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After Australia
Climate catastrophe, police brutality, white genocide, totalitarian rule and the erasure of black history provide the backdrop for stories of love, courage and hope.
In this unflinching new anthology, twelve of Australia’s most daring Indigenous writers and writers of colour provide a glimpse of Australia as we head toward the year 2050.
Featuring Ambelin Kwaymullina, Claire G. Coleman, Omar Sakr, Future D. Fidel, Karen Wyld, Khalid Warsame, Kaya Ortiz, Roanna Gonsalves, Sarah Ross, Zoya Patel, Michelle Law and Hannah Donnelly. Edited by Michael Mohammed Ahmad. Original concept by Lena Nahlous.
Published by Affirm Press in partnership with Diversity Arts Australia and Sweatshop Literacy Movement.
In this unflinching new anthology, twelve of Australia’s most daring Indigenous writers and writers of colour provide a glimpse of Australia as we head toward the year 2050.
Featuring Ambelin Kwaymullina, Claire G. Coleman, Omar Sakr, Future D. Fidel, Karen Wyld, Khalid Warsame, Kaya Ortiz, Roanna Gonsalves, Sarah Ross, Zoya Patel, Michelle Law and Hannah Donnelly. Edited by Michael Mohammed Ahmad. Original concept by Lena Nahlous.
Published by Affirm Press in partnership with Diversity Arts Australia and Sweatshop Literacy Movement.
288 pages, Paperback
First published June 9, 2020
52 people are currently reading
1557 people want to read
About the author
Michael Mohammed Ahmad
16 books94 followersMichael Mohammed Ahmad is an Arab-Australian writer, editor and community arts worker. He is the founding director of Sweatshop: Western Sydney Literacy Movement. In 2012, he received the Australia Council Kirk Robson Award in recognition of his outstanding achievements in community cultural development. Mohammed’s debut novel, The Tribe (Giramondo, 2014), won the 2015 Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelists of the Year Award. His second novel, The Lebs (Hachette, 2018) received the 2019 NSW Premier’s Multicultural Literary Award and was shortlisted for the 2019 Miles Franklin Award. Mohammed received his Doctorate of Creative Arts from Western Sydney University in 2017.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
July 15, 2024
After Australia is a great little collection showcasing new writing talent, with all of the contributors being Indigenous or writers of colour. The pieces are not nearly as speculative as I had expected—most are either contemporary, or what I’d call ‘predictive fiction’ which extrapolates our current trajectory into the very near future: sea level rise, displacement of refugees, killer flu etc.
There’s a real diversity of backgrounds and experience among this writing cohort. I would have like a bit more stylistic variety though; about three-quarters of the contributions were from a first-person, young, urban perspective. Favourites for me were: Omar Sakr’s fierce, sharply drawn ‘White Flu’, Roanna Gonsalves’ gleeful alternate history, ‘The East Australia Company Mango Bridge’, Ambelin Kwaymullina’s ethereal time-travelling poem ‘Message from the Ngurra Palya’.
There’s a real diversity of backgrounds and experience among this writing cohort. I would have like a bit more stylistic variety though; about three-quarters of the contributions were from a first-person, young, urban perspective. Favourites for me were: Omar Sakr’s fierce, sharply drawn ‘White Flu’, Roanna Gonsalves’ gleeful alternate history, ‘The East Australia Company Mango Bridge’, Ambelin Kwaymullina’s ethereal time-travelling poem ‘Message from the Ngurra Palya’.
June 29, 2020
An exciting and innovative collection, with a diverse set of authors offering up their takes on After Australia. As a political project it's clearly successful, bringing together well known and emerging voices from migrant and Indigenous communities. As an artistic project, it's a triumph as well - the writing is sharp and bursting with ideas, the array of perspectives is dazzling and the whole book just feels utterly necessary. The shorts by Khalid Warsame and Omar Sakr were my favourites, but the whole collection is great.
July 12, 2020
What happened? What will happen if we keep upholding a concept, a country called Australia, swooned by racism, denial and bigotry? Read this book and discover what this collection of great authors imagine, think and dream. Read it Australia. Read it. This is After Australia.
February 16, 2021
The cover of After Australia (Affirm Press 2020) is impressively distinctive: an old-fashioned picture, similar to those found in the Ladybird children’s books, shows a (white) nuclear family, but each of the faces has been scribbled over. It’s an image that is difficult to forget, and which suits this collection perfectly. In After Australia, edited by Michael Mohammed Ahmad, 12 diverse writers of both Indigenous and POC backgrounds, imagine Australia at some time in the future, ‘after empire, after colony, after white supremacy…’. The result is a richly imagined collection that is sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant, and often terrifying.
Some of the themes covered include climate change, genocide, police brutality and black history, with the characters responding through love, hate, courage, hope or revenge. Writers include Hannah Donnelly, Khalid Warsame, Claire G. Coleman, Roanna Gonsalves, Ambelin Kwaymullina, Kaya Ortiz and Sarah Ross.
This is a book that challenges our beliefs about politics, religion, class, race, the environment, culture and extremist hate groups. It ‘encourages us to ask important questions about who we are as a nation, how we got here, and where we are headed.’
White Flu by Omar Sakr affected me in a visceral, raw and confronting way. His writing is bold and brave while also being vulnerable and thought-provoking. We Live On, In Story by Karen Wyld, is a highly literary piece in beautiful language. Michelle Law’s story feels so personal and intimate. Displaced, by Zoya Patel, depicts a changed landscape and an uncomfortable future. One of the stories, by Future D. Fidel, is titled ‘Your Skin is the Only Cloth You Cannot Wash’ and this seems to me to be a metaphor for the entire book: our skins are indeed all different and diverse, and there is nothing we can do to change that, and yet beneath that soft layer, we are all the same, we bleed, we love, we hate, we hope, we yearn. This is a diverse work of speculative fiction that explores many questions and challenges the reader to begin searching for answers.
Some of the themes covered include climate change, genocide, police brutality and black history, with the characters responding through love, hate, courage, hope or revenge. Writers include Hannah Donnelly, Khalid Warsame, Claire G. Coleman, Roanna Gonsalves, Ambelin Kwaymullina, Kaya Ortiz and Sarah Ross.
This is a book that challenges our beliefs about politics, religion, class, race, the environment, culture and extremist hate groups. It ‘encourages us to ask important questions about who we are as a nation, how we got here, and where we are headed.’
White Flu by Omar Sakr affected me in a visceral, raw and confronting way. His writing is bold and brave while also being vulnerable and thought-provoking. We Live On, In Story by Karen Wyld, is a highly literary piece in beautiful language. Michelle Law’s story feels so personal and intimate. Displaced, by Zoya Patel, depicts a changed landscape and an uncomfortable future. One of the stories, by Future D. Fidel, is titled ‘Your Skin is the Only Cloth You Cannot Wash’ and this seems to me to be a metaphor for the entire book: our skins are indeed all different and diverse, and there is nothing we can do to change that, and yet beneath that soft layer, we are all the same, we bleed, we love, we hate, we hope, we yearn. This is a diverse work of speculative fiction that explores many questions and challenges the reader to begin searching for answers.
June 27, 2020
A really interest collection of short stories about alternate Australia's. Considering these would have been written before the bush fires, covid-19 and the black lives matter protests, these stories are very much predicting the future of Australia.
I look forward to discovering more from these Australian writers!
I look forward to discovering more from these Australian writers!
December 16, 2021
this anthology is pegged ‘after empire, after colony, after white supremacy…twelve diverse writers imagine an alternative Australia’. So tell me why, because I am clueless, an anthology *centred* on its diversity, it’s post-white supremacist stories, contains stories where a new virus is a jewish conspiracy? while not exclusive to white supremacy, as demonstrated in the story ‘white flu’, it is a main tenant of white supremacy that Jews create plagues to wipe out the ‘white’ population, and yet this anthology is supposedly post white supremacy. How can an anthology so focused on racism, perpetuate one of the most dangerous kinds? Tell me why are Holocaust comparisons necessary? Are writers lazy? Can they not clearly articulate themselves? The Holocaust is not a literary device to enact. A genocide is not something to enact as a measuring stick for catastrophe. I had such high hopes for this anthology, and was bitterly disappointed.
January 30, 2023
This is a wonderful gathering of short stories discussing what Australia is and reimagining it in regards to race, climate, immigration, power, wealth, ethnicity, environment, etc. It's challenging and powerful.
Written in 2019 and earlier, it is eerily prophetic. There is a story about a flu pandemic that takes out a certain part of the population. There's a story about how Sydney is so hot you can't go outside without protective clothing and the air is impossible to breathe. Both things happened in the summer of 2020.
Other stories are scarily teetering on the edge of reality with stories of ethnicity, immigration, and climate change which are all on the knife edge of being science fiction and non-fiction. One story was based in my city of Canberra (which never features in lit) talking about my town and my environment dramatically changed by a few degrees, and people talking in buildings and spaces I know about those climate refugees and maybe heading back to some form of the White Australia Policy. It is terrifyingly close.
Then there is a poem about an Indigenous space crew exploring the universe. Or a family history tied together through a tree on a property. Or a story of two enterprising girls in convict Australia. Or, or, or...
Books like this are enjoyable and are not. But they are deeply important for us to challenge ourselves and our society, our assumptions and our ability to accept things as they are no matter how wrong we are. Books like this shake us up.
Written in 2019 and earlier, it is eerily prophetic. There is a story about a flu pandemic that takes out a certain part of the population. There's a story about how Sydney is so hot you can't go outside without protective clothing and the air is impossible to breathe. Both things happened in the summer of 2020.
Other stories are scarily teetering on the edge of reality with stories of ethnicity, immigration, and climate change which are all on the knife edge of being science fiction and non-fiction. One story was based in my city of Canberra (which never features in lit) talking about my town and my environment dramatically changed by a few degrees, and people talking in buildings and spaces I know about those climate refugees and maybe heading back to some form of the White Australia Policy. It is terrifyingly close.
Then there is a poem about an Indigenous space crew exploring the universe. Or a family history tied together through a tree on a property. Or a story of two enterprising girls in convict Australia. Or, or, or...
Books like this are enjoyable and are not. But they are deeply important for us to challenge ourselves and our society, our assumptions and our ability to accept things as they are no matter how wrong we are. Books like this shake us up.
Read
February 5, 2021In all honesty, short stories are not my thing. I like the premise of this anthology, where diverse writers have come together to imagine an alternate Australia - one where maybe the white invaders left, or one that is struggling through after the climate crisis has passed its zenith. It is a mixture of fact and fiction. There were some interesting thoughts in here and I always found myself wanting more. Most of the short stories I would happily read a full novel of - I was teased with potentially exquisite world building but I don't like extrapolating. Give me all the information and let me be immersed in the story.
The highlight for me was what was probably the longest story in the collection, which followed two women of colour living in Sydney/Eora nation who changed the course of colonial Australia through their access to a printing press.
So it is hard for me to rate this, as my main misgivings are the short story nature and my inability to understand the full context of these alternate timelines, which is not the fault of the authors or editor. A fascinating collection of short stories, poetry, and personal reflections that showcase the diverse experiences and views often overlooked in this country.
The highlight for me was what was probably the longest story in the collection, which followed two women of colour living in Sydney/Eora nation who changed the course of colonial Australia through their access to a printing press.
So it is hard for me to rate this, as my main misgivings are the short story nature and my inability to understand the full context of these alternate timelines, which is not the fault of the authors or editor. A fascinating collection of short stories, poetry, and personal reflections that showcase the diverse experiences and views often overlooked in this country.
June 6, 2020
A lullaby wind blows through generations by the scarred stump of a tree; mozzies breed in a flooded opera house; Indigenous Elders guide a starship; the White Flu strikes; goats populate Katoomba; a 55 inch screen fits in a lunch bag; the daughter of two mums makes a journey to the Taj Mahal; swallows migrate; citizenship is stripped; strange things are afoot on the Thunderbolts Way; islands sink into the Pacific; a dog swallows a bottle cap, and nothing is the same.
I didn't mean to read all these stories in one sitting, but I did, and I'm glad, and I'm grateful, after savouring new stories by Karen Wyld, Claire G Coleman and Ambelin Kwaymullina, to have discovered the new (to me) talents of Hannah Donnelly, Future D Fidel, Roanna Gonsalves, Michelle Law, Kaya Ortiz, Zoya Patel, Sarah Ross, Omar Sakr and Khalid Warsame. I hope they'll stay working in the world of the speculative for a while, before heading back to the land of "serious" lit :)
I didn't mean to read all these stories in one sitting, but I did, and I'm glad, and I'm grateful, after savouring new stories by Karen Wyld, Claire G Coleman and Ambelin Kwaymullina, to have discovered the new (to me) talents of Hannah Donnelly, Future D Fidel, Roanna Gonsalves, Michelle Law, Kaya Ortiz, Zoya Patel, Sarah Ross, Omar Sakr and Khalid Warsame. I hope they'll stay working in the world of the speculative for a while, before heading back to the land of "serious" lit :)
August 30, 2020
"In situations of oppression, it is often difficult to escape from, or think outside of, the reality of the present day and the burden of the past. But when one is taken outside of the context of the present, the possibilities for change can be immense. In imagining the future, a level of freedom and power is afforded to the imaginer. What seems impossible in the current time and place is made possible. Unlike the present, the future is not necessarily a battleground. Instead, the future is a palimpsest. It is a place where the past and present provide context, but do not dictate the path." - Lena Nahlous in the Afterward to After Australia.
I can't say I'm surprised that given the brief of looking towards 2050, that the stories in this book are almost (thank you Amberlin Kwaymullina!) unanimously dystopian. This volume is striking both for what is different in the kinds of crises the writers imagine have deepened the most, and also in terms of what is depressingly similar. It is a fabulous showcase, however, of great speculative fiction.
The stand out here for me was Khalid Warsame's List of Known Remedies, which tells a compelling taut story exploring where we are headed, friendship, racism, love and dogs. I'm wistfully hoping Warsame will bring something long-form out soon - his short fiction is outstanding.
Michelle Law's Bu Liao Qing is also a stand-out, building a compelling world and telling a sadhopefulkickarse tale within it. Claire Coleman's Ostraka was every bit as hard-hitting, clever and polished as you would expect from Coleman. Omar Sakr gets the "most timely" prize for 'White Flu', that balances scary-accurate imaginings of a pandemic with a delicate family tale, which resists making the tough simple. Kwaymullina is hopeful and sublime and god this is hopefully a glimpse of a world she will write more in. Kaya Ortiz' poetry is a snapshot of what we are losing with mouthwatering grace. The story that has lingered with me the most, however, is Roanna Gonsalves The East Australia Company Mango Bridge which annoyed me because I wasn't sure what it was saying, and maybe that was the point because those immensely relatable characters and their couldabeenmaybewas Sydney Town will not get out of my head.
Obviously, this was only just some of the stories - my favourites - and you will have others. The diversity of this collection alone makes it worth it.
I can't say I'm surprised that given the brief of looking towards 2050, that the stories in this book are almost (thank you Amberlin Kwaymullina!) unanimously dystopian. This volume is striking both for what is different in the kinds of crises the writers imagine have deepened the most, and also in terms of what is depressingly similar. It is a fabulous showcase, however, of great speculative fiction.
The stand out here for me was Khalid Warsame's List of Known Remedies, which tells a compelling taut story exploring where we are headed, friendship, racism, love and dogs. I'm wistfully hoping Warsame will bring something long-form out soon - his short fiction is outstanding.
Michelle Law's Bu Liao Qing is also a stand-out, building a compelling world and telling a sadhopefulkickarse tale within it. Claire Coleman's Ostraka was every bit as hard-hitting, clever and polished as you would expect from Coleman. Omar Sakr gets the "most timely" prize for 'White Flu', that balances scary-accurate imaginings of a pandemic with a delicate family tale, which resists making the tough simple. Kwaymullina is hopeful and sublime and god this is hopefully a glimpse of a world she will write more in. Kaya Ortiz' poetry is a snapshot of what we are losing with mouthwatering grace. The story that has lingered with me the most, however, is Roanna Gonsalves The East Australia Company Mango Bridge which annoyed me because I wasn't sure what it was saying, and maybe that was the point because those immensely relatable characters and their couldabeenmaybewas Sydney Town will not get out of my head.
Obviously, this was only just some of the stories - my favourites - and you will have others. The diversity of this collection alone makes it worth it.
January 10, 2022
Bu Liao Qing stood out the most, Ostraka was also a very fascinating read out of this varied collection. Reading this during a 40degree heat wave definitely gives it some added flavour, not to mention the pandemic..
July 6, 2020
Honestly one of the most important and poignant books I've ever read. I can't wait to reread this one cause it hit so hard. Ahhh can't recommend it enough.
October 2, 2020
After Australia is a series of speculative short stories or poems, written by Indigenous writers and writers of colour. The concept is to imagine an alternate Australia, and they are set in the past, present and future. Particularly striking were Claire G. Coleman’s Ostraka, a bleak and totally believable near future, and Ambelin Kwaymullina’s Message from the Ngurra Palya, which reminded me of Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti series; hopeful and helpful. The stories are of racism, climate disaster, pandemic, and totalitarianism, and range in tone, style, and pace. It’s a thought-provoking, and ultimately hopeful collection.
February 25, 2021
I really enjoyed this anthology of fictional stories on Australia’s past, present and future by indigenous writers and writers of colour.
A note of praise on the cover describes After Australia as challenging and enthralling in equal measure, and I couldn’t agree more. It’s just the sort of challenging read that all Australians should lean into. To borrow from author Ambelin Kwaymullina, let’s stop asking what and start asking how.
A note of praise on the cover describes After Australia as challenging and enthralling in equal measure, and I couldn’t agree more. It’s just the sort of challenging read that all Australians should lean into. To borrow from author Ambelin Kwaymullina, let’s stop asking what and start asking how.
September 8, 2020
Scintillating, diverse, fabulous. An anthology of twelve stories by Australian Indigenous authors and Australian authors of colour. They are all worth your time -my favourite is 'We Live on in Story' by Karen Wyld, which works through a terrible and devastating family history, to rediscovery and re-connection to story and deep rooted belonging to country.
July 5, 2021
So glad I heard about this anthology. Though short stories are not my fave, these tales of a reimagined past and future were fantastic, challenging, chilling and hopeful. Editor Michael Mohammed Ahmad, has brought together 12 brilliant and diverse writers of both Indigenous and POC backgrounds. Each story considered the theme After Australia, each brought a unique perspective. We need to read and listen to more of these voices that make you think differently. An Australia with these writers in its future is on the right track.
A great read.
A great read.
July 7, 2020
Hard to pick a favourite story from this anthology, but there are many I expect I'll return to again and again.
September 28, 2022
Interesting concept and coincidentally brings me to the realm of speculative fiction (which I only learnt of as a genre recently, listening to Mykaela Saunders talking at Melbourne Writers Festival 2022 and buying her anthology This All Come Back Now) but I digress. I was keen to read this after hearing the panel on it hosted by editor Michael Mohammed Ahmad at an online Melb. Writers festival session during Covid (2019?) and then greatly enjoying Ahmad’s most recent book, The other half of me. So it turns. Love the unexpected directions my reading takes me, like going down the scrolling wormhole on my phone but infinitely more satisfying, and I dare say educational. Anyway back to some words about this collection. As with many anthologies it was inconsistent, some pieces better written and touching me more than others. Principle of speculating an a fictional Australia is fascinating but I didn’t think the execution as good as the concept. Some good pieces. Some stretching my imagination more than others. I think my fav piece was The East Australia Company Mango Bridge by Roanna Gonsalves as it worked in my mind on about 6 different levels, truly speculative!
August 10, 2020
I loved the concept of this anthology: “After empire, after colony, after white supremacy…twelve diverse writers imagine an alternative Australia” - and the contents certainly didn’t disappoint. Featuring stories from skilled Indigenous writers and writers of colour, the reader is invited into a world of speculation and a journey towards the year 2050. Each writer has approached the central theme through their unique ideas and lens. The result - every story stand solidly on its own, while contributing holistically to the antho’s weight. While many of the stories left (and hit) their mark, if I had to choose a favourite, I’d run with 'White Flu' by Omar Sakr – skillful execution indeed! Australia, indeed the world, would benefit from more anthologies that showcase and celebrate diverse voices.
June 29, 2020
Well written short stories by a diverse range of writers.
August 6, 2020
An interesting selection of short stories and some poetry based on visions and views of life in the future. Written by Indigenous or Australians of Asian or Indian background. Not surprising then that’s some anger and powerful representations of feeling about life and society. Climate change is often an underlying theme, frightening. I got a lot out of these pieces, they pack a punch about our current weaknesses, omissions and blindness, they’re depressing, hopefully more galvanising for all of us.
March 20, 2021
A pleasantly passable assemblage of articles. Unusually for such an anthology, no stories really stuck out – although Hannah Donnelly is recurrently raging and wry.
March 5, 2021
I like the concept, but stories feel stuck in climate change and migration. Pertinent issues, but the telling of them struck more as a fairly tame and conventional approach to the subjects. For a book that attempts to look beyond the present Australia, most stories felt fairly reflective of it. Omar Sakr's story was the highlight. Looking for looser, more experimental work.
July 1, 2020
Brilliant - but the description does not tell you what this book is really about. The stories don't imagine a society after colonisation, or After Australia -they largely explore what has happened and could happen if we continue down this path of "Australia' held up by racism, dispossession and bigotry, tell how this could continue to affect our lives in future.
August 2, 2020
After Australia
I think there are a lot of ways you can approach a short story collection and After Australia absolutely hits all of these…
Perhaps you’re looking for a way to discover new Australian writing and writers? Well, After Australia has a selection of twelve incredible Indigenous Writers and Writers of Colour including Ambellin Kwaymullina, Karen Wyld, Omar Sakr, Future D Fidel and Zoya Patel.
Maybe you like reading a story in a single sitting? After Australia is like a moreish pack of mixed lollies that you promise yourself your only going to have one of but end up finishing way more than intended (with plenty of literary energy but no extra calories!)
Or maybe you love writing around a theme that lets you explore ideas from different perspectives. Well After Australia promises to imagine an alternate Australia - after empire, after colony, after white supremacy.
See After Australia is the book we’ve needed but perhaps didn’t know it. As we all try to come to grips with the impact of pandemic on our lives it is unavoidable that the structural imbalances in our society are tipping further against marginalised communities.
After Australia seeks futures where these balances are challenged, inverted or perhaps simply upended as environmental destruction flips the game board.
In a collection like this there’s simply so much to talk about. I’m going to hone in on one story to give you all an idea of what After Australia has on offer…
Claire G Coleman’s Ostraka takes us into the searing heat of an isolated, remote compound. An individual waits against the chain-link fence in a seeming prison of inertia. Around the compound are others; pale skin turning a vivid, painful scarlet in the unforgiving heat.
It is Australia’s near future and the government has enacted the Ostraka law. Hearkening back to classical Athenian democracy the Ostrakismos gives the body politic the power to ostracise citizens. But who is to be ostracised and why?!
In Ostraka Claire does so much in a very short space. The pain and remoteness of ostracism is immediately apparent in the harsh environment, as is the purgatory of uncertainty as the lawyers line up periodically to give their clients next to no news.
Ostraka complicates this narrative though as it shows us the Ostraka laws were seemingly built around the established precedent of offshore detention and individuals are buried under mountains of go nowhere paperwork.
The callous inhumanity of the existing system of offshore and endless detention is highlighted simply by applying it to everyday people (and by everyday let’s just understand we mean white and middle class).
So do we hate the increasingly authoritarian government that through mission creep might one day enact such laws? Or do we hate ourselves for being willfully blind as it happened to others, only to sit up when it happened to us? Maybe we should thank Claire G Coleman for showing us this vision, so that we might do something before it’s too late.
And that’s just a sampling! After Australia is a mighty collection of twelve incredible Indigenous Writers and Writers of Colour, it’s been edited by Michael Mohammed Ahmad who is the founding director of Sweatshop Western Sydney Writers Collective. It’s a book that’s able to look our historical moment square in the eye and it has a lot to say to Australia today...
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I think there are a lot of ways you can approach a short story collection and After Australia absolutely hits all of these…
Perhaps you’re looking for a way to discover new Australian writing and writers? Well, After Australia has a selection of twelve incredible Indigenous Writers and Writers of Colour including Ambellin Kwaymullina, Karen Wyld, Omar Sakr, Future D Fidel and Zoya Patel.
Maybe you like reading a story in a single sitting? After Australia is like a moreish pack of mixed lollies that you promise yourself your only going to have one of but end up finishing way more than intended (with plenty of literary energy but no extra calories!)
Or maybe you love writing around a theme that lets you explore ideas from different perspectives. Well After Australia promises to imagine an alternate Australia - after empire, after colony, after white supremacy.
See After Australia is the book we’ve needed but perhaps didn’t know it. As we all try to come to grips with the impact of pandemic on our lives it is unavoidable that the structural imbalances in our society are tipping further against marginalised communities.
After Australia seeks futures where these balances are challenged, inverted or perhaps simply upended as environmental destruction flips the game board.
In a collection like this there’s simply so much to talk about. I’m going to hone in on one story to give you all an idea of what After Australia has on offer…
Claire G Coleman’s Ostraka takes us into the searing heat of an isolated, remote compound. An individual waits against the chain-link fence in a seeming prison of inertia. Around the compound are others; pale skin turning a vivid, painful scarlet in the unforgiving heat.
It is Australia’s near future and the government has enacted the Ostraka law. Hearkening back to classical Athenian democracy the Ostrakismos gives the body politic the power to ostracise citizens. But who is to be ostracised and why?!
In Ostraka Claire does so much in a very short space. The pain and remoteness of ostracism is immediately apparent in the harsh environment, as is the purgatory of uncertainty as the lawyers line up periodically to give their clients next to no news.
Ostraka complicates this narrative though as it shows us the Ostraka laws were seemingly built around the established precedent of offshore detention and individuals are buried under mountains of go nowhere paperwork.
The callous inhumanity of the existing system of offshore and endless detention is highlighted simply by applying it to everyday people (and by everyday let’s just understand we mean white and middle class).
So do we hate the increasingly authoritarian government that through mission creep might one day enact such laws? Or do we hate ourselves for being willfully blind as it happened to others, only to sit up when it happened to us? Maybe we should thank Claire G Coleman for showing us this vision, so that we might do something before it’s too late.
And that’s just a sampling! After Australia is a mighty collection of twelve incredible Indigenous Writers and Writers of Colour, it’s been edited by Michael Mohammed Ahmad who is the founding director of Sweatshop Western Sydney Writers Collective. It’s a book that’s able to look our historical moment square in the eye and it has a lot to say to Australia today...
Loved this review?
You can get more books, writing and literary culture every week on the Final Draft Great Conversations podcast. Hear interviews with authors and discover your next favourite read!
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April 2, 2022
A very engaging read by this white Australian about what it is like, not being white in Australia! ‘After Australia’ was a collection of stories about the future might be like and told by people of color living in white Australia. These author’s were many and varied~ some were black indigenous Australians, one had come from Fiji and there were authors who had come from South America and as far away as Cuban and the Middle East.
There were stories that included a recent history of Australia such as: living with floods and bushfires in the world of climate change. Some of the stories also included violence and racism to people of color. There was a story about detention centers and the return of a White Australia policy. There was a wonderful story about a 'flu that killed only Anglo-whites. There was a black indigenous story about being displace from Fiji to Australia. Whilst another, was a story about living in a white dystopian Australia and that have left many people starving. Some of the writers included: Hannah Donnelly, Khalid Warsame, Claire G. Coleman, Roanna Gonsalves, Ambelin Kwaymullina, Kaya Ortiz and Sarah Ross.
Personally, I was very moved by, 'Displaced' by Zoya Patel and 'Black Thoughts: Pemulwuy' by Hannah Donnelly. 'After Australia' was, at times, a dark, angry place and portrayed a powerful message about an oppressed future. The white government didn't care about multiculturalism. They had the police squad to maintain control (by force, if they had too) and the physical environment had deteriorated to the point that people were starving and many were left with a sense of hopelessness. Quite dire and quite good! 4 STARS.
There were stories that included a recent history of Australia such as: living with floods and bushfires in the world of climate change. Some of the stories also included violence and racism to people of color. There was a story about detention centers and the return of a White Australia policy. There was a wonderful story about a 'flu that killed only Anglo-whites. There was a black indigenous story about being displace from Fiji to Australia. Whilst another, was a story about living in a white dystopian Australia and that have left many people starving. Some of the writers included: Hannah Donnelly, Khalid Warsame, Claire G. Coleman, Roanna Gonsalves, Ambelin Kwaymullina, Kaya Ortiz and Sarah Ross.
Personally, I was very moved by, 'Displaced' by Zoya Patel and 'Black Thoughts: Pemulwuy' by Hannah Donnelly. 'After Australia' was, at times, a dark, angry place and portrayed a powerful message about an oppressed future. The white government didn't care about multiculturalism. They had the police squad to maintain control (by force, if they had too) and the physical environment had deteriorated to the point that people were starving and many were left with a sense of hopelessness. Quite dire and quite good! 4 STARS.
February 16, 2021
Strap in for a lot of climate crisis depictions!
I thoroughly enjoyed the voices in this book, and some of the stories have really stuck with me.
It was the kind of book that make me uncomfortable in the good/challenging kind of way. I’m not a huge fan of the genre, but the stories had fascinating foundations and I read it voraciously.
I thoroughly enjoyed the voices in this book, and some of the stories have really stuck with me.
It was the kind of book that make me uncomfortable in the good/challenging kind of way. I’m not a huge fan of the genre, but the stories had fascinating foundations and I read it voraciously.
March 5, 2021
An important work bringing together a range of different voices weaving a picture of the darker side of the Australian soul. We read for different reasons and we take from what we read anything ranging from a respite from our daily life with its tedium or difficulties to a view through an unopened door into something clarifying further things concealed, that we have to consciously seek to see or to know more clearly. This book pleased me as a reader but also added to my sense of Australia through the stories told and how they intereowve and connected to be about Australia, despite the title, today. Each story gave. I loved the story about the Aunty in the train and how it connected in my imagination with the Aunty in the spaceship prose piece. The story about a futuristic Australian suddenly stateless in his own country, the energy of two women creating a bridge from a gift, the immigration centre, the shocking chronology of indigenous gains and losses historically re land rights and the machinations that undermine and disempower - all the stories stand firmly on their own feet but combined they are a story of hope and I desperately hope, hope for us all who feel voiceless because the voices are strong and the commitment is real. Australia needs these voices to be its true, and not spun and manfactured, best. My only negative reaction was the cover. Born in 1953 the girl on the cover is me and I'm not getting from it what the stories give - unless I see it as being blinded from seeing the reality of my people in which case it is true enough but the image does not reflect the voices nor the content in this collection. They are thoughtful, warm, unsettled, angry, cautious, sad, intelligent and generous. I first thought, very quick glance, the family were from four seperate origins that were blotted out by Australian history today but united as a family group, which worked, as it fitted the single voices in a collective venture til I looked at it again after the final piece. Small point, and possibly a publisher decision, but either way, for me as a reader having the flatness and singular dimension of a faded cliche - not targeting those more powerful Australians really responsible - whereas the stories shone.
October 9, 2023
I wear the black flag. I don’t know what people see when I do. Possibly that I’m some unidentifiable minority with a Koori flag on. Maybe she’s a quadroon. Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe she’s black black black.
I did not realise how close I was to finishing this book when i fell into a slump with it. I literally had two or three stories left but got stuck and it took me a month to finish this like 200-300 page book. So now all my enthusiasm and comments about it are dry and crusty. There was a very beautiful poem in there, I remember. A very touching and tragic family saga whose last lines made me tear up. A truly creative and inventive reimagining of Sydney through the eyes of an asian teenager. A raw but somehow also tender account of a gay Arab man dealing with the complicated relationship with his mother against the backdrop of “the white flu.” These stories stood out to me. But the acknowledgements also had this bit on the power of speculative fiction especially for writers of colour. When you’re occupied with the injustices of the present it can rob you of the drive to imagine that decolonized future. So I was really appreciative of this collection’s goal to forge that creative future.
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August 16, 2020Acknowledging the limits of Acknowledgments of Country, the Wiradjuri artist Jazz Money once wrote:
whitefellas try to acknowledge things
but they do it wrong
they say
before we begin I’d like to pay my respects
not understanding
that there isn’t a time before it begins
it has all already begun
Continue reading: https://www.australianbookreview.com....
whitefellas try to acknowledge things
but they do it wrong
they say
before we begin I’d like to pay my respects
not understanding
that there isn’t a time before it begins
it has all already begun
Continue reading: https://www.australianbookreview.com....
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