The Nauru Diaries single work   essay  
Issue Details: First known date: 2018... 2018 The Nauru Diaries
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'For those who’ve come across the seas…

'It doesn’t take long to break a man. You can do it in a second, in one punch, one judgment handed down, one small gesture. I’ve seen it happen: a sudden crumpling of the features, a devastating blow. I’ve remembered those occasions, viewed them as significant; to watch someone once full of life die, to be replaced by a shattered husk, is humbling.

'To watch someone break over a period of months was a different thing altogether. To see eyes go from shining to dull, to watch shoulders slowly droop and hang, as if the arms themselves were too heavy. To hear the tone of bored resignation slowly take over a voice, dulling it until only a monosyllabic version of the previous incantation remained; for a man to become a hopeless case, no longer even angry enough to fight against the injustice of it all, was something I’d never seen. That’s what I saw as a doctor on Nauru working for International Health and Medical Services (IHMS).' (Introduction)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Meanjin vol. 77 no. 1 Autumn 2018 13393559 2018 periodical issue

    'March Meanjin features the Nauru Diaries of former Royal Navy doctor Nick Martin. What he found in the Australian detention centre 'was way more traumatic than anything I'd seen in Afghanistan'. You'll also read Paul Daley on Indigenous history, statues and strange commemorations, Omar Sakr and Dennis Altman on the same sex marriage vote and Fiona Wright on Australia in three books. There's new fiction from Laura McPhee-Browne, Peter Polites, John Kinsella and Paul Dalla Rosa and a fine selection of new poetry from the likes of Stephen Edgar, Chris Wallace-Crabbe, Marjorie Main and Judith Beveridge.' (Jonathan Green Introduction)

    2018
    pg. 46-64
Last amended 25 Feb 2021 07:46:55
46-64 The Nauru Diariessmall AustLit logo Meanjin
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Subjects:
  • c
    Nauru,
    c
    South Pacific, Pacific Region,
  • Manus Island,
    c
    Papua New Guinea,
    c
    Pacific Region,
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