Arts & Culture

15/07/15 Arts & Culture , Australia , Diaspora & Travel , Society & Politics # , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

On not fitting into boxes: An exploration of borders and border-crossers

On not fitting into boxes: An exploration of borders and border-crossers

By Sukhmani Khorana

 

Born in Jammu, the winter capital of the northernmost state of India, I felt rather like the character of Lenny in Deepa Mehta’s film, Earth. For those who may not be familiar with the text, Lenny is a Parsi girl living in Pakistan at the time of partition whose life is thrown asunder as she plays neutral witness to the growing feuds among her erstwhile neighbourly Hindu, Muslim and Sikh friends and carers.

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01/07/15 Arts & Culture , Australia , Society & Politics # , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Australian Border Force Act 2015: a blight on the Australian Government and on the fundamental principles of democracy

The Australian Border Force Act 2015: a blight on the Australian Government and on the fundamental principles of democracy

By Annatina Aguiar

 

The Australian Border Force Act 2015 which commenced on 1 July 2015 is a very concerning piece of legislation because of its far-reaching consequences for democracy, truth and transparency in relation to Australia’s detention of asylum seekers. It seeks to severely restrict the freedom of speech of “entrusted persons” associated with any detention centre and as such, continues to violate the human rights of asylum seekers housed in Australian detention centres.

 

Section 42 of the Act is one of the most disturbing aspects of the Act, entitled “Secrecy”. Pursuant to section 42, a person who is an “entrusted person” commits an offence if he or she makes a record of, or discloses, what is termed “protected information”, without express permission from the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. An “entrusted person” is defined to mean government employees, consultants or contractors. “Protected information” means any information that a person comes across while working for, or in, detention centres.

 

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16/06/15 Arts & Culture , Australia , Diaspora & Travel , Society & Politics # , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Making a Scene: A review of Kiran Nagarkar’s ‘Bedtime Story’

Making a Scene: A review of Kiran Nagarkar’s ‘Bedtime Story’

By Sumedha Iyer

 

As we took our seats in the theatre, the actors were on the stage chatting amongst themselves, rehearsing lines and practising their blocking for the evening’s performance. There was no cocoon of darkness for the audience to make themselves comfortable in as the show started – the lights stayed on even as the sutradhar/chorus A.A. Larry ordered the actors into their places. This departure from the usual theatregoing experience was intentional; the audience was to be involved in the ‘bedtime story’ to come.

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12/06/15 Arts & Culture , Australia , Diaspora & Travel , Society & Politics # , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A Double–edged Sword

A Double–edged Sword

By Rashida Murphy

 

July 1985. Sahar Airport, Mumbai: In the urgent business of holding a baby in my arms while negotiating the curly line towards the exit, to where a Qantas 747 waits to take me to Perth, I forget to look around one last time. I miss the sight of Mumbai or Bombay as it was then, saying goodbye. It was never my hometown anyway. It was just where I lived. And I was on the threshold of a new life, as a desirable immigrant with double degrees and English language skills. Australia, about which I knew little except that it had large reserves of underground water and farms the size of small countries in Europe, waited.

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09/06/15 Arts & Culture , Australia , Diaspora & Travel , Society & Politics # , , , , , , , , , , ,

A Hipstamatic filter won’t fix your Nostalgia

A Hipstamatic filter won’t fix your Nostalgia

There is much written about diasporic nostalgia for a lost homeland in literature, literary theory, and even media and cultural studies scholarship. As a first generation migrant from India to Australia, I also once longed for the smell of hot samosas on a rainy day, but that is only part of the tale.

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02/06/15 Arts & Culture , Australia , Diaspora & Travel , Society & Politics # , , , , , , ,

’Why Do Indians Smell?’ The Case for the Self-Referential Racist Joke

’Why Do Indians Smell?’ The Case for the Self-Referential Racist Joke

By Sumedha Iyer

 

“Why do Indians smell? So blind people can hate them too.” My mother told me that joke when I was in my early teens. I was both offended and energised by it. This sucks, that smelly Indian person could be me! But it’s my mum too, and she’s telling the joke. Which is delicious. Like samosas and chutney. Wait, that’s a stereotype. Am I being racist? My head hurts.

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26/05/15 Arts & Culture , Society & Politics # , , , , , , , , , ,

The Thing About Cultural Appropriation

The Thing About Cultural Appropriation

by Gary Paramanathan

 

Cultural appropriation is rife these days, just about everyone from Miley Cyrus to your non-Japanese neighbour in her geisha outfit are edging on pushing some cultural politico over the edge. I was one of them, I was totally sold on cultural appropriation, and by that I mean how bad it was, how it needed to be stopped….etc etc. Then I started having my doubts.

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23/05/15 Arts & Culture , Australia , Diaspora & Travel , Meddling Maami , Society & Politics # , , , , ,

Here comes Meddling Maami!

Hey you’all, stop stop! Don’t start the party without me. I know, I know, I’m late, but that’s no reason for you to finish all the love cake and mango mousse! Not to mention the sandesh and jeris and swaaris. You know how long it takes for your Maami to look her gorgeous self and I didn’t want to turn up at the shinding to see my favourite nephews and nieces without putting on my heirlooms, no?

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19/05/15 Arts & Culture , Australia , Diaspora & Travel , Society & Politics # , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

India’s Daughter v/s Struggle Street: The uses of documentary in a parochial and globalised world

India’s Daughter v/s Struggle Street: The uses of documentary in a parochial and globalised world

By Mridula Nath Chakraborty

 

Imagine this: a documentary titled Australia’s Children is broadcast on free-to-air television channels in seven countries around the world on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Australia protests against such high-handed parachute solidarity by the well-meaning international community and bans the doco in this antipodean nation. The popularity of the doco rises hundred-fold with millions of people watching it anyway on YouTube. Is there anything wrong in this picture?

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12/05/15 Arts & Culture , Australia , Society & Politics # , , , , , , , , , , ,

An Ivy League Race Riot: A Review of Dear White People

An Ivy League Race Riot: A Review of Dear White People

By Sukhmani Khorana

 

When Prime Minister Tony Abbott recently declared that Indigenous people living in remote communities were making a ‘lifestyle choice’, he was rightly rebuked by both sides of politics for undermining Aboriginal sovereignty and spiritual connection to land. What was seldom brought up, however, was how his curious phrasing assumed that there is a norm that the ‘choice’ was deviating from. This led me to wonder about a hypothetical scenario where all of the nation’s Indigenous citizens walked the white-laced path – mortgaging an over-priced suburban house, working a 9 to 5 job in the big smoke, commuting to workplaces and shopping centres. Would that help us ‘bridge the gap’? Would that also be the end of race-based prejudice? Chances are they could still encounter casual racism and institutional stasis.

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