sciences) from the University of Melbourne and a Masters in Communications and Media Studies from Monash University. In 2017, Celeste was inducted into the Victorian Women’s Honour Roll.
In her time both writing and speaking, Celeste Liddle has gained a certain notoriety and a fair bit of praise for delivering tough topics in concise and accessible ways. In particular, Celeste has a reputation for casting a critical eye over government policies and Australian cultural hegemony and challenging her audience to deconstruct what is often seen as “normal” in the mainstream. Mixing a bit of anecdote and humour as she goes along, Celeste takes her lead from many amazing Indigenous thinkers who have inspired her along the way.
In her spare time, Celeste is an avid supporter of Australia’s live music scene as well as a performer herself.
Testimonials
Celeste, like always, was amazing. She generated some really thought provoking discussion – and the reflection pieces written by the Indonesian cohort afterwards showed this!
The conference has just finished and I just wanted you to pass on our thanks to Celeste for her session – it was very powerful and I was told by many people afterwards that it left a strong impression on them. As a conference organiser I am so pleased she was able to address our delegates.
The conference went extremely well. We got a lot of positive feedback from students and from the Dean of the medical school.
Celeste’s speech was well delivered, and well received. I thought it was great that she was willing to talk about her personal experience of the healthcare system, and the parts about Ms Dhu and Gurummul Yunipingu were especially important to share with the cohort. Students were obviously really engaged because they asked a lot of good questions.
Thank you so much for helping me find the right speaker for this. I’m so glad it was Celeste in the end! Please send her my thanks and regards.