Published in Overland Issue 252 Spring 2023 · Uncategorized Editorial Evelyn Araluen and Jonathan Dunk We confess that this is our second run of this editorial. In the first version, written as pieces were being finalised in late September, we wrote towards the uncertain result of the referendum; we knew our statements would likely arrive in your letterbox as a spectral gesture towards a future not yet calcified to the seam of meanness that often stains the grain of the settler heart. We watched this colony weigh how far it would persist in the collective fiction WEH Stanner diagnosed as settlement’s constitutive occlusion of Aboriginal reality; that has borne on each of us differently. The Uluru Statement from the Heart was not supported by all Indigenous people, and some found its intentionally generous framing to be precipitately conciliatory. Similarly, the proposed Voice informed by that statement didn’t have complete support in community and shouldn’t be invested with claims of a lost Utopia. Even so, watching the majority of the settlers on stolen land reject even such minimal terms has starkly clarified the failed project of reconciliation that has already demanded so much from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities. Now, however, the temptation to linger on the politics of symbolic recognition and constitutional reform seems a luxury in the face of the escalating violence against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Our hearts have been deeply pained by the stories, images and videos from civilians and journalists on the ground. As we write today, our feet and throats are sore from last night’s solidarity march led by Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance and Free Palestine Melbourne. Throughout this horror, we’ve read and reread Palestinian-Australian writer and historian Micaela Sahhar’s lyrical archival response in this edition, which reminds us of Overland’s historic role in indexing Palestinian survival and resistance. We remain steadfast in our commitment to the Palestinian struggle, and are grateful for the writers and activists on the ground who have joined arms with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Now, more than ever, we must remember the great Aunty Lilla Watson’s words: “If you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” Bugalwan and solidarity, Evelyn Araluen and Jonathan Dunk Evelyn Araluen Evelyn Araluen is a Goorie and Koori poet, researcher and co-editor of Overland Literary Journal. Her Stella-prize winning poetry collection DROPBEAR was published by UQP in 2021. She lectures in Literature and Creative Writing at Deakin University. More by Evelyn Araluen › Jonathan Dunk Jonathan Dunk is the co-editor of Overland, a widely published poet and scholar. He lives on Wurundjeri country. More by Jonathan Dunk › 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 18 December 202418 December 2024 · Nakata Brophy Prize Dawning in the rivulet of my father’s mourning Yasmin Smith My father floats words down Toonooba each morning. They arrive to me by noon. / Nothing diminishes in his unfolding, not even the currents in midwinter June. / He narrates the sky prehistorically like a cadence cutting him into deluge. 16 December 202416 December 2024 · Palestine Learning to see in the dark Alison Martin Images can represent a splice of reality from the other side of the world, mirror truths about ourselves and our collective humanity we can hardly bear to face. But we can also use them to recognise the patterns of dehumanisation that have manifested throughout history, and prevent their awful conclusions in the present. To rewrite in real time our most shameful histories before they are re-made on the world stage and in our social media feeds.
