AustLit
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Presents work from the 2017 Writers' Development Program, supported by the Copyright Agency's Cultural Fund.
Notes
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Only literary material by Australian authors individually indexed. Other material in this issue includes:
Durer’s Hare by David Mohan
Star Atlas by Alison Martin
The Secret Life of Mud by Jane Monson
Against the Wedding Invitation Ampersand by Matt Robinson
Mother TV: Posthumous Greeting for My Beloved Disbelievers, Played on Loop by Ranjani Murali
from a Meghalaya Travelogue by Nitoo Das
Before Sunrise by Tsering Wangmo Dhompa
Coming Home by Suvi Mahonen
Terrace Talk by Fan Dai
Duoyishu, Bada, Tiger’s Mouth by Mandy Coe
Do Not Ask a Mountain for Its Passport by Luis H.
Mutations 1 by Priya Sarukkai Chabria Francia
Excerpt from ‘The New China’ by Jonathan Morley
Excerpt from ‘exercising the edge’ by Kristina Hočevar
Contents
- Westerly Windi"Out on the back deck a new amputation,", single work poetry (p. 12)
- Inoculationi"soak your head in the sun swathe", single work poetry (p. 14-15)
- Toqburneh, single work prose (p. 16-27)
- Elizabeth Quay Approachingi"our little electric ferry slips", single work poetry (p. 28)
- Lean Streetsi"Sittin' here, at Cook, watchin' people eat", single work poetry (p. 29)
- Anakissi"dust on skin-", single work poetry (p. 30-31)
- Charlottei"Blessed Native Institution - Albany", single work poetry (p. 32)
- Blood-Sonnet Chronicles, sequence poetry (p. 32-33)
- Edithi"Sharp fence-lines teach this Orphan Girl to wait", single work poetry (p. 33)
- Gracei"Darkness - consumes all damp dappled chills", single work poetry (p. 33)
- Love Lane (The Work of Writing), single work prose (p. 34-36)
- From : Binary Tree Poemsi"This state exterminated the emu, the Palawa, the thylacine", single work poetry (p. 37)
- Stilli"there is a stillness i require", single work poetry (p. 38)
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Green Shadows : Venturing into Gerald Murnane’s Plains,
single work
prose
'I have been delivered of my books.'
These words hang in the air as Gerald Murnane confirms his retirement during a rare address to around thirty academics, writers, publishers and fans at the Goroke Golf Club. The one-day symposium, 'Another World in This One : Gerald Murnane's Fiction, is part of the Western Sydney University's 'Other Worlds: Forms of World Literature' project. On first glance it is a curious connection: how can the life work of an author who has rarely left the small pockets of Victoria, suburban Melbourne and a few regional villages and towns that he has called home for eighty years inform us about a literature of the 'world'?' (Introduction)
- Soni"what makes me notice the vine leaves curling", single work poetry (p. 48)
- After the Late Night Joysi"Soft thud of a snuff box closing, and the glitter", single work poetry (p. 56)
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Outing the Unwritten : Reflections on Academia and the Field in Bangladesh,
single work
essay
'Always there remain alternate versions of your official research project - half written then abandoned, scratched in the margin of a book, or descending through your brain cloud at 2am only to evaporate upon waking. These unrealised versions have their own validity. They could even be described as the purest kind of enquiry, unfettered by the format that research proper must follow to be recognised and accepted.' (Introduction)
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Katitjin Ngulluckiny Boodjera : Kura, Yeye Mila Boorda,
single work
essay
'As a nop (boy) and later as I grew into a mamman (man) I travelled on many many bidi (roads), driving past a lot of placenames and signage across the south-western boodjera, or Nyungar country. At first, as a family, we drove out mainly from Walwalingup (Fremantle), up South Street, across to Armadale Road, left onto Albany Highway and right onto Brookton Highway. Over the coastal plains, up and onto the Kaarta (Darling Ranges), out through the forests and eventually to the cleared paddocks to the east until we reached Kalkarni (the home fire —Brockton) (Thomas). The Nyungar placenames always caught my attention—towns, national parks, hills, rivers, streams, forests and railway sidings—standing tall like sentinels, their words in my language telling the direction and distance to the destinations that I journeyed to many times with my family and loved ones. Whether driving through the day or night, the placenames always haunted me, mile after mile, and later, kilometre after kilometre. Many of the signs I didn't understand nor was I able to read them properly and so I didn't know what they were really saying to me. But the signage always stood patiently by the roadside as though waiting to reflect a coded message to me.' (Introduction)
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Sovereign Peoples, Sovereign Stories : Welcomes and Acknowledgements of Country in Aboriginal Worldviews,
single work
essay
'The protocols of Acknowledgement and Welcome to Country have become a common practice at the commencement of official or public events across Australia. However, there are profound differences between Indigenous and non-Indigenous understandings of what these protocols mean. At the core of these differences are contrasting notions of sovereignty. Historically, Western legal traditions allowed colonising nations to claim ownership of land without forming sustainable relationships with the life of that land, But Aboriginal concepts of belonging always required that we looked after all the life forms that made up our homelands and that we respected the right of other peoples to be 'boss' in their own Countries. A better understanding of Welcome and Acknowledgement protocols by non-Indigenous peoples can lead to more respectful relationships with Indigenous peoples and with our homelands. ' (Introduction)
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The Risks of Question Time : Not So Black and White,
single work
essay
'At Perth Festival Writers Week, in February 2018, I was privileged to participate in an all-First Nations panel on Indigenous Australian literature. There has been on in almost every writers' festival I have attended and I have been honoured to participate in a few of them. It is important that these platforms exist so that Indigenous voices can be heard and so that people who wish to hear from us can have that opportunity.' (Introduction)