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.
Nia Sims is a writer, an ex-registered nurse and activist for the rights of the sick and disabled. She lives in Sunshine, Melbourne, with her mum. She volunteers with Go Gentle Australia. The five-minute film (18+ warning) about her experience of her father’s death in hospital can be viewed at stopthehorror.com and the writing that inspired the film is on the ‘story wall’ at the Go Gentle Australia website gogentleaustralia.org.au
