Stephen Muecke

Sep 14, 2023 | overland.org.au | John Kinsella |Liz Conor |Max Brierty |Stephen Muecke

Reason is to imagination as the instrument to the agent, as the body to the spirit, as the shadow to the substance. Shelley, A Defence of PoetryDo we rely on having—or expect to ‘have’—a spirit even if we don’t believe they exist? I think of Emperor Hadrian’s address to his spirit or soul just before death, and wonder if it was a case of self-denial or self-delusion or maybe absolute certainty for all the crimes of power in the world of the living?

Aug 24, 2023 | overland.org.au | Liz Conor |Andrew McLean |Max Brierty |Stephen Muecke

Dampier is back in the press. as the archipelago named after him is now the site of the proposed Woodside Energy $16 billion Scarborough gas project. The salty coastline Dampier bumped into in 1688, and returned to in 1699, will be cleaved by an undersea pipeline cutting through whale migration routes and protected Marine Parks renowned for their biodiversity.

Jul 6, 2023 | overland.org.au | Max Brierty |Stephen Muecke |Dan Hogan |Ender Başkan

It is the year 2060, and we are driving through Kullilli Country, also known as the Channel Country, a Bio-Region defined by its waterways. This ‘State’ was called ‘Queensland’ after Queen Victoria in 1859, and this was in the south-west corner. But really it is where Max’s people come from. At a turnoff on a dirt track there is a wooden sign, with ‘MUSEUM’ roughly painted in white, and an arrow. A few hundred metres down the track is an old tin shed, a shearing shed, surrounded by a few casuarinas.