December 2020 – January 2021
Magazine
The Monthly Essays
In times like these, what would Oodgeroo do?
On the influence of Aboriginal poet, activist and educator Oodgeroo Noonuccal
Taking to London’s streets in lockdown, with thoughts of Orwell and Henry Miller, plagues, eels, decorative cakes and what might be done in the belly of a whale
We need to talk about the economy
The myth of the ‘overview effect’, and how it serves space industry entrepreneurs
Classical music’s problem with women
Alarming revelations about the great Australian painter
The Nation Reviewed
And now for something completely indifferent
The Morrison government is yet to fully realise that sidelining the arts hurts the economy
There are good reasons why Australians won’t pick fruit
How Murrandoo Yanner’s fight for native title in the Gulf of Carpentaria transformed his Gangalidda home town
Productions now hire advisers to help performers navigate intimate and violent scenes
VOX
What happens when kids encounter a landline
Previously unpublished work from the giant of Australian poetry
Arts & Letters
The idiosyncratic work of Yolngu artist Dhambit Mununggurr
Dividing the Tasman: ‘Empire and the Making of Native Title’
Historian Bain Attwood examines the different approaches to sovereignty in the New Zealand and Australian settlements
The celebrated Australian author’s ‘Collected Stories’ sets private desperation in the cosmopolitan Europe she revered
David Fincher’s biopic of Orson Welles’s collaborating writer favours technique over heart
The passing of its figureheads underscores pop music’s waning influence on personal identity
Noted
‘Jack’ by Marilynne Robinson History and suffering matter in the latest instalment of the American author’s Gilead novels
‘The Dry’ directed by Robert Connolly Eric Bana stars as a troubled investigator dragged back to his home town in a sombre Australian thriller
