Hecate articles from October 1997

Hecate archives from October 1997

Editorial. (illegal drug use in Australia)(Editorial)
October 1, 1997... There are manifold problems associated with illegal drug use in societies such as Australia, but a lack of direction in relation to effective remedies. The current initiative against drugs, announced by John Howard in early November, does little...

The story of two paintings.
October 1, 1997... The Stolen Generation In this picture there's a Serpent Lady representing my Aboriginal homeland, a Serpent Lady with a pair of breasts, and instead of having her children in the belly I have painted them in the heart. The Aboriginal people...

Can we be Australian? Third World women in a First World society.
October 1, 1997... This paper examines the processes through which first-generation ethnic minority women from Third World countries situate themselves within Australian society. A critical element of the settlement process is defining differences and devising...

Ovation (for anyone who cares to listen). (poem)
October 1, 1997... I saw the best men and women in my time consumed by flames of self-hatred burned out wandering the streets of the city like fond old men waiting for angelic salvation smoking in the bitter rain of clarity glaring at buildings squatting obscenely...

An old bee farm (from the painting by Clara Southern, National Gallery of Victoria). (poem)
October 1, 1997... Summer's evening. A radiance of sun and moon, the land's harshness turned to haze. Against a landscape of dissolving bush she stands alone. Clear against an unclear land. But the artist is subtle. Shades of bush and moonlight are repeated...

Neighbourhood pulse-beat. (poem)
October 1, 1997... listening to all this suburban peace of mind the neighbour's lawnmower roar the chain-saw council workers digging up pipes their drill rat-a-tat hacking through my brain oh I know we all need hot and cold water on tap and the neat suburban lawn...

Along the esplanade. (poem)
October 1, 1997... The tossing waves of the sea attract my eye. A fisherman waves goodbye to a friend leaving for home; he then stares at his feet, hanging suspended over the heaving water, holding a whip-like rod in his hands. His eyes look blank. I hear the boats...

Matrilines. (poem)
October 1, 1997... My mother, my grandmother Emu boots and fine dust Teacups and cards, the mystery of long afternoons Spinning and weaving, magic abounds simple stories a wondrous life Snippets and jokes Borrowed memories, strange folk In dark cool kitchens,...

Locking up. (poem)
October 1, 1997... She performed elaborate rituals of checking and rechecking, the bolts and chains, the snibs and catches, the nails in every window, as if the house would take any opportunity to throw itself open to strangers. As though secretly, little by...

Corn gone. (poem)
October 1, 1997... It's not as if the corn seeds I planted were eventually intended to supply a meal for me my geese the hens a purely self indulgent act an excitement knowing the few rows would transform within weeks to a fluttering busy green and upright stream...

Metcard is coming. (poem)
October 1, 1997... They stand like hungry sentinels ready to claim money, time and the self-respect of humans waiting a minute into the hour 'Watch your newspapers,' the signs say painted on blue straitjackets padlocked over steel-hard cases They are obedient to...

Coming to Byron. (poem)
October 1, 1997... I. We are always coming to Byron Bay, Byron's always east, The Most Eastern Point, Where there are no set suns, another day Upon day wheels by the sea and is joined By the sky in a clap, or a rub, or The Pacific, kissing into the ear Of the...

Crossing cultures: an interview with Helena Gulash. (Gubbi Gubbi activist of Australia)(Interview)
October 1, 1997... As the extended controversy surrounding the publication and success of Marlo Morgan's Mutant Message Down Under in 1994 has made clear, one aspect of the complex relations between the New Age movement and Indigenous cultures involves the...

Manawa Toa: heart warrior. (fiction)(excerpt)
October 1, 1997... The following extract is work in progress from Manawa Toa: Heart Warrior, third in the Cowrie novel series by Aotearoan author, Cathie Dunsford, Spinifex Press. Manawa Toa is the Peace Flotilla protest vessel which sails to protest against French...

Racism in the Never-Never: disparate readings of Jeannie Gunn. (author)
October 1, 1997... WE - are just some of the bush-folk of the Never-Never. Distinct in the foreground stand: The Maluka, the Little Missus, the Sanguine Scot, the Head Stockman, the Dandy, the Quiet Stockman, the Fizzer, Mine Host, the Wag, Some of our Guests,...

Becoming-violet: desire in the love poetry of Mary Fullerton.
October 1, 1997... You say that violets fade upon your breast, I'd rather dearest that mine perished there Quick on your passionate heart than otherwhere. Did some cold vase become their purpled nest They longer there might live to die unblest: Better their...

Something borrowed. (marriage)
October 1, 1997... This is a chapter in the continuing story of my life. At my mother's request, some names of persons and places have been changed. I was born in Sydney but my surname is Italian in origin. 'Fitzgerald?' Australians jeer. 'Come off the grass....

Hopetown. (poem)
October 1, 1997... I'm off to Hopetown she declared Wedding dress blowing fiercely in the wind. Gonna follow my lover, And take my dreams to Hopetown . . . Hopetown . . . Hopetown A woman could get lost in this vast land With wheat burning in the summer sun Skin...

Fishing the sea. (poem)
October 1, 1997... 1. Oysters the day you returned a true carnivore is watermarked by the sea a house god home with his catch slicked with fish brines and motor bike fumes a glittering hunger in need of subjects doing it slow in the doorway your head...

The hand-me-down secrets of a red skirt. (poem)
October 1, 1997... O my wardrobes centuries of designs sacred prostitute to sex goddess to drag queen to opportunity shop cotton field whips stripping labouring backs for the red dyes of blood rolls and rolls of me turning the looms in my grandfathers'...

Night comes. (poem)
October 1, 1997... And so. . . . It's come to this. A parting from the day. as evening begins to come. And the sun sends shards of light spearing through trees. Casting dull shadows that stretch long into others. Across the timeless hills in their gentle...

Old grave. (poem)
October 1, 1997... Which mother wept for you small one in silent grave, broken, stained, tears clinging in history, Now all about is quiet and green grass. And the wind ruffles through calm as calm. Where once was rough and tumbled ground the sun shines on...

Sunset. (poem)
October 1, 1997... She feels so lucky as light paints the tower block gold, swallows nest in concrete cancer holes, old man leans against a graffiti-carved tree. Glad to be alive, watching the sun set behind the incinerator chimney. Sarah Attfield

From 'A Tribute to Sir Ronald Wilson.' (play)(excerpt)
October 1, 1997... This child could pass for W H I T E Blue eyes, thick shiny, happy blond H A I R No one need know no one could tell and the child will not have to suffer K N O W I N G I hereby classify this new born: white. It is for the child's...

'The Shock of Body Against Body': history and the politics of despair in theories of difference.
October 1, 1997... Indeed, is it at all surprising that a society founded on the opposition of classes should culminate in brutal contradiction, the shock of body against body, as its final denouement?(1) For contemporary cultural and literary theory, the edge of...

The good bird doesn't shit in its own nest. (fiction)(excerpt)
October 1, 1997... Twenty six years ago we moved into Gladstone for the first time. He find the job at QAL and QAL provide the house at Barney Point. He was plant operator. He was a shift worker - three different shifts. He was making good money. Because of that...

The plural gaze: reflections on contemporary feminist curatorial practice.
October 1, 1997... At the recent Weimar Republic Exhibition of German expressionist woodcuts at the Queensland Art Gallery(1) what was remarkable was the powerful presence of poetry in so many works that could equally well be called political. These images were...

Jury Service.
October 1, 1997... She's called for Jury Service and reads the fine print. She is exempted if she claims she is a woman. What does it mean, this excuse called woman? She cannot write this even though it is true. She is a woman, divorced, fortyish, two children, a...