Last modified on Mon 3 May 2021 00.31 EDT
Rage is a good place to start
After being cancelled last year due to the pandemic, 2021âs Sydney writersâ festival began with fury: an opening address shared by Melissa Lucashenko, Tara June Winch and Evelyn Araluen, and taken by all three as an opportunity to advocate for justice. As Araluen put it: âAboriginal women know what it is to be silenced, ignored or wilfully misinterpreted by those who do not wish to hear what needs to be said.â
Lucashenko told a parable which had at its core the damage wrought by gentrification, as it âhits country NSW like a freight trainâ. Winch, stuck in France with a tab open on the Stranded Aussies forum, gave a forceful speech about how Australia looks from afar â violent, racist and in denial â and how uncomfortable it feels for her to be grouped into the âidentity crisisâ that is âAussieâ in the first place.