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.
Jessica McLean's doctorate looked at water matters with a focus on the Ord catchment in northern Australia, working with Indigenous people in that region, and has published journal articles from this research. She is currently a Human Geography Lecturer at Macquarie University where she teaches a course aiming to rethink resource management to centre often marginalised positions in decision making processes and outcomes. Twitter: @jess_emma_mc.
