Overland 254 is the first in a set of four special editions dedicated to commemorating 70 years of Overland. This issue also launches a new design and format by Common Room Editions, inspired by Overland’s trove of radical literature spanning from 1954 to today. Andrew Brooks and Astrid Lorange consider the asymmetrical responses to two events: the wearing of keffiyehs by three cast members during the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Anton Chekov’s The Seagull, and, on the same day in the US, the shooting of three Palestinian men wearing keffiyehs. Jeff Sparrow uncovers the Sydney Herald’s legacy of Terra Nullius, and Daniel Lopez writes on Marx, Meredith and the festival as an inversion of modern life.
Anna Carlson (she / they) is a white settler researcher, community organiser, radio producer and illustrator, currently based in Meanjin/Brisbane. Anna is a current PhD candidate in the School of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Queensland, a long-time organiser with the Brisbane Free University, and producer and presenter of Radio Reversal on 4zzz.