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July/Aug 2020 ASAA NEWSLETTER Association for the Study of Australasia in Asia Website: www.asaa.net.au Australia: Guest Nation Hyderabad Literary Festival 2020 ASAA members at literary sessions at HLF 2020 Kieran Dolin & Alf Taylor Centre: Lynette Lounsbury Left: Kieran Dolin Right: Rashida Murphy Centre: Stephen Alomes HLF Report 21-24 January 2020 The guest nation at this year’s contingent, consisting of Alf Taylor, Hyderabad Literature Festival was Rashida Murphy, Lynnette Lounsbury, Australia, and two groups of Australian Stephen Alomes and Kieran Dolin, all writers, one organised by ASAA, and stayed in the same hotel, along with the other by the Australian Consul- other guest writers, from both India General were in attendance. The ASAA and overseas, so we got to know quite a 2 | few others in a convivial way. It was poems by Glen Phillips, who was also good to meet the other Australian originally scheduled to read but writers, including Anita Heiss, withdrew due to ill-health. Bronwyn Fredericks, Caroline A highlight of the Australian Overington, Gideon Haigh, John programme on the second day was an Zubrzycki, Kim Wilkins and Lisa absorbing panel on Immigrant Voices Heidke, and to be on panels with them, involving Rashida Murphy and Roanna along with many distinguished writers, Gonsalves, two Indo-Australian artists and scholars from India and writers, who responded to a range of elsewhere. questions on some of the challenging The venue for the festival was aspects of Indian diasporic life in the picturesque Vidyaranya High Australia. Roanna read an extract from School in the city, rather an oasis in her work, Sunita da Silva Goes to the midst of the bustle. The festival Sydney (Australian title, The sessions are free and open to the Permanent Resident), and Rashida general public, and the event was from her novel, The Historian’s abuzz with activities, stalls, and many Daughter. sessions and workshops. There was a The third day, January 26, is wonderful spirit throughout, and Republic Day in India and also student helpers made it easy for us to Australia Day, and the former was find our sessions, and kindly assisted movingly acknowledged with a reading in many other ways. of the preamble to the Indian The festival was inaugurated Constitution, and the latter with a moving opening ceremony, acknowledged ‘in solidarity with which included official representatives Aboriginal people.’ At the following from India, the Australian Consul- panel, on New Age Fiction, Lynnette General in Chennai, Susan Grace, and Lounsbury spoke about and read from the renowned Mayalalam film-maker her reworking of Jack Kerouac, We Ate Adoor Gopalakrishnan, who delivered the Road like Vultures, and the an inspiring keynote address on Portuguese writer Filippa Martins Cinema, Literature and Society. presented a defence of literature for This was followed by a packed postmodern times. session on Aboriginal writing, entitled Later that day, the national Indigenous Australian perspectives, in theme was front and centre in a panel which Anita Heiss and Bronwyn on ‘Games Nations Play,’ at which Fredericks, Indigenous writers based Stephen Alomes (RMIT) was joined by at the University of Queensland, were the Australian newspaper’s cricket the main speakers. It was a very writer, Gideon Haigh. Sport and social engaging session, that drew numerous values, cricket, the games of politics, questions from the audience. and the politics of games were among A session on Australian poetry the topic discussed with an with senior Noongar writer Alf Taylor enthusiastic audience. and Kieran Dolin was very well received. Kieran Dolin gave a brief overview on publishing and participation, recurrent preoccupations, and key themes. Alf Taylor read a selection of his work and spoke about the events and observations that inspired them. The ASAA members at the Selfie Point HLF panel ended with a reading of two 3 | This is a very selective summary of global studies at RMIT University what was a richly varied and highly Melbourne. enjoyable event. On behalf of the ASAA guests I would like to express my Alf Taylor – Author/Poet appreciation to the organisers, especially Professor Vijay Kumar, for their hospitality and for the inclusive vision that animates the HLF. Kieran Dolin University of Western Australia Stephen Alomes Alf Taylor is a Western Australian Author, painter and poet Nyoongah writer. Born in the late 1940s, Taylor and his brother while Growing up in children were removed from their Tasmania, family and placed in the New Norcia Stephen Alomes Mission, making them members of has written the the Stolen Generation. Taylor stories of the discovered his heritage only when he varieties of left the Mission as a teenager and Australian searched for his family. Taylor nationalism (A worked in the Perth and Geraldton Nation at Last?, 1988), war memory, areas as a seasonal farm worker, popular culture and sport (Australian before joining the armed forces and Football The People's Game 1958- living in several locations around 2058, 2012, 2017). Australia. Taylor and his wife had seven children, of whom only two survived. Although Taylor had enjoyed writing from an early age, he only published his first book of poetry, Singer Songwriter in 1992. Later Taylor published an acclaimed short story collection, Long Time Now in 2001, and an excerpt of his memoirs Faces of the Donald God, the Devil and Me, about his life Following studies of the colonial in New Norcia, in 2003 in the cultural cringe to Britain, he explored literary journal, Westerly. the call of London to Australians in His publications include writing and the creative arts (When Long Time Now: Stories of the London Calls, 1999). His forthcoming Dreamtime, the Here and prose poetry collection is entitled Now(20010): Rimfire: Poetry from Selective Ironies Ginninderra Press, Aboriginal Australia (2000); Singer 2020). His expressionist portraits Songwriter (1992);Winds (1994); explore the faces of populist leaders People of the Park (1994). Awards across several continents, from Donald 2004 and 2006 Literature Board Trump and Pauline Hanson to Silvio Grants for Established Writers. Berlusconi and Vladimir Putin; they follow contemporary populism, the subject of his academic research in 4 | Rashida Murphy writing residency in NSW. She lives in Writer, poet Perth and is currently working on a new novel and a collection of short stories. Lynette Lounsbury Novelist Lynette Lounsbury writes particularly for an audience of youth amongst which she has established a distinguished Rashida Murphy is a writer, poet, reputation. Her reviewer and blogger. She has novels include published her short fiction and poetry Afterworld (Allen in various international literary and Unwin, journals and anthologies such as Melbourne 2014) ;We ate the Road Westerly, Open Road Review Like Vultures ( Inkerman & Blunt, and Veils Halos and Shackles. Her Melbourne 2016”, Haunted: Claws and debut novel, The Historian’s Teeth”, in Rossignol, Rachel ed, Daughter was shortlisted in the "Hauntings Special Issue", Bukker Scottish Dundee International Book Tillibul: The Online Journal of Writing Prize in 2015 (UWA Publishing). In and Practice-led Research, Vol 10, 2016 she was a guest editor at 2016”; A Girl and the Beats”, Nieuwe Westerly and was on the editorial Vide Journal of the Humanities, board at Cafe Dissensus from 2014– Amsterdam, January, 2017. 2018.Rashida has a Masters degree in English Literature and a PhD in UWA-OU Discussions Writing from Edith Cowan University .She has worked as an Education lecturer for several years in Perth before undertaking her PhD. In 2016 she was the joint winner of the Magdalena Prize for feminist research for her thesis which includes the novel The Historian’s Daughter. She has judged literary competitions such as the Spilt Ink competition, the Talus Prize, the Ellen Kemp Memorial Prize and the KSP short story competition. She won a writing residency at L-R: Y L Srinivas, Kieran Dolin, C. Murali Krishna, Parimala Kulkarni the Katherine Susannah Pritchard at Osmania University, Hyderabad Writers centre in 2017 and has been an invited guest and facilitator at Formal discussions were held in the Perth Writers Festival from 2017- January 2020, between the officials of 2019. She was a mentor in the Indian Osmania University and the Ocean Writing project in 2018 and University of Western Australia with 2019. She has recently completed a the aim of promoting further 5 | negotiations for signing an MoU newspaper in Britain reported that to between the two institutions. Prof. C. some Singaporeans, this international Murali Krishna, Head, Dept. of demotion in status is upsetting.[…] English, Prof. Y L Srinivas, Chair, Our rightful national pride in Board of Studies, Dept. of English, Dr. Singapore's achievements make Parimala Kulkarni, faculty member derogatory international reportage, from Osmania University participated. such as that in The Guardian, Dr. Kieran Dolin Associate Professor, uncomfortable reading. Yet, we must English and Cultural Studies, ask why the rights and living represented the University of Western conditions of these men, now thrown Australia. into the spotlight by Covid-19, have not generally been issues of more importance. Perhaps the simplistic Bridge differences instead answer is that they are "Other"[...] of vilifying the unfamiliar Othering is a collective failure to Meira Chand recognise the darker side of human nature and out of this failure comes the mechanism of scapegoating. Black or white, physically handicapped, refugee or immigrant, whatever the differences we find to categorise people - ultimately, we are all one.[…] Beyond the impressive skyline of modern Singapore, a visit to the humble premises of the Chinese Heritage Centre in Pagoda Street is a deeply moving experience. Here, in touching detail, is documented the beginnings of modern Singapore. The Meira Chand coolies and amahs, the rickshaw men In Singapore, we are struggling and house boys whose lives are nationally with the huge spike in documented here, came to a city whose Covid-19 cases among migrant streets were supposedly paved with workers, just when we thought we had gold.[…] the virus under control.

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