There’s nothing like a tale of ‘star-cross’d lovers’ to engage an audience, and St Kilda Road Senior School students were hooked when Year 12 student Leila opened her Hollaway Oration at this years’ Arts Awards assembly in September with a chilling tale about her own great-great-grandparents, who arrived in Western Australia in the 1870s to try their luck in the gold rush.
Leila won last year’s Hollaway Memorial Prize for Debating, established to honour the memory of long-time staff member and keen debater Stuart Hollaway, who tragically lost his life in a climbing accident in 2015. The prize is awarded annually to a student who has made a significant contribution to the debating program and public speaking. This year’s prize was awarded to Ethan from Year 11.
Stuart’s mother, Heather Hollaway, was thrilled to attend the event again this year. ‘It’s wonderful to be included in the assembly, which is both emotional and very special for me,’ she said. ‘That Stuart is remembered so fondly after nine years is heart-warming.’
Leila used her address to explore the dangers of tribalism. She sees the same forces that saw her great-great-grandparents murdered at the hands of family members - an ‘us and them’ mentality where individuals are divided by personal loyalties above principles – driving the ‘digital tribalism’ of today’s social media. She cites tech billionaire Elon Musk’s X platform as ‘an echo chamber for amplifying fears, anxieties and hatreds, rather than facilitating civil dialogue.’
Leila noted that while tribalism is inevitable, the biases that form as a consequence can be cured. Her antidote? Curiosity. ‘Stepping out of our self-perpetuating bubbles and echo-chambers and being respectfully curious about individuals and groups that we might think of as ‘other’ allows us to be guided by principle over tribal allegiance,’ she said.
