If anything, COVID-19 had demonstrated the power of collective action, Rolley says. “Sisterhood is powerful, and we are seeing that particularly in the last year and a half.

“The people who are doing the troll-like behaviour, that are attacking them over and over, sometimes they are doing this in an official capacity in the media,” he says.

“We [must] complain, we back them, we support them, we protect them and that’s the responsibility of all of us. They’ve spoken up in a manner that is transformative and benefits all of us so we have to protect them. It will be a way for the audience to say thank-you to two remarkable women.”

The line-up for the March festival also includes writer Clementine Ford, ABC presenter Laura Tingle and American writer Roxane Gay.

Among the agenda-setting conversations scheduled is Beyond the Binary hosted by Yves Rees asking what social benefits might there be if people lived “authentically” without rigid gender definitions.

Behrendt will lead a conversation with distinguished professor Aileen Moreton-Robinson on First Nations feminism, as well as with trailblazing second wave feminist Wendy McCarthy – her personal mentor.

“What I was keen to do was to honour the generation before ours – which is a very Indigenous thing to do. To honour our Aunties and Elders ... the women who have paved the way for all women is really important,” Behrendt says.

“It seems to me Western cultures don’t have that same ability. Women with experience talk about feeling invisible after a certain age when they have so much to share, and they should be celebrated.”

Behrendt is enlisting four Elders, on whom she has relied for wisdom and guidance, to host an Ask an Aunty session. Nothing is off limits, from career advice to larger existential questions.

The unfinished business of feminism, says the curators, is ensuring power is not distorted by sex or gender in the workplace or at home.

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Lawyer Bri Lee, writer Lucia Osborne-Crowley, Amy Thunig and Saxon Mullins will consider the pragmatic consent reforms that have resulted from the disclosure of abuse. “What do we do with this moment?” Rolley asks.

For Kate brings together lawyer Michael Bradley, friend Jo Dyer and reporter Samantha Maiden to discuss the story of Christian Porter’s accuser.

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