The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.
'Oodgeroo Noonuccal is widely acknowledged as a distinguished poet of determination and brilliance. She was also one of the heroes of the Aboriginal struggle for justice in the 1960s, known for her work as an activist, educator and public speaker. Her poetry educated Australians – and people throughout the world – on the plight of Aboriginal people. And she triumphantly let the world know through her poetry that the Australian style was not hers. In “Not My Style”, she yearned for a new time in this country: “I want to do / The things I have not done. / Not just taste the nectar of Gods / But drown in it too.”' (Introduction)
'Stranded in London during lockdown, Rebecca Giggs took to the streets and recorded the changed lives around her, as her thoughts turned to Orwell and Henry Miller, to plagues, to eels, to decorative cakes, and to what might be done in the belly of a whale.'
'Dust billows off drought-ridden farmlands in the Australian crime drama The Dry, but the only consolation to be had is tears. An unsettling mystery, the film moves at a sombre, measured pace. The plot is less concerned with sudden twists than in allowing the parched milieu and wary locals to reveal the desperation and deceit that has taken hold. When a local farmer, Luke Hadler, shoots his wife and son dead before turning the shotgun on himself, the small town of Kiewarra is horrified yet not truly surprised. This is just what it comes to.'
