Last weekend I attended the Anniversary of the Liberation of Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp (15 April 1945), which I formerly attended in 2015. That was a huge ceremony, commemorating the 70th anniversary. This year, the event was much more intimate, and even more moving. It is a great honour to be invited.
Photos show The Obelisk and Memorial Wall 2015; The Jewish Memorial 2023; the Polish Memorial 2015; the Memorial to Soviet POWs 2023; View across the former camp site to the Obelisk 2023.
A large and receptive audience gathered to hear about Clift’s ‘translation’ of Kalymnian culture in her memoir Mermaid Singing. In a conversation chaired by Writers Festival Director Helen Vatsikopoulos, I talked with the book’s Greek translator, Fotini Pipi, andAustralian Ambassador to Greece, Arthur Spyrou, who appeared via Zoom from Athens. (Photos by Effie Alexakis.)
‘We had come to Kalymnos to seek a source, or a wonder, or a sign, to be reassured in our humanity.’
Charmian Clift arrived on Kalymnos with her husband, George Johnston and children Martin (aged seven) and Shane (five) on a stormy day in December 1954. Over the next nine months, Clift wrote her first solo book — the travel memoir Mermaid Singing — and discovered her unique voice. She also fell in love with Greece, and developed the foundations of her own philosophy of feminism — grounded in the vibrant matriarchal culture of the island. In June 2022, I went to Kalymnos to speak at the launch of the Greek translation of this book and to see if I could find Clift’s Kalymnos. (I did!)
Photos below show:
‘The yellow house on the waterfront’ where Charmian and the family lived; The book launch panel and audience (including the Australian Ambassador to Greece); and Charmian and George with Charmian’s dear friend and mentor, Sevasti Taktikou (1955).
Thanks to all the Clift fans who became along to Better Read than Dead (Newtown) on the evening of 29 April to celebrate the republication of Charmian Clift’s Selected Essays.
In the first of a number of promotional events, I talked about the book with former ABC radio journalist Robyn Ravlich, whose award-winning body of work included a wonderful program about Charmian Clift.
This new edition of Charmian Clift’s essays is drawn from the weekly newspaper column Clift wrote through the turbulent and transformative years of the 1960s. In these ‘sneaky little revolutions’, as Clift once called them, she supported the rights of women and migrants, called for social justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, opposed conscription and the war in Vietnam, acknowledged Australia’s role in the Asia-Pacific, fought censorship, called for a local film industry — and much more. In doing so, she set a new benchmark for the form of the essay in Australian literature.
In Conversation with Robyn Ravlich about SNEAKY LITTLE REVOLUTIONS at Better Read than Dead, 29 April 2022
The weekly newspaper column written by Australian writer Charmian Clift was one of the radicalising forces of the 1960s — espousing feminism and multiculturalism, opposing conscription and the war in Vietnam, acknowledging our role in Asia, fighting censorship, supporting the 1967 referendum on Aboriginal rights, opposing the fascist Junta in Greece, calling for an Australian film industry — and much more.
Film-makers Rachel Lane and Sue Millikin are seeking tax-deductible funding donations to kick-start their documentary about the life and political passions of this ground-breaking author. Even a small sum would help.
To donate, or to find out more about the project, go to the website https://documentaryaustralia.com.au/project/life-burns-high/
The Big Tree in My Place provides a gathering point for the children who are the book’s story-tellers. But it is also a real tree in my local area, which inspired me to write the story over thirty years ago. And it was used as a location in the TV series.
The other day, after I had given a Zoom Webinar about the book and the TV series to over 9000 children, I visited the Big Tree at sunset.
It made me remember once again Donna Rawlins’ wonderful illustration of the Big Tree which is the final page of the book.
Despite a last-minute quasi-lockdown, a big mob of Sixties radicals and a bunch of their younger friends and supporters met at the Cypress Club on 6 May to celebrate RADICALS: Remembering the Sixties by Meredith Burgmann and Nadia Wheatley.
The book was launched by ‘Stompin at Maroubra’ Sixties icon Little Patty who said ‘The book is a mixed bag of great people – the best and the bravest – and they still have the fire in their bellies’.
That could also have described the assembled party-goers, who included three members of the 1965 Freedom Ride, four 78ers and many angry second wave feminists.
As well, there was Australia's first draft card burner Wayne Haylen QC (now a judge), the first woman elected to Federal Parliament from New South Wales, Jeannette McHugh, former Deputy Premier Carmel Tebbutt, and the first woman President of the Communist Party of Australia (in fact, first woman president of any political party in Australia) Judy Mundey. Also present was Jim Boyce, one of the seven Wallabies who refused to play the all-white, racially selected South African Springboks in 1971.
And let’s not forget Robbie Swan, Gary Williams, Jozefa Sobski, Bronwyn Penrith, Helen Voysey and John Derum, whose stories are told in the book.
Ps: If you wonder why I am wearing a weird hat — it is the ceremonial headgear of Sydney University’s Yeoman Bedell, liberated as a battle trophy in the famous 1966 Fisher Library sit-in. Thanks to Brian Aarons, who lent it to me for the occasion.
Meredith and I have been so busy with events for RADICALS that I haven’t had time to update the website. But here is a photo of us with Mark Aarons and three of the book’s contributors, taken after our Conversation on 15 April. From L to R: Jozefa Sobski, Peter Manning, Nadia, Mark, Meredith, John Derum. Thanks to James Ross and the team at Gleebooks, to Robyn Fortescue for this photo, and of course to Mark for his insightful questions.
Radicals — Remembering the Sixties is now in the shops, or you can purchase it at the Book Shop on this website.
My co-author Meredith Burgmann and I will be doing a range of sessions about the book over the coming months —both via Zoom and In Real Life. Some will also involve our fellow-radicals, whose stories we showcase in the book.
This coming Thursday 15 April we will be ‘In Conversation’ with Mark Aarons from 6.00 to 8.00 pm at Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd Glebe, 2037.
To book a place, ring Gleebooks on 02 96602333 or go to the Events page on the Gleebooks website.
I will include news of other sessions in later postings.
I have been going to Liverpool Girls High School in the first term of every school year for over a decade, but this year for the first time I will be doing virtual workshops with the students. I love this school — the energy of the students, the commitment of the staff, and the coffee shop that the girls run at morning recess!
I have recently been running virtual workshops with a number of schools.
With Years 3 and 4 at Woollahra PS, I have been meeting once a week over six weeks for a Circle Story workshop. It has been great to share this program, first developed at Papunya School, in a new way.
Given the current lockdown in Victoria, it has been very special to be invited to ‘meet’ with students who are working from home. Thanks to Carnegie PS, Braemar College and Peninsula Grammar for inviting me. The photo is a screen shot taken by the school while I was working with Year 5 Braemar students who had been studying A Banner Bold. Uplifting comments by some of the Braemar students (included with permission of parents and the school) are on the Talks and Workshops page. Here is a sample:
“I liked this writing workshop because it was like we were talking to Nadia Wheatley face to face. It was really interesting and inspiring to listen to her because she seemed really passionate about her work.” Josie
“The Nadia Wheatley workshop taught me that you should look into nature for ideas for writing.” Joe
I have been putting together a website and poetry anthology in honour of poet Martin Johnston. The 30th anniversary of his death took place on this year’s Winter Solstice, so his stepdaughter Vivienne Latham and I have been in touch with a number of his friends and fellow poets to develop a commemorative project.
To find out about Martin Johnston, visit the website.
You can find my recollection about Martin in the Media section, and a link to the audio recording of an interview I did with Martin Johnston at the ABC in 1985. Martin is talking about his parents, Charmian Clift and George Johnston.
Thanks to everyone who came to Gleebooks yesterday for the Conversation about Her Mother’s Daughter. Thanks, too, to Peter Manning for his incisive questions, and to Jennifer Newman for her very moving Acknowledgement of Country. Finally, I thank Gleebooks for all the support they give to Australian writers.
I will also be speaking about the memoir this Thursday morning (19th July) on Life Matters (Radio National).
You can find a review of the book on Inside Story:
Happy Children's Book Week, everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful time celebrating books and reading with your friends, families and teachers. Yet this is also a good time to remember the children around the world who don't have books, or schools, or libraries.
As I said when Flight was awarded Children's Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year, I like to think this prize is a vote of support for the millions of refugees who, like the characters in this story, are sacrificing everything they have in the hope of finding a safe home.
If you would like to see my Thank You speech at the CBCA Awards ceremony, click on the link to the video
https://www.dropbox.com/s/moz92bu0sj3pyzb/Nadia%20Wheatley_Flight.mp4?dl=0
Natasha Mitchell and I revisited our discussion of the picture book Flight on ABC Radio’s ‘Life Matters’ this morning. Here is the link:
When I originally wrote the text of the picture book Flight, I had no idea how timely its story about the journey of a family of refugees would prove to be. In Conversation with Natasha Mitchell from ABC Radio’s ‘Life Matters’, I recently discussed the background for this contemporary fable at the Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney. Thanks to everyone who came along and made this a great evening, and to Professor Robyn Ewing for organising the event.
At last week's Professional Learning workshop at Sydney University, we made coolamons to reflect our own ngurra (the place we call home), and filled them with bush plants. We also made Circle Stories, a process of mapping our identity and belonging that comes out of the Papunya Model of Education.
I used to think that the only thing my father ever taught me was how to fold a map. Recently, however, I have been discovering the legacy of a fascinating story that he inadvertently bequeathed me through his work in post-war Germany. I spoke about this recently with Michael Cathcart, on ABC Radio’s Books and Arts Daily.
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/booksandarts/nadia-wheatley-goes-to-belsen/6639374
I really enjoyed talking recently with Tom Tilley from Radio Triple J about the writing of my first book, Five Times Dizzy. The interview (part of the Copyright Agency’s Reading Australia project) is live on the ABC Splash website. You can access it here: http://splash.abc.net.au/home#!/digibook/1909272/interviews-with-10-australian-authors
I recently travelled to Germany to attend the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Belsen concentration camp. My multi-media essay Belsen: Mapping the Memories, electronically published by the Griffith Review, opens a series of windows — personal and political, past and present — into the place and its history.
Read it here: https://griffithreview.atavist.com/belsen
