Journal
Articles
Speaking up
The modern Australian incarnation of truth-telling that emerged from the Uluru Statement from the Heart in 2017 came not from dictatorship and civil war, as had truth-telling in the Latin American ‘radical democracies’ of the 1990s, which pioneered transitional justice. Instead, it derived from local people devising local solutions.
Where truths collide
I AM SITTING forward, in nautical terms, looking astern at my awa, who is guiding us through reefs and straits on a moonless night. Above him are stars like phosphorescence in the squid-ink sky. Around his silhouette I see phosphorescence like stars in our small dinghy’s wake. I’m a young man excited to be going night-spearing for kaiyar, the painted crayfish.
The power of the First Nations Matriarchy
I WAS BORN from the world’s most ancient womb: the sacred womb of a First Nations woman. The blood pumping through my veins is the life force of a long line of First Nations Warrior Women whose spirits run deep into this ancient soil. It is a privilege to be raised in a culture that understands the power of the First Nations Matriarchy.
To the islands
LET’S OPEN WITH the fairytale of Snow White. Except Snow White is not named for her pale complexion but...
Playing in the dark archive
Interviewer: Describe your aesthetic in five words.Jasmine Togo-Brisby: Can. You. See. Us. Now? IN JUNE 2021, in the wake of...
Everywhen
‘Time, what is time?’Title of the lead track on Somewhere Far Beyond by Germanpower-metal band Blind Guardian THERE ARE AS...
Griffith’s Welsh odyssey
I am going away to England on Friday… I may go away with a tranquil mind and I am...
On the Queensland frontier
THE 1850S BROUGHT dramatic changes to the Australian colonies – the gold rushes, the end of convict transportation in the...
The God of the ‘God powers’
[The Prime Minister’s staff discuss plans for Australia Day]Nick (senior political adviser): Who did Australian history? Murph?Murph (director central...
But we already had a treaty!
IN JULY 2019, the Queensland Government launched a series of community consultations as part of its Path to Treaty...
Blood and bone
Listen to contributor Alice Bellette read ‘Blood and bone’. Seek company of others who refuse to accept cultural amnesia, who refuse to once...
An archive for the dispossessed
As an archive, the Jaffna Public Library told a story about the place of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka. The political authorities of the 1980s wanted to suppress that narrative – and burning the archive was a quick and conclusive way to do it.
