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Rudd’s three red threads

Given that we have until 23 May to review the new National Curriculum, I recently shouldered my civic duty and had a look. What caught my attention was this: there will be three ‘cross-curriculum dimensions’ running through the main subject areas of English, math, science and history. These are ‘Indigenous history and culture’, ‘Asia and Australia's engagement with Asia’ and ‘sustainability’. Bereft in an ocean of board-approved phrases, I tried to figure out exactly what this meant.

Christopher Pyne, Shadow Minister for Education, has criticised the curriculum for its ‘over-emphasis on Indigenous culture and history’ and the ‘entire blotting out of our British traditions and heritage’. He identified the ‘118 references in the document to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people and culture’ in comparison to the absence of one reference to Parliament, Westminster or the Magna Carta. He has described the new curriculum as a return to the ‘black armband’ view of history, whereby bleeding-heart liberals attempt to politically correct errors of the past at the expense of education. ... read more

Written by Kate Simonian on 22-03-2010, 6 user comments

Richard Dawkins is in the country

In case you weren't aware, the ever charming, frypan-hating Richard Dawkins is in the country. (If you are unfamiliar with Dawkins, he's the man God created to illustrate irony.) The Dawks has been appearing around the place getting his knickers in a twist about people who think there might be things science just can't explain, or be applied to. Admittedly, I did not attend his performance at the Sydney Opera House, but am 'lead to believe' (sorry, Richard) that it took on the nature of a lecture rather than an operatic aria. (This is fitting as there is no way of scientifically measuring artistic poignancy or recreating it in a static environment, so it probably doesn't exist.)

Nor was I at the Atheist Convention in Melbourne on the weekend, so it is possible that he said nothing at all about his objections to the existence of anything science can't explain. However if one is to read his books and then apply the law of averages to discover the probability of him mentioning these topics at the convention, one will find the probability very high. Given this scientific application, I doubt Dawkins would object to me making assumptions. (It is also worth noting that he has nothing against picking one-liners from various texts and putting them out of context. There is a low to medium probability that I will do this here, and I will endeavour not use his rather elastic principles on this practice as an excuse.) ... read more

Written by Claire Zorn on 19-03-2010, 25 user comments

Literary inspirations – an interview with Christos Tsiolkas

As an aspiring writer, it’s helpful to have successful published writers believe in you and your writing. When I approached Christos Tsiolkas at an ‘in conversation’ at Readings in Carlton almost two years ago, I never would have imagined that I would have gained not only an inspirational mentor, but a good friend.

Apart from providing feedback on multiple drafts of my manuscript, Misplaced, he’s also talked me through dark moments in my writing, and provided wisdom on the challenges in the publishing industry. Being from similar backgrounds, Christos has encouraged me to rise above cultural pressures and to tell my story without fear.

Mid last year, I interviewed Christos for forty minutes, asking him questions that would help aspiring and emerging writers. An article based on the interview, ‘Christos Tsiolkas on Faith’, was published in the Emerging Writers Festival’s The Reader. I was only able to cover about one-third of the content discussed with Christos in the article. After listening to the interview, I thought other emerging and aspiring writers would find it helpful and insightful. Thank you to Christos for allowing me to release it. ... read more

Written by Koraly Dimitriadis on 19-03-2010, No comments

Hope, change and predator drones

This week I'm going to Melbourne for the launch party of the second issue of another literary journal, where I'll be reading an excerpt from my story 'Meeting the Colonel', set in a fictional dictatorship somewhere around the Hindu Kush, in a loosely real maravilloso style. I blush when it read it now, with its awkward narrative structure and thinly veiled polemicising – it’s been two years since I wrote it, and I haven’t been writing fiction for much longer than that. (Does one hate ones old work less with time? I hope so.)

A more serious problem for a politically motivated storyteller is the danger of being overtaken by events; as with fashion, twenty years distance is interesting, two years is merely outdated. Many things have changed. Most significant for the ‘war on terror’ was the regime change in Washington. Obama’s inauguration had a profound symbolic resonance beyond the borders of the USA, as eulogised by reggae singjay Sizzla in Black Man in the White House. Expectations were high around the world that a new, benign American foreign policy would replace the bloodshed and turmoil of the Bush years. ... read more

Written by Joshua Mostafa on 18-03-2010, 7 user comments

Cradle to Cradle

'Cradle to Cradle'I've been reading a lot of non-fiction lately, looking for some kind of consensus about what kind of future we're facing, and exactly what sort of thing we should be doing in order to deal with that. Sadly, while there is general consensus that the environment and human society are in sad shape, there's not a lot of definitive advice beyond the usual ‘lobby your government to be better’.

So I approached Cradle to Cradle with enthusiasm, thinking, Finally, a book with prescriptive advice, instead of another one describing the problems – a book about how our society should be restructured! (I realise there are a few around, but I find most books with ideas about how to actually change things are usually twenty years out-of-date, think Who Owns the Sun?). ... read more

Written by Georgia Claire on 17-03-2010, 5 user comments

Lip service

Members of the Liberal Party have been creating a minor storm about the matter of Indigenous recognition. In statements made to the Adelaide Advertiser yesterday, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott implied that formal recognition of traditional owners at the beginning of significant events is superficial and unnecessary. ‘I guess this is the kind of genuflection to political correctness that [Labor ministers] feel they have to make’ he said. ‘Sometimes it’s appropriate to do those things, but certainly I think in many contexts it seems like out-of-place tokenism.’ Liberal backbencher Wilson Tuckey weighed in a few hours later, claiming such recognition was a ‘farce’, while Senator Eric Abetz called it ‘outdated’ and a ‘fad’. ... read more

Written by Stephanie Convery on 16-03-2010, 13 user comments

The Monday review – all out of words

Sometimes you have those days where thought is drowned out by all the other noise and you're simply moving in circles. So I’ll let these writers use their words to say everything better.

1. ‘In creeps political conservatism’ by Marieke Hardy

And they put it out there, they set it out amongst us and let it seep. They're well aware of it, each and every word. The 'beauty and danger' nonsense, the 'gays', the 'dignified wives'. We watch and listen. In it goes, in it goes.

2. 'A lover of Israel' by Gideon Levy

It isn't Purim every day, so I'll allow myself this madness: to dress up as a lover of Israel. Not the kind I consider myself to be in any case - that is, no less a lover of Israel than my readers - but the sort that is the total opposite of a traitor and an Israel hater.

... read more

Written by Jacinda Woodhead on 16-03-2010, 2 user comments

The elephant in the room

So lets get to it. I live outside the village of Nimbin, in northern New South Wales, on a property that overlooks Nimbin Rocks, a 40 million year-old geological formation that is a sacred site for the Bundjalung nation and was once a burial ground for the Clever Men of the Widjyabal people.

The Nimbin Rocks

Fortunately – and as odd as it may seem to say this – the Rocks are on private land, on one of the many local communes that ring Nimbin. Indigenous people still have access to the site, and are engaged in a large-scale bush regeneration project there, but the restricted access ensures that tourists are not free to climb the Rocks (and shit all over them), as is the case with Uluru. ... read more

Written by Stephen Wright on 15-03-2010, 25 user comments

Is it a must?

'10 Short Stories You Must Read This Year'Surely there is nothing better than sitting, book in hand, in Tilley’s (for the uninitiated, one of Canberra’s most iconic and deliciously moody cafes named after the infamous Kings Cross prostitute Tilley Devine). Sunlight drips languorously through lime-coloured leaves, with the smells of cinnamon and nutmeg rising from my glass of chai. And this: 10 Short Stories You Must Read This Year. The book has sat in a pile on my bedside table gathering dust for some time. Has been passed over repeatedly in favour of other books, and all because of its title. Shouted at me in caps, it makes me wary. ... read more

Written by Irma Gold on 12-03-2010, 3 user comments

Literary littlies

Sometimes I think having a writer for a parent (let alone for two of your parents) is a form of child abuse. My long weekend was full of literary commentary from my four-year-old. Here are the best of the lot, verbatim:

1.
If William Winkle (Wee Willie Winkie) comes while I’m sleeping and tries to shove me in his sack, will you and Mama S grab great big sticks and bash him like an enormous piñata?

2.
Why do I always have to wear clothes when Mowgli (of Jungle Book fame) gets to go naked every day?

3.
Little Red Riding Hood’s Mama should take her to an op shop so she can get some other different coloured hoods nice and cheap.

4.
In real life, would Goldilocks go to jail?

5.
So why do the other animals still always listen to Brer Anancy when all he does is trick them every day? Why don’t they learn? ... read more

Written by Maxine Clarke on 11-03-2010, 1 user comment

105 000 tattoos

While we’re on politics and art and setting things on fire, Iraqi American artist Wafaa Bilal is trying to grapple with the enormity of the death toll in Iraq. In this video, courtesy of Democracy Now, he discusses his latest project, …and Counting – a 24-hour live tattooing performance. He also talks about his previous projects, what drives him, the death of his brother and life in Iraq.

Art does not have to be confined to a physical space, the gallery or museums, but now we have the power of the internet, when we could enter people’s homes and offices and engage them in the dialogue. Art is not only there to educate. Art is there to agitate, as well.

... read more

Written by Jacinda Woodhead on 11-03-2010, No comments

‘Freedom’

In the absence of security, I made my way into the night, with 40 000 others, to Edihad Stadium for the George Michael concert. Nostalgia lingered in the warm Melbourne night. My reasons for wanting to see George Michael went beyond his exceptional voice – it was also to reconnect with memories of dress ups and cat-walking around the living room with my cousins to George’s 'Too funky'.

George Michael‘Here I am, Australia,’ he sang from stage wings as the lights in Edihad dimmed to cameras and mobiles sparkling like Christmas lights. His performance certainly resonated with that statement – here are my songs, songs drawn from my life, a life I’m proud of, a life I stand by. He seemed a little reluctant to hit the high notes to begin with – instantly I was sceptical. I don’t usually attend concerts in large stadiums; not only do they lack in intimacy, but the acoustics in the arena require an exceptionally powerful voice. It didn’t take George long to settle in and the performance quickly escalated to each song being on par, if not better, than his recorded voice. ... read more

Written by Koraly Dimitriadis on 9-03-2010, 4 user comments

The Monday review – write what you think when you think about Afghanistan

I've had this idea about writing lately that just won’t be stilled. Not wholly my idea (as if they exist) and it’s not limited to, though this review focuses on, writing.

The idea goes like this: perhaps there is something unhealthy about the state of writing today in Melbourne, in Australia, around the world.

Too often it seems our writers, our institutions, our courses and our practices are steeped in introspection, at times, to the neglect of the external world. We are transfixed by the personal, by our own experiences of what it's like to move through and inhabit this world. Write what you know, we are told. And the only things we know are our experiences and our inner world. Alternatively, we write what no-one knows, as in genre fiction, where the world is imagined. ... read more

Written by Jacinda Woodhead on 8-03-2010, 26 user comments

Feminism is more than a memory

In case you missed it, it’s International Women’s Day (IWD) this week. There’ll be the usual celebrations, most not that well attended, and a few feminists getting together to look back on past victories. But the feminist agenda, which in simple terms seeks equality for women, appears to have stalled.

Feminists have never been part of the mainstream, though I was surprised when teaching a class of university students a few years back, at the venom directed at feminists. It seems the old stereotypes – man-haters, lesos, unattractive – still hold. When I asked the students what they thought feminists wanted, answers included cutting off men’s balls, world rule (looking back on history lends the latter misconception some merit) and a good fuck. ... read more

Written by Trish Bolton on 8-03-2010, 4 user comments

Booklovers, where to from here?

KindleAs a writer, and as a reader, I am daunted by the digital age. Perhaps this is because I am not technically savvy, but I think the fears are more deeply rooted. Writing that is only published in a digital form seems less permanent and more vulnerable to being tampered with or lost and forgotten. Yet at the same time, I can see that new technology is valuable and holds great potential for the writing industry.

If I were to publish a book, I want to be able to hold it, turn its pages and admire its spine on my bookshelf. I’d like to have a book launch and sign copies for people who want to buy it. To put the work into writing a book, actually find a willing publisher and then only have it available in a digital form seems like training for the Olympics, winning and not receiving a gold medal. Is this my own vanity and inability to embrace the technical direction that society is choosing? ... read more

Written by Lina Vale on 5-03-2010, 15 user comments