“Each essay in this collection is among the most cited works we’ve ever published: they’re quoted in news media, regularly drawn upon for academic research, and commonly referenced as authoritative exemplars,” writes Esther Anatolitis in her introduction to Essays that Changed Australia.
Many of the essays in this collection throw light on problems to be solved, matters to be understood and rife misconceptions in the broader community when it comes to First Nations people’s history, languages, place names and cultures. They focus on an admirably diverse range of topics, from town planning and problems with the Australian Constitution to intergenerational intolerance and the political role of the artist.
Without exception, the writing is powerful and persuasive. These writers are not only passionate about their subject, but understand it deeply; this is at least one of the reasons that even those essays written years ago are still relevant. Another reason, sadly, is that not enough has changed for the better. While most of the authors in this collection are well-known, a brief synopsis about each author helpfully follows each essay.
But while, as Anatolitis intimates, these works have contributed enormously to a better Australia, we still have so much to learn. As Michael Mohammed Ahmad opines in ‘It’s Shit to Be White’, racism in Australia “is not simply about race. It is about power and belonging”. He demonstrates this by lucidly surveying the very different ways a crime is treated depending on whether it is committed by a First Nations person or a white one.
Improving the situation by amending the Australian Constitution has proved to be dismally unsuccessful, as the powerful contributions by Marcia Langton (‘Reading the Constitution Out Loud’) and Manning Clark (‘Are We a Nation of Bastards?’) attest. The latter reminds us of the perils of political decision-making at the expense of the welfare of the whole community, something that was very much in play not that long ago.
There are, of course, more important things in life than Australian rules football (though I suspect many followers of the game would disagree). But even in this area, the clear connections between marngrook and Australian rules football has been elided by white Australia. This and more is spelled out in Jenny Hocking and Nell Reidy’s essay ‘Marngrook, Tom Wills and the Continuous Denial of Indigenous history’. It is a stark reminder of the importance of knowing and understanding our history.
In ‘Nothing Has Changed’, Tony Birch reminds the reader of the cultural importance of place names to First Nations people. He unpacks how little cross-cultural understanding is exhibited even by those tasked with restoring local place names, exposing the problematic attitudes of non-Indigenous Australians to the issue. This is something the Koori people, for example, have obviously been aware of for some time, as evidenced by a 1990 Koori Tourism file he quotes from:
What the Coorie people called the hills we cannot ever know
For they have gone like yesterday, with little left to show.
The penultimate essay in this fine collection was written by the founding editor of Meanjin, Clem Christesen, in 1945. He mentions how important it is that writers be true to themselves, to help “organise the conflicting welter of impressions … into the ordered integrations of experience” and to “cast light on the eternal values which are involved in present political and social issues”. He further emphasises the writer’s responsibility to the reader. The breadth, depth and persuasive power of the works in this collection, as well as their contemporary relevance, demonstrate that the current editor of Meanjin and the writers she has selected have more than met these high expectations.
Read: Book review: The Position of Spoons, Deborah Levy
I remember long ago in San Francisco standing in front of a classroom of agitated anthropology students ashamedly admitting that I could not answer most of their questions about First Nations Australians. What was I doing there? I was invited to say a few words about Australia from the perspective of a business executive. Surely something like that is less likely to happen today – or is it?
Meanjin: Essays that Changed Australia, Esther Anatolitis (editor)
Publisher: Melbourne University Publishing
ISBN: 9780522880977
Format: Paperback
Pages: 272 pp
Publication date: 12 November 2024
RRP: $34.99
This review has been slightly edited to reflect more accurate information received.
