For more on “the dismissal from below”—a de-radicalised activism—read Alex Dellios: "It would be about cultural difference, and the tolerance of ‘ethnics’ by the Anglo-Australian mainstream, rather than a radical reimagining of participation and political recognition." meanjin.com.au/essays/the-g...

I’d always understood alfalfa to have honourable intentions but now I am questioning everything

Counterpoint/affirmation: Everyone has an accent. Someone suggesting that another person might like to use their 'regional accent' to tell a story betrays the story of privilege that their own accent always tells—centring themselves in a narrative rendered more and more mainstream by their oblivion.

And after the Meanjin Paper, after the contents page and the colophon, here’s my editorial to give this powerful edition of Meanjin its framing and its welcome. At a time of global political turbulence, let’s strengthen our democracy by strengthening our culture: meanjin.com.au/editorials/e...

There’s a special event in Perth on Wednesday 25 November to honour Aunty Prof Marion Kickett’s important Meanjin Paper. See you there? www.eventbrite.com.au/e/professor-...

Each edition of Meanjin from Winter 2023 opens with a piece by a First Nations Elder, honouring cultural sovereignty and making sure we always begin our reading with learning. This season it’s “My Country” by Noongar Elder Aunty Prof Marion Kickett: meanjin.com.au/meanjin-pape...

Meanjin 83.4 Spring 2025 also features companion-piece memoirs by Dani Netherclift and Indigo Perry, poetry by Dominic Symes, Alison Barton, Dakota Feirer, Sara M Saleh and Izzy Roberts-Orr, fiction by Laura Elvery, Huyen Hac Helen Tran and
Eric Jiang, and plenty more: meanjin.com.au/edition/84-3...

And here’s @beneltham.bsky.social on the magnificent arts legacy of the Whitlam Government, and what’s at stake today: meanjin.com.au/essays/arts-...

“Once inside Kings Hall, Barb could barely hear [the PM] speak. The place was packed and buzzing. As soon as Gough Whitlam stood at the podium, the decibels rose…” Here’s “Women, Whitlam and the ‘gender card’: 50 years of women in parliament” by Virginia Haussegger: meanjin.com.au/essays/women...

Here’s “The Greek Left, Whitlam and the Dismissal: a radical legacy” by Alexandra Dellios. “The multiculturalism that is associated with the Whitlam government didn’t just come overnight. When Whitlam came, the Greek community was *organised*…” meanjin.com.au/essays/the-g...

Each of the essays I’ve commissioned for Meanjin 83.4 Spring 2025 address the Dismissal and the Whitlam legacy. Here’s “Impending cataclysm” by Tyson Kane on CIA surveillance of Indigenous communities near Pine Gap: meanjin.com.au/essays/impen...

On the journalists who made a name for themselves that day and set their careers on new trajectories—with many journalists learning of the Dismissal before government or opposition MPs!—here’s that superb Meanjin essay by @tommcilroy.bsky.social: meanjin.com.au/essays/we-sh...

Hold my beer iview.abc.net.au/show/search-...