Published in Overland Issue The Oodgeroo Noonuccal Poetry Prize · Uncategorized Highly recommended: A poem about community John Graham The braille of our nation’s Soul Like someone putting their hand up Like someone digging deep The braille of our nation’s Soul You feel it across all communities And all communities feel it Feeling our way, young and old We’re all feeling our way, For a feeling called home The nature of our tears, is to find a home in each other’s eyes, find some reason, some way, between the tides The nature of our blood is to find, every other heart that’s not our own, and still recognise home Image: ‘Braille’ / flickr John Graham John Graham is of Aboriginal and European blood, namely Kombumerri, Waka Waka, Gamilaroi and Irish, Scottish, English blood. The affirmation ‘Stories make us and Stories keep us’ helps John navigate the interesting times we all live in. Everyone is free to touch the ground and start from there. More by John Graham › Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays 17 January 202517 January 2025 · rape culture Neil Gaiman and the political economy of rape Emmy Rakete The interactions between Gaiman, Palmer, Pavlovich, and the couple’s young child are all outlined in Shapiro’s article. There is, though, another figure in the narrative whom the article does not name. Auckland city itself is a silent participant in the abuse that Pavlovich suffered. Auckland is not just the place where these things happen to have occurred: this is a story about Auckland. 20 December 202420 December 2024 · Reviews Slippery totalities: appendices on oil and politics in Australia and beyond Scott Robinson Kurmelovs writes at this level of confusion and contradiction for an audience whose unspoken but vaguely progressive politics he takes for granted and yet whose assumed knowledge resembles that of an outraged teenager. There should be a young adult genre of political journalism to accommodate books like this.
