AustLit

'Child adoption practices in twentieth century Australia were largely reliant on Christian agencies to facilitate the separation of child from mother and the subsequent re-homing of that child with others, almost always married couples referred as suitable parents by their local minister or priest. Stories told by adoptees are frequently stories of loss, grief and abandonment, as recorded in memoir, government inquiries and research studies. The creative work presented in this paper is titled another Exodus: men women leaving children. In this work I chose to ‘embody’ the ‘shell’ of the King James Version of the first two chapters in Exodus, a book in the Bible’s Old Testament. The work forms part of my broader study of experimental writing, in this case combining a bricolage approach to research with the hermit crab form of the lyric essay, undertaken during my creative practices research. The reader is invited to form fresh, and perhaps transformed, understandings of the impact of the Christian churches’ role in adoption policy and practice in Australia, and the subsequent effects of that influence and intervention on our collective cultural and emotional psyche.'

'The revelatory story of the Bible in Australia, from the convict era to the Mabo land rights campaign, Nick Cave, the Bra Boys, and beyond. Thought to be everything from the word of God to a resented imposition, the Bible has been debated, painted, rejected, translated, read, gossiped about, preached, and tattooed.

'At a time when public discussion of religion is deeply polarised, Meredith Lake reveals the Bible’s dynamic influence in Australia and offers an innovative new perspective on Christianity and its changing role in our society. In the hands of writers, artists, wowsers, Bible-bashers, immigrants, suffragists, evangelists, unionists, Indigenous activists, and many more – the Bible has played a defining and contested role in Australia.

'A must-read for sceptics, the curious, the lapsed, the devout, the believer, and non-believer. ' (Publication summary)

'Biblical literacy is likely lower in Australia today than at any point since the convict era. General levels of familiarity with the Christian scriptures are difficult to plot precisely, but studies of Bible reading habits, and data on various forms of Christian socialisation, indicate a significant decline in Australians’ exposure to the Bible over the last half century.'  (Introduction)