Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Edited by Ashley Hay and Natasha Cica, Text Publishing, $27.99.
The profound and intricate relationship between Europe and Australia is keenly explored. It also shows how Australians of many backgrounds have contributed to a long-standing dialogue that enriches the two distant continents.
What’s more, both will learn from each other as the overwhelming pain of loss from COVID-19 gives way to a new reality in which diverse cultures work together to create a richer and more resilient globe. It discusses how Australians of many backgrounds have contributed to a long-standing dialogue that enriches both continents.
The pandemic has transformed so many aspects of the world in 2020, with regions and its countries reset as distinct and disconnected places. Even though this crisis has strongly challenged the idea of Europe and Australia as interconnected and accessible, the ongoing exchange will continue to progress and reshape.
In many ways, co-editor of this edition Natasha Cica “embodies both the richness of this two-way nourishment, and the reality of lives remade by quick decisions”. For many years she has worked and lived in Europe and Australia.
However, the eruption and spread of COVID-19 changed everything. It marooned Natasha in Tasmania and dispatched GR69 team to work remotely from different spare rooms and kitchen tables. Nevertheless, there’s a rich mix of writing from the European sphere interspersed with voices from many parts of Australia.
As novelist Arundhati Roy said: “Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different”.
As the status of borders keep changing, and however the world is remade by these times, the conversations between Europe and Australia must continue. They must combine the complexities of definition and responsibilities – past, present and future – with ideas of justice and exchange.
In the coming months, their multi-layered relationship will benefit since they have much to learn from each other. Griffith Review illuminates the evolving connections between Europe and Australia, work that asks not only how Europe speaks to the rest of the world, but how the rest of the world speaks back.
