In Sydney right now anyway. How about where you are, everybody?

I hope all hoydens and hoyden-adjacent folks are safe and sound during the latest manifestations of the climate emergency.

In other news I am definitely still masking up when I’m around other people. I use the brown paper bag system to extend the life of my N95s.

Hi everyone! How are you? How is everyone you know, and those you care about most?

Since Mary posted at the end of February about the effects on mothers of the string of closures we were seeing, things have obviously got a lot more extreme. Here in Australia we had just got through the worst bushfire season of all time, before we were driven indoors once again. This year has really turned into a game of choose-your-apocalypse.

As we are all participating in various degrees of physical distancing/isolation/lockdown/ quarantine, we are also experiencing tilts one way or the other on having not enough/too much work and lots more/vanishingly little spare time. We are all examining much more closely our time, our space and our companionship. We are all learning a lot very fast. Some of this is sourdough starters and egg carton seedlings, some is making do with less in any of myriad ways, and some of it is straight up a new kind of fear. We are seeing some whole fields of work vanish, and if they come back it is likely they will need to take an entirely new form.

We have no idea what the exit to the tunnel will look like, or when we will get there, and when we do it won’t be one step and out into the light. There will be no Armistice Day for this event. No signing of a treaty, after which which can pour into the streets and dance. No marking moment when we know our loved ones are safe and coming home. More likely we will figure out incremental additions to our acceptable level of risk, and be offered a growing sequence of commonplace blessings.

It makes me miss the high days of blogging, when we would write lengthy, thoughtful responses to prompts, and connect in that way with people who could be anywhere.

So what is happening to you?

Cartoon by Jess Harwood: https://www.jessharwoodart.com/

I have very little generally to add to the discussions of COVID-19 right now; if you want facts best to head to the Australian government info site, the US CDC info site, or the WHO info site.

However. one consideration I’ve seen little of: shutting down childcare centres and schools will disproportionately render the mothers* of children in those centres and schools unemployed in the short term and quite possibly un- or underemployed in the long term (gaps in resume during a likely recession, history of being terminated for absenteeism or of short notice resignations).

It’s possible although not certain (see likely recession) that larger and wealthier employers can extend their more valued workers at least some unpaid leave in this situation, but smaller or less well-funded businesses cannot, and less valued workers may not be able to negotiate them even from employers that might be able to afford them.

And unpaid leave is of course a massive strain on households, for many impossible, especially if the childcare centres (which, remember, are themselves often small and precariously funded businesses) keep charging fees.

Obviously the second-order effects of massively disrupting the global and local movement of people are coming for us all, but they’re coming for mothers pretty early on.

* Yes, fathers and other parents and carers too, but mostly mothers.

Fires Near Me (NSW), Vic Emergency (Victoria)

Context

These photographs were taken on 28 December on Bells Line of Road, which runs between western Sydney and Lithgow. Bells Line of Road is the northernmost of two road crossings of the Blue Mountains between Sydney and western NSW.

Wildnerness and parts of towns were badly burned for a long stretch between Lithgow and Bilpin on Bells Line of Road in the days leading up to and including December 21 by the Gospers Mountain / Grose Valley fire complex. The road re-opened on December 25.

The December 31 2019 eastern bushfire catastrophes were concentrated far to the south east from where these pictures were taken; they were in the South Coast of NSW and East Gippsland in Victoria. These two areas are also currently considered most at risk in the upcoming January 4 heatwave, with tourists asked to leave the South Coast and the evacuation of Kosciuszko National Park (January 2), following the evacuation of East Gippsland (December 29).

Fires are expected to continue in Australia until there’s substantial rainfall.

Supporting firefighters and affected people

Donations are accepted by, among others:

• People displaced, rebuilding, or cut off from food supplies:
  • Australian Red Cross New Years Eve appeal
  • Good donations via GIVIT
• Rural and bush fire fighters, staffed mostly with volunteers
  • NSW Rural Fire Service, or to the families of the firefighters killed
  • Victoria Country Fire Authority
  • Country Fire Service Foundation (South Australia)
  • Rural Fire Service Queensland
  • Bush Fire Volunteers (Western Australia)
  • Tasmanian Volunteer Fire Brigades Association Support Fund
• Wildlife:
  • WIRES
  • Wildlife Victoria
  • Koala Rescue Queensland
  • Port Macquarie Koala Hospital

Most affected areas rely heavily on the tourism industry for income, planning to visit after the fire period is also likely to be helpful, you can check NSW road closures and warnings at Live Traffic. Judging from Bilpin on December 28, take cash, phone lines and cell towers aren’t restored until long after power is.

Photos

All photos.

Originally posted on puzzling.org.

The otters do back flips over and over | Ben Spark on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

I don’t know how many of Hoyden’s once-regular readers are still subscribed, but hello to all who are. I have an office job these days which really cuts down on blogging headspace, but I still miss it at times.

I scroll through Twitter on my commutes usually, finding some hashtags more interesting than others and some people useful to follow simply in order to find new people to preemptively block. This month I read more posts on the #itsaccessiblebut hashtag than any other.

In today’s social media news, Facebook founder Zuckerberg doesn’t appear to actually understand “free speech”.

Please feel free to use this thread to natter about anything your heart desires. Is there anything great happening in your life? Anything you want to get off your chest? Reading a great book? Anything in the news that you’d like to discuss? Commiserations, felicitations, temptations, contemplations, speculations?

The NZ fern emblem displayed on the Sydney Opera House as tribute to victims of Christchurch terror attack

Addendum 20180318: The political responses to the Christchurch terror attack are instructive, and are the reason why I’ve changed the thumbnail for this post. While Jacinda Ardern shows respect, empathy and resolve to the grieving NZ Muslim community, our government tries to deny they’ve ever use Islamophobia as a political wedge tactic. It’s going to make me look even more closely at preference distributions from the independents in upcoming elections.

You can donate to Christchurch victims fund via GiveALittle

Hello, it’s been a while! I expect many may need to vent, although more substantive contributions are always welcome! As a starting point, here’s the results of GetUp’s survey for the Federal election coming up in May.

NSW also has an election coming up in just over a week, and GetUp is hosting several call parties near me on Saturday, but I’m working so can’t get to any of them!

We will be making calls to unseat the worst hard right blockers of progressive politics and elect champions of progressive issues. At a local calling party you will get trained on how to have effective voter persuasion conversations and start Please bring your phone with you! Headphones are helpful to have, but not required. RSVP to join the largest grassroots effort in Australia! drinks afterwards

I may however be able to make this Gladys Removal Day party on March 23, somewhere around Hyde Park.

For our foreign readers: if you are reading us from Over There and want to vent re Brexit, let’s just say that reactionary right wingers being intransigent is something we have in common, so go for it. Sammy J has a smooth flow to get you started:

We’ll even cope with Trump venting, if you must.

In any event, although I read 10 books within my challenge parameters by about March or April, I did not post any reviews at the time.

So here is the revised sign-up post PLUS six reviews in one post.

The challenge:

I opted for the Franklin again: read 10 books, review 6.

The other main parameter for my challenge this year was that it would all be non-fiction. I read a few great non-fiction books by Australian women early in the year, thanks to the various e-library services I’m signed up to having more interesting non-fiction than fiction, so that inspired me. It was also a challenge element because I normally read more fiction than non-fiction.

In addition, I aimed to:
– read at least two books by, or primarily featuring, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander women (ACHIEVED!)
– read at least two books by, or primarily featuring, women from non-English speaking backgrounds (defined as having grown up in a house where the parents or parent figures communicated with one another primarily in a language other than English) (ACHIEVED if I include the books in the first category – otherwise, I did not quite make this one)
– read at least two books by, or primarily featuring, women of colour (ACHIEVED)
– read at least two classics (as per the request by the AWW organisers) (I think NOT ACHIEVED, although maybe some count, as noted below, and I think a couple of the books I read will become classics…)

I was hoping to tag all books by Australian women which I read this year on my Goodreads bookshelf, but I only managed to remember with my challenge books and a few others.

The books:

So, here are the books I read as part of the challenge (plus three), and how they meet the challenge elements above.

Busted Out Laughing: Dot Collard’s Story, Dot Collard: by, and primarily featuring, an Aboriginal woman; possibly a classic?

The Hate Race, Maxine Beneba Clarke: by, and primarily featuring, a woman of colour

A Long Time Coming, Melanie Joosten

The Mind of a Thief, Patti Miller

Of Ashes and Rivers that Run to the Sea, Marie Munkara: by, and primarily featuring, an Aboriginal woman

Reckoning: A Memoir, Magda Szubanski

Sydney, Delia Falconer

Thea Astley: Inventing Her Own Weather, Karen Lamb

This House of Grief, Helen Garner: does this count as a classic?

Tiger’s Eye: A Memoir, Inga Clendinnen

Wicked But Virtuous, Mirka Mora: by, and primarily featuring, a woman from a non-English speaking background; also, possibly a classic?

Tall Man: The Death of Doomadgee, Chloe Hooper

Victoria: The Queen, Julia Baird

The reviews:

A joint review: telling the stories of the dispossessed

I want to start with a joint review of Busted Out Laughing, The Mind of a Thief, Of Ashes and Rivers and Tall Man. These four books have in common that they are about Aboriginal people or communities in some ways. Two of them (Busted and Ashes) are by Aboriginal women, about their lives – one written directly by the author, the other “as told to” an amanuensis, Beryl Hacker. The other two are by white women, telling the story of a place or community.

Let’s start with Busted Out Laughing. Dot Collard is a famous actor you’ve probably never heard of. Busted only touches on that part of her life towards the end of the book, though, as Collard did not become an actor until she was in her sixties. Busted tells the story of her life, and she lived a lot of it before hitting the stage.

Here is where I admit that I didn’t take enough notes of some of these books before returning them to the library, and Busted is in that category. So my review must, of necessity, be based on my recollection, which means I cannot provide a lot of detail.

What I can tell you, however, is what struck me.

First and foremost: Busted describes the impact of government control on every day lives of Collard and her community. That control was intrusive, demeaning and unjust.

The atrocities committed, however, did not mean that there were no joys or love in life. This brings me to the second thing that struck me: Collard retained her humour and love throughout. There is a good reason for the title of the book – there is a lot of laughter in it. It is, overall, a joyful story, and a family story.

Thirdly: a great strength of Busted as a story is that it is in Collard’s own voice. I cannot emphasise the importance of this, particularly because part of the wrong in what was done to the Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander peoples in Australia was the removal of their voices.

I highly recommend Busted. It is a fantastic book, and reading it gives us the chance to hear a voice from a group which has too often been silenced in this country.

Turning, then, to Ashes. As a child, Munkara had some outward or apparent privileges as a child that Collard did not – she was not raised in material poverty and had access to education. But Munkara is a member of the Stolen Generations. The material wealth of the family in which Munkara grew up could not in any way make up for the tragedy that comes with removal – detaching a child from a family in which she is loved and which she loves; exposing her to the loss of culture and a sense of place as a consequence; and exposing her to abuse. These are all great wrongs.

Ashes describes these wrongs very clearly. Once again, the book is not without its joys as Munkara re-establishes a relationship with her family, but those joys are bittersweet.

Ashes should be prescribed reading for all Australians. It is a story we, as a country, need to hear repeated again and again, so that nobody can forget how terribly our First Peoples have been treated.

Tall Man continues this theme. It is the story of what happened on Palm Island in 2004, when Doomadgee, a young man, was killed in police custody. That was followed by riots (or “riots”), a serious police response and a large number of arrests. One of the white police officers was ultimately charged in relation to Doomadgee’s death. A jury found him not guilty, and Tall Man tells this story as well. (Damages for racial discrimination were later awarded as a consequence: Wotton v Queensland (No 5) [2016] FCA 1457.)

Tall Man was not written by a member of the community in question, but Hooper seems to have done thorough research, becoming as close to the community as she could be, and telling the story through their voices as much as possible. To me as another outsider, Hooper’s telling seems empathetic and careful. Further, she tells the story not only of what happened in 2004, but also of the injustices in the creation of the community in the first place – the people of Palm Island were all brought there from elsewhere in Queensland. This is an important part of the story of Palm Island and, again, a necessary tale to tell.

Finally, we come to Mind of a Thief. This is about Wellington, a town in mid-west NSW, and the Wiradjuri people who come from that area. (I was somewhat comforted to discover that Miller used the phrase to refer to herself, or to European minds generally, not to Wiradjuri minds in any way.)

Miller grew up near Wellington herself and, at the time of her research and writing of the book, her mother still lived there. She tells how she decided to write the book in order to tell the story of the area. She was inspired in part because (some of) the Wiradjuri people made the first post-Mabo native title claim in 1994, and it was finally resolved (actually as a land claim under the NSW land rights legislation) around the time Miller started her research for the book. In fact, there were two groups of people who disagree as to who the traditional owners of certain parts of land in the Wellington valley are. Miller decided to speak to people on both sides of the divide to get a better understanding of the competing claims, as well as trying to find out what she could about Wiradjuri culture and traditions.

I did not enjoy this book nearly as much as the other three, and I do not think it is anywhere near as important. Miller makes no secret that her search is as much as anything to explore her own personal connection to the land and area where she grew up. This is, in itself, no bad thing. However, in the execution, Miller comes across as self-centred, more interested in navel gazing than telling the story she says she wants to tell. She spends a lot of time explaining that she is not equating her own experiences and connection to the land to that of the Wiradjuri people she spoke to, while seeming to do exactly that.

I think I can understand what Miller was trying to do, but I do not think she walked that narrow line particularly clearly or well.

Rather, what Mind of a Thief does is demonstrate why what is important in telling the story of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (whether as individuals or communities) is to amplify the voices of those people themselves. Busted, Ashes and even Tall Man all do that. Mind of a Thief does not.

The Hate Race

I read The Hate Race very early in the year, and there have been few books I have enjoyed more in 2017.

Beneba Clarke’s writing is fantastic, and that is a large part of it. Another is that she avoids what many memoirs do, and which tends to turn me off: too much navel-gazing. A third part is that I grew up in an area of Sydney not too far from where Beneba Clarke lived, and we are pretty much the same age. This made the setting of Hate Race very recognisable to me, both geographically and culturally.

The Hate Race is a perfect mixture of the internal life of the child and teenager she was with family life, school life and community life. This provides a very sound basis for understanding the racism Beneba Clarke experienced, both external and internalised, and how she responded.

I’m not sure there is really much more I can say that would not either be too detailed, or trite, except to say that, once again, it is so important that a story like this is presented in Beneba Clarke’s own voice.

Victoria: The Queen

Turning, then, to something very different – at least, on its face. Baird’s Victoria has been a huge hit, and I am sure others have written detailed and learned reviews. Any reader of this post will likely know that Victoria tells the whole story of the Queen’s life – indeed, from prior to her conception, until after her death. Readers will also be aware of the importance of Victoria, as a leader and symbol during a critical time for the British Empire. Baird has done a fantastic job of unpicking some of the myths (and apparent inconsistencies) about Victoria and showing us the woman, and the realities of her life.

What is key here again is that Baird has told this story using the voices of those involved (including Victoria herself) to a significant extent. She has plainly pored through thousands of primary source documents – letters, diaries, etc – in order to do so. Indeed, Baird has described the difficulties she had in accessing those documents, and explained that many are lost to history as a result of efforts to “protect” the reputation or image of Victoria after her death.

Despite these difficulties, the source material is far more extensive for someone like Queen Victoria than for many others (such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people), which means Baird was able to do what will never be done for many others.

In other words, although Victoria: The Queen was a very different book from the others I have reviewed above, it serves to highlight the importance of the stories told in (most of) those books, and the essential requirement that those stories be told in the voices of the people involved, to the greatest extent possible.

I also loved:

I am not going to write reviews for any of the other books, but I wanted to point readers to three more in particular.

A Long Time Coming was amazing. In Australia, we do not talk enough about ageing, which is basically why Joosten wrote the book. It’s fantastic. I recommend it to all.

Reckoning is another great story. Szubanski is such a well-loved figure (and even more so after the events of this year) that I don’t think I need to say any more.

This House of Grief is the story of a man who drove his three sons into a dam, and the subsequent trials. Garner is a national treasure, and the thoughtfulness and care she brings to her writing is evident here. Once again, an exploration of a subject which maybe does not get enough airtime in Australia.

And that’s the end of my Australian Women Writers Challenge 2017!

Cross-posted at Wallaby.

Right now, if you are Australian and registered to vote, you will be in possession of a marriage equality survey form, unless you have already posted it back (yay you!). Reports from last week indicate that two thirds of voters have already returned their forms. However, a much less encouraging statistic suggests that 40% of 18-30 year olds have not returned theirs. The battle now is against complacency or the too easy tendency to let fiddly bureaucratic tasks slide by. Now is the time to remind anyone you know who has not made it to the post box, that this is something that makes a real difference to real people.

The Irish went through something similar two years ago, though in that case it was an actual vote, and the result was a constitutional change and legally binding. I asked my friend Pádraic Whyte, who was instrumental to the ‘Yes’ campaign there, for advice on how to approach the issue. He mentioned that it is important to always close the gate when leaving a property when door-knocking (thanks, P!), but his crucial point, I feel, lies in this summary: “I suppose it’s about creating a narrative of compassion (because we all want to be seen as compassionate), ensuring that those who are still on the fence feel like they are being listened to, and bring them on board by saying they can do something good, they can make a difference, that you need their help to be allowed to marry the person you love. It’s not about trying to convince those that have already decided to vote no – it’s capturing those on the fence and encouraging them to make the effort to post in their vote.” 

Yes, this should be a straightforward civil liberties issue. There simply should be no right extended to one portion of our population, and arbitrarily denied to another. The ‘No’ side has been reduced to lying in all their campaign material, simply because if they stick to what is true, they have no case. And yet, humans are so rarely swayed by sense. A “narrative of compassion” may be the key here. At present we are all spending so much anxious time able to see so much wrong being given so much free rein, yet feeling helpless, and that there is nothing we can do that will  correct the path we are on. This is a chance for a rare moment of feeling empowered to make something right. Putting your ‘Yes’ vote into the mail is something we can all do that has to be listened to, that we know will make a change for the good in who we are as a nation.

Because this is a postal survey, the real danger is people not returning their forms, as it is just the kind of task that is all too easy to let slide. So if you know anyone who still has a survey waiting to be put in the post, please talk to them today. Right now.

Pádraic made the video below with his lovely parents. It was shared everywhere during the Irish YES campaign, and its message is just as clear for us now as it was then:

I guffawed and sang “Scam scam scam” to the tune of the Star Wars Imperial March until the call ended, because I’d already heard about these scammers from our public broadcaster, who’ve just revisited their annual story about these opportunist scum.

An important point strongly emphasised in another story where an ABC radio presenter recorded the conversation that occurred when he did call the number back is that government departments never ring up to demand payment immediately over the phone; even the robodebt fiasco uses mail. Also note that only scammers ask for payment in the form of iTunes vouchers.

Heaps more information at ACCC’s Scamwatch and Fair Trading’s Scams page.