AustLit

'Our first editorial of 2020 reflected on the profound impact that bushfires would have on Australian society. The devastation of the bushfires has since been dwarfed by a pandemic and a global revolt in response to the murder of George Floyd by police in the United States. The fires and the pandemic each show that our attempts to control nature are as futile as ever, while the Black Lives Matter protests lay bare another profound failure. Each of these events has brought into stark reality the structures of inequality that govern our lives. This issue looks to questions of identity in settler societies, to the history and contemporary legacies of racism embedded within them, and to the alternatives available through multicultural identities, and through popular democracy and protest.' (Editorial introduction)