AustLit

'In 2017, with a Parliament that features the newly-elected Senator Pauline Hanson, flanked by a handful of One Nation members, Australia seems to be entering a new Culture Wars. Senator Hanson’s 2016 maiden speech, much criticised for its scapegoating of Muslim Australians, revisited old ground. Indeed, much of the criticism remarked upon the fact that she seemed to have simply inserted ‘Muslim Australians’ in place of the ‘Asians’ or ‘Aboriginal Australians’ who were represented as the ‘problem’ for Australia back in 1996, when the Culture Wars polarised the nation. The Culture Wars 1.0 were characterised by an over-reaction to the Mabo decision of 1992, which polarised the nation by recognising that Native Title was not extinguished by white settlement, and that Terra Nullius was a ‘legal fiction’. The newly recognised rights of Indigenous Australians to their lands resulted in concerted opposition by powerful mining and pastoral lobbies, who argued that the Mabo decision diluted their rights to exploit Australian land. The Howard Government joined in, falsely claiming that Native Title legislation would threaten family homes. When the High Court found in the Wik case of 1996 that pastoral leases were not extinguished by Native Title, but could ‘co-exist’, the Government seized on the decision to find ways to extinguish Native Title. Howard’s Wik 10-point plan inserted a ‘national interest’ provision over Crown lands, and restricted both the time limits for claims to be lodged, and the types of lands that could be claimed. Mining and pastoral interests were reframed as ‘national’ interests’ , while Indigenous claims to territory were diluted, with Indigenous Land Use agreements effectively extinguishing Native Title when Indigenous and non-Indigenous parties reached an agreement. However, compensatory royalties would be provided to Indigenous traditional owners in exchange for mining or other commercial activities on their lands. In its dominant usage, ‘settlement’ in the Australian context implies the peaceable takeover of Indigenous territories in the name of the British Empire since 1788, with resultant waves of British immigration leading to the production of ‘Australia’ as a nation-state in 1901. These debates demonstrated that it was land – white possession and ownership – that was at stake throughout the following decade in an increasingly divisive debate about the politics of Reconciliation.' (Introduction)

'Adelaide Writers’ Week 2017 was dedicated to Elizabeth Harrower. The address in praise of her work stated, ‘Admired by her contemporaries, including Patrick White and Christina Stead, Harrower is being read again. All of her books are back in print, and she is enjoying success here in Australia as well as internationally. She is being lauded by a new generation of writers and critics and being read by ever increasing audiences.' (Introduction)

'I have researched the life and times of Matthew Flinders for nearly 20 years in order to raise the profile of this most important English explorer so that he might stand alongside the likes of James Cook, William Bligh, Arthur Phillip, and John Franklin. This review is written from that standpoint – with the added ingredient of including George Bass. This book, by Sydney-based teacher author and editor Josephine Bastion, is a first-class example, with some minor faults, of the history of the birth of Australia in the age of Enlightenment. It would have made a greater impact if it had been published in 2014 to coincide with the bicentenary of Flinders’ passing. Nevertheless, the account is a work of scholarship based on good research in the relevant archives. It is a pleasure to read, using prose that has been written to be read rather than to impress.' (Publication summary)

'Michael Sharkey has long been known as one of Australia’s most congenial, collegial, and agile poets and literary critics. One might have expected this anthology to be an assemblage of various tribute and assessments, all done with the urbanity and goodwill long known to be Sharkey’s hallmark. What a surprise, then, to realise that this collection, though indeed various, generous, and informative, tinged throughout with what Gordon Collier, in his preface to the book, calls Sharkey’s ‘evanescently ironical’ but not ‘acidulous’ personality (ix), is really dedicated to one theme: the shared cultural practices of Australia and New Zealand.' (Introduction)

'Nature writing sometimes seems to be an occupation exclusively for the solitary man. Perhaps it is an expression of a mythic frontier experience – a rugged individual proving themselves in the wilds and escaping the degenerative influence of the city, civilisation and domesticity. American nature writer Annie Dillard summed up this masculinised view in the 1970s: ‘It’s impossible to imagine another situation where you can’t write a book ‘cause you weren’t born with a penis.' (Introduction)

'As an undergraduate in the 1980s, I took French translation classes with the famous Professor Colin Duckworth at Melbourne University. I was less impressed then than I am now at his story of sleeping in Voltaire’s own bed (sans Voltaire, needless to say); and we all did grow rather tired of hearing about Samuel Beckett, on whom he was a world authority. I had left university by the time he started acting in Neighbours; probably that would have impressed me most of all. However, his approach to language, as a writer, critic and translator, has stayed with me. He was superb at demonstrating the balance between accuracy and tone in the choice of words; how sometimes a less literal translation could more effectively capture meaning and mood. Nowhere is striking this balance more critical than in poetry.' (Introduction)

'Meditations on being and knowing habituate the text, whose speakers struggle to come to terms with their limitations: What can’t I know? What can’t I be? Stephen Edgar draws on a rich body of literature to explore ontologies and phenomenology, and crafts poems that are so dynamic, the reader will find him/herself in the text, throughout the text, as s/he asks new questions alongside the speakers, or perhaps identifies with one of the many voices that surface. Given the scope of philosophical and poetical thought from which the poet draws, not all referenced authors are mentioned explicitly. What one finds, then, is an intricate intertextuality in Edgar’s marvellous and marvelling tenth book, Exhibits of the Sun. In this way, form echoes content, in that what is seen or known is no more and no less important that what eludes one’s grasp.' (Introduction)

'How irresistible to review a novel that shares an almost identical title with your own: Cleanskin (2006), but in any case, Laura Bloom’s very accomplished third novel The Cleanskin differs from mine in subject and style.' (Introduction)

'Having signed at least three well-received books of poetry into the world, Michelle Cahill, established poet, sometime essayist, medical practitioner, and founding editor of Mascara (whose journal mandate is to publish migrant, Indigenous, and Asian-Australian work), has released her first compilation of short fiction. Cahill’s multiple and widely-ranging experience and talent infuse the oneiric volume with a dense heterogeneity: captivatingly cultivated, albeit sometimes to the point of sounding, looking, or seeming overly-contrived in its efforts to display a cutting-edge ‘post-something’ contemporaneity.' (Introduction(

'How does one go about the impossible task of capturing on paper the essence of living in India? How does one answer the question: how do you like India? A difficult question for most westerners who visit India – but for Anne Benjamin who married an Indian and went to live and work there in the 1980s, it’s even more profound.' (Introduction)

'Tim Winton spent his childhood in suburbia and on Australia’s west coast as described in his autobiography Land’s Edge (1993). He wrote his way to become the darling of Australian readers who enjoy his rich prose that evokes the south-western landscape of his native land. He can be regarded as a writer who has a close affinity with the people and especially the land that he holds in high regard in his stories. Winton’s coastal narratives invariably vividly depict rural communities functioning in harmony with the beach culture.' (Introduction)

'In 1934, the Australian National Travel Authority launched a quality illustrated geographic and tourism magazine, titled Walkabout: Australia and the South Seas. The 64-page magazine featured an eclectic array of ‘accessible, easy-to-read, informative’ articles featuring regions across Australia, and supported by superb photography, a crisp modern design and high production values.' (Introduction)

'Sometimes it is only possible to see something clearly by choosing to view it through a different perspective. Travel writing offers an insight into foreign places through the perspective of a foreigner. There are ethical considerations to keep in mind when providing a commentary on a place a person has only perused for a few hours or days, yet for travellers who take the time to immerse themselves long-term in a particular region, there can be much to learn from their insight.' (Introduction)