9 March 2025
Hear the call to action from one of Australia’s most powerful voices advocating for human rights as Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts exposes the injustice inside systems that claim to protect First Nations children.
| Date | Time |
| Sunday 9 March 2025 | 3:30pm |
| Ticket | Price |
| Standard | $35 |
$8.95 booking fee applies per transaction
Prices correct at the time of publication and subject to change without notice. Exact prices will be displayed with seat selection.
The only authorised ticket agency for this event is Sydney Opera House. For more information about Authorised Agencies, see the frequently asked questions below.
Sydney Opera House Insiders pre-sale
9am, Tuesday 14 January 2025
Become a Sydney Opera House Insider to receive exclusive pre-sale access
What’s On e-newsletter pre-sale
9am, Wednesday 15 January 2025
General Public tickets on-sale
9am, Thursday 16 January 2025
Wheelchair accessible:
There are a number of wheelchair and companion seating locations in our theatres. To book accessible seating contact Box Office:
Telephone
+61 2 9250 7777
(Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm AEST)
Email bookings@sydneyoperahouse.com
Find out more about accessibility at Sydney Opera House.
Run time
This talk runs for approximately 60 minutes.
Event duration is a guide only and may be subject to change.
Age
Recommended for ages 15+.
Larissa BehrendtTurnbull-Roberts is fierce and unflinching as she seeks to hold the system to account but never loses her warmth, heart and strong senses of self and community.
Useful information:
truthteller. groundbreaker. survivor.
Human rights lawyer Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts has devoted her life and career to empowering self-determination and fighting for justice for First Nations people and children.
Her fight draws from her own story, forcibly removed at the tender age of ten, a trauma that could only begin to heal when she fled the out-of-home care system to reconnect with kin and return to country. Turnbull-Roberts offers unparalleled expertise into the heartache and trauma caused by the systemic abuse of Black children. Her unflinching exposé uncovers the ongoing violence institutions are inflicting on children and their communities – from racist family policing and shameful rates of child removals to the steady pipeline of First Nations children into the criminal justice system.
Layered in struggle, grief and love, Turnbull-Roberts' work is ultimately an invitation to imagine solutions and build a better world. Join us for a conversation of bold truth-telling that poses an important challenge to us all.
Presented by Sydney Opera House
Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts (she/her)
Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts is a proud Bundjalung Widubul-Wiabul woman, who has degrees in both law and social work, and was recognised with an Australian Human Rights Medal in 2019. She is a human rights lawyer and Fulbright scholar whose current research is focused on unveiling the intersections of human rights, child removal and the implications of forcible removal, ensuring that First Nations child survivors and those impacted are heard, while providing solutions towards ending child removal. In 2024, Vanessa was appointed the inaugural Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People Commissioner for the Australian Capital Territory. Her memoir is Long Yarn Short.
Plan your visit
Venue information
Our foyers will be open 90 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and two hours pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. Refreshments will be available for purchase from our theatre bars.
All Sydney Opera House foyers are pram accessible, with lifts to the main and western foyers. The public lift to all foyers is accessible from the corridor near the escalators on the Lower Concourse and also in the Western Foyer via the corridor on the Ground Level (at the top of the escalators). Pram parking will be available outside the theatres in the Western Foyer.
Getting here
The Sydney Opera House Car Park, operated by Wilson Parking, is open and available to use. Wilson Parking offer discounted parking if you book ahead. Please see the Wilson Parking website for details.
Please check the Transport NSW website for the latest advice and information on travel. You can catch public transport (bus, train, ferry) to Circular Quay and enjoy a six minute walk to the Opera House.
Frequently asked questions
Ticket purchases and collection at our Box Office is discouraged and eTicket or postal delivery methods should be used, wherever possible. However, if you are collecting your tickets from the Box Office, we recommend doing this at least 60 minutes before the event starts. If you have already received your tickets, the venue doors will be open 45 minutes pre-show for Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and 30 minutes pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. Please take your seats as soon as you arrive.
If you are late, we will seat you as soon as we can and, where possible, in your allocated seat. However, to reduce movement in the venue as well as minimise disruption to the performance and other patrons, ticketholders may be seated in an allocated latecomer’s seat. Please be aware that some events have lock-out periods. In these cases, latecomers will be admitted at a suitable break in the performance. On occasions, this may not be until the interval, or at all where there is no interval.
Details of our right to refuse admission can be found in our General Terms and Conditions for Tickets and Events.
In accordance with our venue security procedures, Opera House security will be scanning and checking bags under the Monumental Stairs, prior to entering the building. Bags will be scanned by an x-ray machine, and staff will wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) when handling your belongings, such as gloves. Cloaking facilities will be open 60 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and 60 minutes pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. However it is strongly encouraged that you travel lightly to minimise contact and queuing. Any bags larger than an A4 piece of paper will need to be checked into the Cloak Room.
The authorised agency for this event is the Sydney Opera House.
Only tickets purchased by authorised agencies should be considered reliable. If you purchase tickets from a non-authorised agency such as Ticketmaster Resale, Viagogo, Ticketbis, eBay, Gumtree, Tickets Australia or any other unauthorised seller, you risk that these tickets are fake, void or have previously been cancelled. Resale restriction applies. For more details, please refer to our General Terms and Conditions for Tickets and Attendance at Events.
Please contact Box Office on +61 2 9250 7777 as soon as possible to advise if you can no longer attend.
Foyers will be open 90 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and two hours pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. Refreshments will be available for purchase from our theatre bars.
The venue doors will be open 45 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and 30 minutes pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances.
Please bring a credit or debit card for any on site purchases to enable contactless payment. You’re welcome to bring your own water bottle but no other food and drinks are permitted inside our venues.
The health, safety and wellbeing of everyone at the Sydney Opera House is our top priority. In line with this commitment, the Opera House became a smoke-free site in January 2022. Read our Smoke-free Environment Policy.
Memorial Days
9 Mar 2025
Geraldine Brooks, Sydney born and globally recognised as both a fearless foreign correspondent and Pulitzer Prize winning literary star, found herself thrown into sudden bereavement in a world that gives little space for it. Join her on her discovery of rituals old and new, leading to a unique path forward.
The Tracy Westerman Effect
9 Mar 2025
Leading a movement and training a generation of lived experience experts, Tracy Westerman is transforming Indigenous mental health practice.
State of Emergency
9 Mar 2025
With rates of domestic and family violence rising exponentially and with increasingly deadly consequences, this expert panel examines the crisis that governments acknowledge but seem powerless to prevent.
