Aborigine

• Bruce Pascoe is best known for his natural history, Dark Emu, which argues that systems of pre-colonial food production and land management in Australia have been dramatically understated.
• At last count, the book had sold at least 360,000 copies of the original edition – and many more in the form of adaptations, translations, children’s and overseas editions.
• Since the publication of Dark Emu in 2014, Pascoe has had to endure extraordinary public scrutiny, as well as vehement attacks on his personal and professional reputation.

• In light of the last ten years, Black Duck: A Year at Yumburra is a healing and necessary book.
• The farm is a deliberate project designed to test, extend and materialise some of the ideas put forward in Dark Emu.
• The meaning of Yumburra, Pascoe tells us, is Black Duck, the “supreme spiritual being of Yuin country”.

Six seasons on the farm

• Through more than 60 subtitled journal entries, accompanied by numerous photographs and sketches, Pascoe charts the activities of his days.
• These include labouring chores on the farm, visits paid and received (both there and interstate), thoughts, visions and experiments with food and agriculture, and memories and reflections on relationships reaching far back into childhood.
• Pascoe describes life on the farm as solitary at times, but also active.
• Daily farm work includes clearing watercourses or fixing tools and machinery, and at these times his friendships with the nonhuman are forged in both subtle and overt ways.

• Despite their vigilance, the Spur-winged Plover loses a lot of chicks to eagles and foxes […] Their calls are ever-present on the farm.
• If the horses gallop, an eagle passes, a dingo wakes or a car arrives, you hear about it instantly.
• You can’t make friend with Birran Durran Durran because everything is a threat in its opinion.
• Despite their vigilance, the Spur-winged Plover loses a lot of chicks to eagles and foxes […] Their calls are ever-present on the farm.

• There is a sense of time moving on through the seasons.
• Yumburra, too, was affected by that event, leading one of the farm workers to rename a whole section of the farm “Apocalypse Valley” in the aftermath.
• “The unbridled pleasure I used to take in the forest, waters and shores is now tinged with sadness and dread.”

A true storyteller

• The author is respectfully light on detail on these matters, but the reader is left in no doubt about their deep importance to him.
• Pascoe’s authorial style sometimes comes across as a touch too lackadaisical and larrikin-esque, drifting as if unmoored.
• And yet, he’s a true storyteller – and no sooner have you hesitated, than he reels you in again, and has you marvelling with him at the grandchildren’s handstands and cartwheels on the paddle board on the river, or at the cunning of the dingo pair who’ve taken out a young Buru (kangaroo) by gripping him by the ears and drowning him.
• I assume it was the same animal because she made a great point of making sure I was watching her expertise.
• It might be a romantic thought or a wish for longevity of a friend but, whatever the case, I enjoy the personality.“

• Sometimes Pascoe quotes from her journal entries, discrete and beautifully rendered observations of wildlife on her own nearby property.
• But as I was reading, I found myself wondering how else Lyn contributed to the book, and on what terms.

Connection to culture and Country

• For anyone with lingering doubts about Pascoe’s commitment and connection to Country, this book will set them straight.
• It is a quiet, funny, warm and insistent call to return to and care for Country.

Julienne van Loon has been a recipient of funding from Creative Australia, Creative Victoria and ArtsWA.

• Since Australia first began producing feature films, it has returned time and again to the subject of the first world war.
• Before Dawn, out in cinemas today, is the latest in this long line of productions.

A sombre portrait of war

The Germans constructed the Hindenburg Line, also known as the Siegfriedstellung or “Siegfried Position” in German, as a defensive fortification on the Western Front in France during the winter of 1916–1917. Stretching between the towns of Arras and Laffaux in the country’s north, it served as a formidable barrier against Allied offensives.

• Similar to All Quiet on the Western Front, Before Dawn downplays the celebration of victory and nationalist sacrifice by instead providing a sombre portrait of the horrors of combat.
• By the time Armistice Day arrives on November 11 1918, marking the end of the war, it is hardly a victory for the soldiers.

A young man’s film through and through

• That said, it would seem a little unfair to compare Before Dawn with the quality and emotional gravitas of Gallipoli.
• Prince-Wright’s prior credits include 2018 film The Decadent and Depraved, an independent western genre film set in outback colonial Western Australia.
• Prince-Wright shares screenwriting duties with Jarrad Russell, who is receiving his first screenwriting feature credit on the film.
• Before Dawn is certainly a young man’s film, both in what is being represented as well as in the cast and crew behind the production.

Ambitious work

• It relies too heavily on composer Sean Tinnion’s overstated musical score to provide emotional weight.
• The contribution of Aboriginal soldiers during WWI is yet to be satisfactorily fictionalised on the screen.

• Despite these faults and oversights, Before Dawn offers an account of the important sacrifice Australia made in assisting the Commonwealth during the war.
• Coupled with other sources, it could function well as a teaching text for students learning about the Hindenburg Line.

Stephen Gaunson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• Established in 2016, the emergency housing programme – short-term housing for people with nowhere to stay – was meant to be a stop-gap measure.
• People seeking access to emergency housing will need to prove they have made “a reasonable effort” to secure a home in the private rental sector.
• Our research on the factors that shape people’s housing outcomes, experiences and journeys shows the private rental sector can often exacerbate housing precarity.

Housing discrimination is widespread

• Our survey of 800 residents across seven neighbourhoods in Auckland, Hamilton and Christchurch revealed experiences of housing discrimination are widespread in Aotearoa New Zealand.
• Nearly half of all renters reported directly experiencing discrimination when trying to rent a home.
• Read more:
  As NZ struggles to resolve its long-running housing crisis, investors should be taxed for keeping homes empty

  When asked for examples to illustrate their experiences of discrimination, renters and owners alike provided stories of struggling to secure private rental housing at some point in their lives.

The instability of renting

• This situation is made worse by the instability of rental housing.
• Our survey results show a mere 12% of private rental tenants have lived in only one home over the past ten years.
• This stands in stark contrast to 47% of owner-occupiers but also 39% of public housing tenants.
• It takes time and effort to secure a home, especially one that is affordable and suitable for a household’s needs.

Private rental sector is not a solution

• Recent research in Aotearoa and the United Kingdom has shown private renting adversely affects renters’ health and wellbeing.
• Moreover, a Western Australian initiative to require public housing applicants to prove they had tried to get a private rental was dismantled following a 2004 inquiry.
• Responding to the emergency housing crisis with greater reliance on the private rental sector amounts to fighting fire with fire.

Jessica Terruhn receives funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment for the WERO research programme. She is affiliated with Renters United. Francis L Collins receives funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. He has previously received other funding from Te Apārangi Royal Society of New Zealand.

• The Skills and Partnership Fund is a project-based program supporting partnerships between Indigenous organizations and employers to provide targeted skills training for Indigenous people for in-demand jobs at the local, regional and national level.
• It is one of two complementary Indigenous labour market programs delivered by Employment and Social Development Canada, the other one being the distinctions-based Indigenous Skills and Employment Training Program.
• These initiatives not only address skills shortages in Canada but also contribute to the empowerment of our Indigenous peoples through meaningful employment."
• The Skills and Partnership Fund aims to close the skills and employment gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people and to increase Indigenous participation in the labour market by ensuring that Indigenous people have improved skills and employment opportunities.