Overland literary journal

A reply to Windschuttle

There are more important issues to deal with right now. The ridiculous overreaction to protesters (rightly) chanting ‘shame’ and ‘racist’ at Tony Abbott (and seemingly also Julia Gillard) has been discussed, among other places, at Newmatilda, and at Crikey.

However, I’ve gotten into an argument with Keith Windschuttle. To which he replied. So I thought I’d try to briefly explain the argument.

My first article made a few basic points. Windschuttle is a very aggressive writer, who does not merely disagree with others: he insists that his ideological opponents have fabricated their claims, and his opponents amount to basically all of the relevant experts. Whitewash, for example, was basically the response of historians – the experts on the history of Indigenous-colonial conflict in Tasmania – to Windschuttle’s book sensational polemic. More recently, declaring that the issue of Stolen Generations was also marked by fabrication, Windschuttle said Robert Manne should ‘stand down from his position’ whilst an independent inquiry took place into his allegedly ‘false claims’. ... read more

Written by Michael Brull on 1-02-2012, 1 user comment

Otherland

Otherland
Maria Tumarkin
Random House

What initially drew me to reviewing historian Maria Tumarkin’s memoir, Otherland, was my interest in its themes. Maria left her birthplace, the Soviet Union, in 1989 as part of the Jewish emigration to Australia before the Berlin wall fell. The premise of Otherland is to tell the story of Maria’s trip back to her motherland with her teengage daughter, Billie. I haven’t read any of Maria’s other books and so I took on the project with a high level of enthusiasm – there are too few migrant stories by Australian authors and I am all for promoting them. But anyone who is familiar with my writing knows that I can be no less than honest and so apologies, in advance, to Maria (and Billie) for what I’m about to say because I feel like I have got to know them, on some level, through the narrative. There have been several discussions here on the blog about the state of the reviewing process but I am hoping that people understand this is just the opinion of one reader, which is entirely subjective. ... read more

Written by Koraly Dimitriadis on 31-01-2012, 3 user comments

Overland Occupy – an online special

The Occupy movement that spread across the globe in 2011 saw a revival of extra-parliamentary politics and sweeping debates about the idea of democracy. It was a movement ignited by the Arab Spring, but one that spread all over the world, including to Australia.

Overland put a callout for an Occupy issue last year. Since then, the movement’s circumstances have changed considerably – Occupy Melbourne no longer resides in City Square, Occupy Sydney has no permanent camp. Can the movement continue now that many of the occupations no longer have a demarcated physical space? ... read more

Written by Jacinda Woodhead on 30-01-2012, No comments

The Tent Embassy protests – a lesson in overreaction and social context

The Australia Day Tent Embassy Protest – was it one of the Nation’s gravest political security threats? A bit of an overreaction? A media beat-up perhaps? Or was there something deeper going on ...

The protests were sparked by comments made by the Opposition Leader Tony Abbott that those at the Tent Embassy ‘move on’ after celebrating its 40th anniversary. Some 200 activists from the Embassy traveled to a nearby ceremony honouring emergency service workers, which was attended by both Abbott and Prime Minister Gillard. After several minutes of chants and window banging, the Prime Minister’s security team decide to bundle both Gillard and Abbott out of the ceremony, where Gillard tripped and lost a shoe in the drama. Both leaders were put into cars, allowing for their departure. ... read more

Written by Neil Robertson on 30-01-2012, 4 user comments

Occupied

Today is the 40th anniversary of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy. I spent the morning reading about it and watching archival footage like that included below. It is Australia’s longest running continuous protest, one that has occupied Parliament lawn for four decades despite police intimidation, perpetual harassment and being legislated against. It began when four young Aboriginal men from Australia's Black Power movement pitched an umbrella in response to William McMahon's announcement that there would be ‘no Aboriginal title’ to Australian land. ... read more

Written by Jacinda Woodhead on 26-01-2012, 14 user comments

On the 71-year-old literary journal Meanjin

Meanjin, Vol 70 No 4 (December 2011)
Sally Heath (ed)

The seventy-one-year-old literary journal Meanjin is looking elegant and rejuvenated since Sally Heath took over as editor in 2011. This is the third edition she has edited and the second to enjoy the new design makeover. White paper stock and clear typeface, use of blank space at the head of each pages (used for notes in red where necessary) and elegant cover design are all welcome improvements.

As for the content, the editorial choices are not significantly changed. An imprint of Melbourne University Press, Meanjin still feels scholarly. The preferred genre is the essay, dealing not just with literature but with broader social, political and cultural issues. The first 130 pages of the 200-page journal are devoted to essays, punctuated by the occasional poem. This is followed by a selection of memoir; a fascinating text/

Written by Carol Middleton on 25-01-2012, No comments

Iconic writing program flounders

This is how it happens. Inch by inch standards are lowered. You pay more for inferior quality. You shop around but realize they're all selling the same stuff. And you wonder, how did it come to this?

The highly regarded RMIT TAFE Diploma of Professional Writing & Editing (RMIT PWE) program is no more. The program will be offered as an associate degree this year charging $5648 a year in fees.

An associate degree is exactly the same as an advanced diploma but is considered a higher degree qualification so you pay more.

I ran RMIT PWE from 1997–2000 and was its program director until 2004. When I left, it cost $500 to study full time at RMIT PWE. The new fees are an increase of 1000 percent. Over the previous 20 years its fees had risen by $100.00. ... read more

Written by Malcolm King on 24-01-2012, 26 user comments

On Southerly and Australian-transnational writing

Southerly, Vol 71 – Modern Mobilities: Australian-Transnational Writing
David Brooks (ed)

What is the Australian identity? This question is posed every three years during a Federal election, with each party claiming to be more ‘Australian’ than the other. The simple truth of the matter is that the Australian identity is a combination of all identities, all nations combining into one giant multicultural casserole pot; at the time of the 2006 Census, 43 percent of all Australians were born overseas or had at least one parent who was born overseas. ... read more

Written by Mark William Jackson on 23-01-2012, 4 user comments

Examining Australia’s colonial history

An interview with Yhonnie Scarce

Fifteen black figures, crafted from blown glass, hang from white rope that has been tied around their necks. Carefully arranged in the shape of a crucifix, these hanging bodies represent the destructive impact that colonialism, and the introduction of Christianity to Australia, has had on Aboriginal life and cultural traditions. Named What they Wanted, this solemn artwork, which is on the cover of the current edition of Overland, is the creation of Yhonnie Scarce. Born in Woomera, South Australia, Scarce majored in glassmaking from the South Australian School of Art. In 2011 she was a finalist in the Victorian Indigenous Art Awards, and she has recently returned from a trip to New York where her work Burial Ground was included in an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts. Influenced by her indigenous background – Scarce belongs to the Kokatha and Nukunu peoples – her work often explores the effects of colonialisation on the Aboriginal people, in both historic and contemporary contexts. We spoke to Scarce about her work that graces our latest cover and about her artistic practice. ... read more

Written by Roselina Press on 20-01-2012, No comments

Why women aren’t provocative

Unclench your fists, please. Relax. The title has nothing to do with women, but everything to do with provocation. It’s a title that I’m sure has raised your eyebrows. Unfortunately, if you are expecting a sexist diatribe, you will be disappointed. The title is a rather playful representation of a trend toward gratuitous provocation in contemporary journalism and commentary. Usually, this trend both angers and disappoints readers, and rightly so.

Now, while provocation is not in itself a bad thing, to be meaningful and significant it really needs to serve some kind of wider purpose. It is not enough to merely provoke.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that much intellectual discourse is characterised by contrariness. What I mean is that a steady stream of evaluations, considerations and challenges to ideas, ideologies and ‘common sense’ notions is a necessary component for cultural improvement. In order to adjust our views, a certain degree of intellectual provocation is necessary. ... read more

Written by Matthew Sini on 18-01-2012, 4 user comments

La Dispute

I always like it when my favourite things join together, like when I find radical politics in speculative fiction or, in the case of unique band La Dispute, spoken word within hardcore music.

Since my introduction to spoken word, I always had an inkling that there was a relationship to hardcore music, a genre I’ve loved for some time. In my own work, I’ve been influenced by bands such as Carpathian, but never had hard evidence to show that the two fields were connected.

That was until I came across La Dispute, a band from Grand Rapids, Michigan, whom I discovered through photos of their gig in a warehouse. The first track ‘Such Small Hands’, from their debut album Somewhere Between Alter and Vega, struck me for its use of spoken word rather than singing. But throughout the album vocalist Jordan Dreyer straddles the line between speaking, singing and screaming, sometimes barely able to control his voice as he works himself up, pushing out lyrics carried by the heavy guitars underneath. ... read more

Written by Benjamin Solah on 17-01-2012, 1 user comment

Ron Paul: next president or protofascist?

There’s a joke on the new tumblr, Shit Liberals Say To Radicals, that goes, ‘Sure, Obama’s not perfect, but consider the alternative.’ Followed by the fine print, ‘I did, it’s called socialism.’

It’s amusing, especially so given the debate that has occurred on Twitter and around the blogosphere this past fortnight. Discussion in Australia was spurred by the post ‘Progressives and the Ron Paul fallacies’, by left-leaning libertarian Glenn Greenwald, a blogger frequently read by the Australian left because of his obsession with America’s declining empire. ... read more

Written by Jacinda Woodhead on 13-01-2012, 32 user comments

For the patriarch

For the patriarch
Angelo Loukakis
Krinos

The glowing endorsement on the front of this collection of short stories is from Patrick White and at first glance I thought ‘What? Did he speak from beyond the grave?’ but my confusion was short-lived. This is a new publication of Angelo Loukakis’ 1981 volume. The original won a prize in the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards that year and was on the HSC syllabus from 1986 until 2001. So it is possible that many people reading this review will be familiar with this set text and I am interested to see if anyone comments on it. Set texts can have the life analysed out of them but if you are lucky you remember them fondly and might want to give it another go. I have been meaning to re-read Greenvoe by George Mackay Brown for a while now. ... read more

Written by Rhona Hammond on 12-01-2012, 3 user comments

Sunday penalties and restaurants – not exactly a brave new world

Yesterday, web pages were aflutter with comments by celebrity chef George Calombaris about the high cost of paying staff to work on weekends.

An article in The Power Index reported Calombaris complaining that he’s looking down the barrel of paying his restaurant staff ‘$40 an hour on Sundays ... and it's not like they've had to go to uni for 15 years’.

‘The problem is that wages on public holidays and weekends greatly exceed the opportunity for profit … it’s just not a good business practice to be paying penalty rates. It’s really difficult to stay open and we only do it because of tourism but the reality is it’s uneconomical,’ he said.
‘So our labour laws are something that need to be looked at and we keep talking about it.’ ... read more

Written by Isy Burns on 11-01-2012, 6 user comments