AustLit

'At this year’s Australian Women’s History Network Symposium ‘The Past is a Position: History, Activism and Privilege’, Dr Chelsea Bond urged that the past is not a position; it is ever-present. If historical representations of Aboriginal women are products of their time, Bond posed, ‘what time are we in now?’1 She suggested that stories and representations of Aboriginal women continue to enact the damage of colonial constructions. The statement resonated with those who attended as Dr Bond, Associate Professor Barbara Baird and Professor Suvendrini Perera reflected on the ways in which their academic work intersected with their activism. Beyond the symposium, the presence of the past, our past, and the academic and political conflict over its meanings and legacies, has not eased its heavy weight on the intellectual and emotional labour of feminist academics in 2018.' (Georgina Rychner : Editorial introduction)