Empire Times 48.3 by FUSA Association

Vol Issue three

48.3

ISSUE THREE Empire Times acknowledges the Traditional Owners of lands in which its contributors and readers are located, and honours Elders past and present. These are the traditional lands of the Arrernte, Barngarla, Boandik, Dagoman, Erawirung, Gunditjmara, Jawoyn, Kaurna, Larrakia, Nauo, Ngadjuri, Ngarrindjeri, Peramangk, Ramindjeri, Wardaman, Warumungu, and Yolngu peoples, spanning across South Australia, Northern Territory and Victoria. Empire Times is written, designed, published, and printed on land that always was, and always will be Aboriginal land. Editors

Visual Artists

Join the Team!

Brie Dark Courtney Lawrence Nathan Cheetham Zofia Kolodziej

Amy Bennett // 1, 2 John Simmons // 17 Tony Barber // 12 Ella Uhl // 16

Empire Times is always looking for contributors. If you’re interested in becoming a writer, photographer, illustrator, or sub-editor, contact us for details.

Sub-Editors

Cover Art

Amy Bennett Amy Lowe Elissa Unferdorben Gaby Jones Maddie Hand Natasha Nagle Tully Templeman

Amy Bennett Brie Dark Nathan Cheetham

Writers Amy Bennett Ange Nishimwe Bradley Martin Brie Dark Courtney Lawrence Daniel Tune Emily Williams Madi Percey Sean Henschke Tully Templeman Zofia Kolodziej

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Empire Times is a publication of Flinders University Student Association (FUSA). The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the editors, Flinders University, or FUSA. Reasonable care is taken to ensure that Empire Times articles and other information are up-to-date and as accurate as possible as of the time of publication. No responsibility can be taken by Empire Times for any errors or omissions contained herein.

Contents 3 4 5 6 8 10 12 13 14 16 18 20 22 24

Editorial Hear from your Editors

President’ s Address Hear from your Student President What’ s on at FUMA Check out the latest exhibit at FUMA Mothman: Friend, Foe, or...Lover? Why mysterious cryptids are so alluring Half Me, Half You A short break-up story The Silence That Followed BLM Hear from your Social Activities Officer Soy Fish by Tony Barber Just A Reminder A poem Wildlife, Citizen Science: An Interwoven History How people with cameras have shaped modern science Empire Times Reviews Our contributors’ thoughts on film, books, and games This Was Supposed To Be Fun Passions and burnout Courage is Contagious Hear from your Postgraduate Students Officer Connection Vox Pop Soup Pics Leeked Recipe & Comic

Editorial This year has somehow managed to feel like more of a whirlwind than last year. 2021 has pretty much been summed up by the AFL headline, ‘Demons Win’. Even our team has undergone changes, and we’re trying to keep up with the workload, Flinders’ questionable priorities, a continued pandemic and online classes, and that annoying non-functional glass door to the second level of the Hub. But we don’t like to be downers - there’s plenty of good stuff going on too.

What have we been up to outside of ET? You may ask. Zofia: In my spare time I tend to go on photography shoots, but mostly I’m taking photos on hikes so that my friends can use them on tinder to make it look like they’re adventurous… Brie: I’ve been working at a cinema and I often say “enjoy your movie” just so customers might slink away awkwardly after saying “you too.” Courtney: I work in outdoor education and one of my favourite aspects is teaching highschoolers kayaking, and, jumping on Brie’s sadist train, I don’t mind it when a smart-mouthed kid capsizes. Nathan: I work as a native animal educator and probably my favourite thing that I do (except Empire Times, of course). This is Tigger the quoll. All our love, stay safe friends xox P.S. Even as the year wraps up, we’re accepting submissions all the way through until the end of November...just in case you needed a new way to procrastinate

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President’s Addres

Hey Flinders! Congratulations - you’ve made it through the year of 2021! Throughout the year, Student Council have delivered an unprecedented number of projects. By the time you are reading this, Student Council will have delivered our key projects for this year. The Flinders Period Poverty pilot program is in full swing with nine pad and tampon dispensers being installed across bathrooms to ensure students can access free period products when and where they need them. This year, we have transformed and expanded dynamic community spaces. The Disability Space has almost completed its construction located on Level 1 of the Central Library. The Queer Space has created its Queer Library as well as its art installation. The Women’s Space has received autonomous control over the adjoining storage room and upgrades to facilities within the space. The McHughes community centre has been opened, and is set to receive exciting upgrades over the next 12 months. Student Council have also led the planning and consultation phase for a mature age/parent study centre. After extensive work by Shanii, the Queer Officer, the University has committed resources to acknowledging the importance of LGBTQIA+ History Month and you can see the new pride installation in the plaza and the pride flag flying above Registry Road. Shanii says: “Visibility is important as it shines a light on marginalised communities and provides them with the opportunity to be seen and heard. It also allows them to create representation for both current and future generations…” Find out more about this project on FUSA’s socials. We’ve engaged and established connections to regional and remote campuses across the country to the broader student bodies as well as resourced upgrades to student spaces. This is the point in my address where I realise that I have over 100 projects to fit in a very small word count, but I am happy that we have too many projects completed to fit on this page. So I’ll leave you with some of those examples. It has been an honour to serve as your Student President and on your Student Council for the last 4 years. There are so many amazing heroes and dedicated people you meet as Student President. I have an incredible admiration and respect for every student who goes that extra step further and makes their voice heard and fights for their and the rest of the community’s education. If the many students I get to meet and work with go on to be future leaders beyond Flinders, then our future is in very good hands. I’m incredibly proud of the both amazing people that work to make Flinders a great university to study at and the changes we’ve been able to make together. I hope that the ongoing work continues and I am incredibly excited to see the new direction FUSA takes next year. Goodbye for now and thank you.

SEAN HENSCHKE Student President

FUMA 2021 @ FUMA

Flinders University Museum of Art (FUMA) are excited to share their 2021 exhibition program which puts Australian women front and centre. This year FUMA embraces historical and contemporary works in a line-up of four freshly formed shows. Representing Indigenous and non-Indigenous voices, these exhibitions traverse the personal, poetic and political. If you are interested in reviewing the exhibitions and a chance to win $250, register here: www.flinders.edu.au/museum-of-art/programs For more information about FUMA’s upcoming exhibitions, public programs and workshops follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Located Ground Floor Social Sciences North building, adjacent Carpark 5 Open Monday to Friday 10am – 5pm Thursdays until 7pm FREE ENTRY

SOVEREIGN SISTERS: DOMESTIC WORK

Curated by Ali Gumillya Baker with Madeline Reece

11 October 2021 – 8 April 2022 Under strict and oppressive Social Darwinist policies that spanned colonial contact to the mid-20th century countless Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls across all states of Australia were forced into domestic servitude within non-Indigenous households. Sovereign sisters: domestic work traces these important national stories, through the work of Indigenous artists and from Indigenous perspectives, shedding light on the collective narratives that have been widely ignored by non-Indigenous Australia but is at the forefront of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ struggle for truth telling and justice. This exhibition features historical and contemporary works, shedding light on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women’s labour histories, illustrating the complexity of these women’s experiences and reminding us that they are remembered and cherished.

FUMA is wheelchair accessible, please contact us for further information.

CrYptids: FrIEnd, FOe, or…Lover? Amy Bennett We grew up telling stories of things that go bump in the night. We regaled tales around campfires, or whispered them in the dark silence of sleepovers, or pointed out at a funny BuzzFeed Unsolved meme we stumbled across on the internet. Folklore is ingrained all our societies, both past and present; those threads of the supernatural have been woven into the tapestry of mankind. So, what’s the obsession with these mysterious, and debatably hot, cryptids?

quiet, enigmatic, and handsome. But I digress. Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster are so firmly rooted in our knowledge of these pop culture icons, too, that it’s hard to not believe they can be anything except real. The list of other cryptids from around the world, and so many more, goes on: Mokele Mbembe, the Congo dinosaur; the Yeti, from the Himalayas; or the goat-sucking chupacabra, first sighted in Puerto Rico. None are quite as lustful as Mothman, but my point still stands. Yet, why do we seek them out, you still ask?

Well, old faithful Wikipedia has a whole webpage on cryptozoology, Mothman is the first example that describing it as a subculture and springs to mind. There’s been “pseudoscience by mainstream images stirring online of a double science: it is neither a branch of cheeked up statue of him that is in his hometown of Point Pleasant, West zoology nor folklore studies” that focuses on proving the existence Virginia. He’s the perfect package:

of cryptids. Zoologists Bernard Heuvelmans and Ivan T. Sanderson are the founding figures of cryptozoology as it was first created in the 1950s, only to grow and change into what we know today. It’s cemented itself into our everyday lives. I think it’s that mash-up of legitimate research and mythos combined that makes the whole thing so damn entertaining. The evidence of cryptids—the blurry photographs and video, the footprints, the freak eyewitness accounts—always sparks as much scepticism as it does further belief in these alluring mysteries. However, there will always be people who want to know about cryptids, or if they exist. They start to look into it, they trace the history, they piece together information, and we get a story about it. We can play a part in creating lore. Not just so we can joke about Mothman’s delicious ass, but so we can create something larger than ourselves. In a recent article I read, ‘The Mothman: Harbinger Of Death, Beloved Pop-Culture Icon, And Maybe Your New Boyfriend’ by Kristina Manete on SFYY WIRE, she cites cryptid enthusiast and creator of The Cryptid Databse, Alyssa Maynard, saying, “More than ever people are gathering to tell and craft stories that make you feel that spark of nerve that says not all the mysteries of the earth have been solved or discovered.” . This resurgence of retelling folklore has become a source of intrigue, as well as inspiration. There are countless films, books, podcasts, and a thriving internet culture that are tasked with exploring who, or

what, these creatures are. Or, maybe, what they represent. At the core of this millennial-age fascination with monsters—hunky or not—is quite simply an urge to make new discoveries. Cryptids linger at the edges of existence, like Schrodinger’s Boyfriend, both real and not. These mythical beings fuel our imagination in things beyond our mundane mortal realm, which aren’t ruled by the corporations or capitalism. It reaffirms our belief that there are still wonders of the world that delight and horrify in the same breath. It’s a pursuit not just for the truth, but for the sake of looking. I do believe in the grand scheme of the world that it’s not much, but it’s honest work. And, admittedly, it has bought us all together, becoming a part of this whole hilarious, niche subculture of sexy pop icons. Cryptids are here to stay, and if they really do exist (they do, I’m sure), I call dibs on Mothman.

Other articles mentioned: ‘The Mothman: Harbinger of Death, Beloved Pop-Culture Icon, and Maybe Your New Boyfriend’ Available online via SyFy

‘The Science Behind Bigfoot and Other Monsters’ Available online via National Geographic

Half Me

Courtney Lawrence

The first time it hit me was when my sister picked me up from the airport in Brisbane. As we sang in the car I turned back and there you weren’t… not in the backseat amused by us reliving 2008 when we were carefree and thought we were cool. We’d belt out Miley Cyrus’ Breakout and Taylor Swift’s Fearless albums like a religious ritual. These days I feel the longing deep in my gut for simpler times when I didn’t know heartbreak, didn’t worry about being rejected, or making you angry, or being angry at myself for losing you. I feel your absence like an abyss I want to fill or fall back into. But I arrived alone at my parents’ house, and as we talked I yearned for you to be there too. The way you would get in on an interesting conversation, always the deep, critical thinker. And the things you knew – I loved the way they were never just facts but theories intertwined, drawn on from the earliest philosophers, the latest stories, knowledge moulded with experience, your reading wide and varied like multicoloured gelato flavours in your brain I wanted to scoop out.You would argue a point, eyes alight, mind ticking, cogs working, thoughts buzzing so much I called you my bumblebee. I could only see beauty in how your brown eyes darted around as you thought, your hand resting thoughtfully below your chin.Your mouth, that I had kissed so

often that last trip, would say such ridiculous things I’d get headaches from laughing, and such thoughtful things I’d adore you. But when I woke up and didn’t make your sleepy self a coffee the next morning it hit me again; I am single. And this is how it either will or should be… I don’t know yet. We tell ourselves our reasons and we list the good and bad but coming to a conclusion on love feels as crude as making a spreadsheet for a Valentine’s Day card. I thought I’d done the right thing, but this ache in my core didn’t feel ephemeral. Our culture has a few favourite gotos in these times. They certainly aren’t healthy but who knows what else to do? What can be done with such heavy soul-drainers as guilt, regret, or depression? So, I played a Lizzo song, becuase she can medicate this feeling without a hangover. But soon I took to drinking. And I’ll be honest, I’ve been leaning on it since we split. Partly because of you, but mostly, I think, because of me. I went into hospital a few weeks before my birthday. I hope it wasn’t related, but we last spoke in November, and I was taken to ED in December. Because I’ve never handled these things well; anything well. I always choose numbness over suffering. I guess it’s just easier. I don’t think humans were made to feel this much pain.

E M F L A H U O Y F L HA y Courtne

Where were you? You’d done what I’d told you and left me. But I wanted you here, in the car with me, knowing every lyric by the BeeGees as you made wild turns of the steering wheel to follow the directions I shrieked as I realised the sun was setting and the colours looked too magnificent to miss. “Chase it! Chase it! It’s going down… take a left!” I miss being there with you; but almost half of that longing was really to be there then, myself. I miss you but I miss what we had, which was not the fruit of one heart and mind. I grew a sunflower with you, and I’m done letting you get the credit for the joy it brought us both. There were days when you hid it from the sun, when in anger you broke your watering jug. And faithfully, I held us up to the sun. My arms ached as I prayed for healing. But half, if not more, of the beauty was a result of my doing, and you haven’t taken that away from me.

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Half You

The Silence That Followed Black Lives Matter ANGE NISHIMWE

Throughout history, there have been countless movements that have formed due to the continued oppression of People of Colour and First Nations people by western societies. The Decolonisation Movement in the African continent, the Rights Revolution of Canada, and several other international entities of the Civil Rights Movements, including Australia. One of the most recent of these movements is the Black Lives Matters movement.

Other than what was shown on their timeline, most people seem to have the preconceived notion that the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement sprung out of nowhere. That could not be further from the truth. The Black Lives Matter movement’s origin is a result of three female African American activists, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi. They started the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter - after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of African American teen Trayvon Martin. This soon started several state-wide protests of different Black Lives Matter chapters throughout the US. However, it was not until the death of George Floyd that the once negative connotation of the movement began to gain some positive national and international attention. It saw people running in droves during the movement’s height to be pictured at protests and fighting to be the first to post black tiles on their Instagram feed. Outside of the US movement, many countries stood in solidarity with the movement and thousands of people across Australia gathered at protests in 2020 to show their support. Despite this, there seems to be a fundamental belief in Australia that the issues the Black Lives Matters movement were raising were only relevant to America. As people like to excuse their own racism and point out that, at least, ‘we’ are not as bad as ‘them’. But any form of racism, no matter how covert, is still racism. An example of such was when the current Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison, made the comment that ‘there was no slavery in Australia’ before quickly retracting and apologising for the blatantly false statement. Yes, there was slavery in Australia. Right from the beginning of colonisation, many of the initial convicts were forced into labour as well as Pacific Islanders and First Nations people who were coerced through deception and kidnapped to work as slaves and accept unfree labour. Many of the Pacific Islanders and First Nations people were not given freedom of choice

or movement and were instead treated as the property of the colonisers where they experienced severe and inhumane abuse. This was until the Slave Trade Act of 1807 and the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 where Australia was forced to abolish slavery by the British Empire. Australia has a long and checkered history of racism, with both government and private institutions - including academia - still harbouring practices that do not empower disenfranchised communities. The system continues to empower the colonisers whilst it ensures that People of Colour and First Nations people are among the most unemployed, undereducated, unhealthy, and impoverished in Australian society. The Black Lives Matter movement served to shed light on the crisis of First Nations deaths in custody - an issue that has been continuously overlooked by the Australian government and mainstream media. Despite 30 years passing since the publication of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and nearly 20 years since the ‘Bringing Them Home’ Report of 1997, many of the recommendations provided are yet to be implemented by state or federal governments. Similarly, in the same way that issues concerning People of Colour and First Nations people have been overlooked by the Australian government, the same can be said of Flinders University. Whilst universities throughout the country, such as Western Sydney University, Deakin, and the University of Newcastle were happy to put out statements in favour of the Black Lives Matters movement and offer their support to students, there was nothing but a short email about the pandemic, followed by a deafening silence from Flinders. With the hype and pressure slowly dying down, the Black Lives Matters movement now seems more like an afterthought. Will you hear the cries of People of Colour and First Nations people and commit to combatting institutional racism, or will you provide band-aid answers for wound-deep issues?

Just a reminder. Just a reminder: no one knows what they’re doing. The person who has it all, And the one who is struggling, Both feel lost some of the time.

I’ll be a mother, a writer, A partner, perhaps professor. I may be lost and confused, just doing my best. Sometimes I will know what I’m doing. You’ll find your thing, And feel great within it,

They’re working, and studying,

Then life will change

And living their life,

In a moment, you’ll see it.

They smile, and they cry,

An equal amount.

Mortgages, and weddings, Losses, and gains,

We’re searching for passion,

You might not feel the confidence

And for desire,

You thought you deserved.

But has anyone ever told you

How to arrive?

As children, we wait For the moment when we, Like all others, Can find the thing we’ll be doing. Firefighting will be my thing, And acting will be yours, But as we age we realise

You’re never quite sure

what you’re doing.

But do the thing That feels right at the time,

The one that helps you survive.

So if you take something, Take this perhaps: Take care of yourself,

Life will take care of the rest.

And just remember: no one knows what they’re doing. Zofia Kolodziej

WILDLIFE, CITIZEN SCIENCE, AND AN INTERWOVEN HISTORY BRADLEY MARTIN

For decades, cameras have defined how we perceive and capture the world, conveying visual snippets from our eyes to those of others. The very word photography means to “draw with light”, a phrase coined in the 1830s. It describes the immortalisation of a subject as a physical image. In this particular case, our subject of choice is wildlife, a long-held focus of fascination since the earliest observations as captured in ancient rock art thousands of years old. To take a photograph, a subject is viewed through the camera lens which focuses light onto a photosensitive surface inside a camera. With the ‘click’ of the shutter, the camera is exposed to light, capturing a moment in time. While the imagery recorded by these devices may rival the artistry of a painting or the storytelling of a book, for scientists and historians, cameras represented a means of documentation: a permanent, visual depiction offering a wealth of knowledge for analysis and interpretation.

For nearly two centuries, cameras have captured and recorded developments in human-wildlife interactions. This has been accelerated by changes brought about through technological advancements and increased accessibility. The first animals to be immortalised by cameras were pets and rare wildlife displayed in personal and museum collections. Lifeless, taxidermied animals were the only subjects that could stay motionless for the hour-long shutter speed of early cameras. Shutter speed dictated the quantity of light entering the camera. Wildlife photography in the modern sense didn’t exist till the 1860s-1870s when shutter speeds were fractions of a second. By the mid-twentieth century, the hunt for exotic and valuable animals combined with the impacts of industrialisation left cameras to document detrimental declines of some species. This includes some of the last-living Quagga, Caribbean Monk Seal, Paradise Parrot and Tasmanian Thylacine. While they are immortalised in photos and film, these species now only exist as museum specimens.

From the 1960s, cameras were vital to growing public support for the conservation and research of biodiversity. Together with the development of flashes, film sheets and colourisation techniques, cameras became the most practical and ethical method for species documentation. Wildlife from across the world were increasingly brought into people’s homes, depicted in books, magazines, and television. People could witness both the majesty of nature from around the world in real time, as well as the destructive damage caused by human action. Just as a single painting is worth a thousand words, photographs and video clips offer a snapshot into the past for researchers. From a single record, you may determine a subject’s identification, morphology, behaviour, health and habitat. Among many snapshots, historical baselines and trends can be established, and when multiplied over many species, this information can reveal patterns in biodiversity, and the abundance and variety of life on Earth. The invention of digital cameras in the 1980s and integration with mobile phones in the 1990s vastly improved accessibility across the world, generating exponential amounts of content. A quick search of ‘#animals’ will reveal >580 thousand videos on YouTube and >85 million Instagram posts. There are also hundreds of live cams streaming 24hour content of nature: from coral reefs to waterholes to skyrise falcon nests. Atlas of Living Australia stores Australia’s digital biodiversity data and has nearly 95 million records. While it is great to have lots of records, the large volumes of photos and film to be assessed, identified, and catalogued represent a significant logistical challenge for researchers with limited time and resources. To make use of the huge quantities of records, scientists are increasingly turning to citizen science, the contribution to research by volunteers and members of the public.

Citizen science projects allow anyone to contribute regardless of their scientific training, background or education. From the comfort of home, and during the time of pandemic lockdowns, Zooniverse and DigiVol are bringing museum collections and camera surveys straight to your computer. To tackle the challenge of documenting global biodiversity, iNaturalist was launched in 2008 with >77 million observations submitted to date. Photos and sound clips of wildlife and other organisms can be uploaded to the app for identification and verification. In Australia, 40 thousand species of animals, plants and fungi have been identified on iNaturalist, which represents only a fraction of the estimated 147 thousand species that comprise Australia’s biodiversity. Despite the challenge, a growing number of observations and volunteers are working towards the goal recording and cataloguing the nation’s biodiversity. Instead of merely documenting the demise of wildlife and nature, cameras are helping us to understand and appreciate the biodiversity all around us.

A Review of Emotional Female by Yumiko Kadota Madi Percey 5 Stars

This book challenges the stereotypes we have come to expect upon hearing the word “memoir,” further than the typical “life story of long-deceased individual who had opportunities galore and few struggles.” Instead, Kadota has used her voice and experiences with hardship to draw attention to a field that many of us don’t give much thought to. If you’re fortunate, the hospital isn’t a place you frequently visit or think about, but Emotional Female looks deeply and comprehensively into the life of a doctor and the endless effort they put in to dedicate their lives to the health of others. Kadota’s book looks at the stigma around the term “burnout,” and the abhorrent racism and misogyny that many non-white, non-male doctors experience in the field.

Happier Than Ever Album Review Tully Templeman 3.5 Stars

Billie Eilish is no stranger to attention: rising to fame at fourteen, touting hazard green and black hair, and wearing baggy clothing to all the major award shows. Yet, for album number two, she has done things a little differently. Her hair is a uniform colour and the monsters of her debut record are tucked away on Happier Than Ever. With this new album, Eilish is doing something scarier: being vulnerable.

Hades Game Review: One More Run Brie Dark 5 Stars

Do you like witty dialogue, (not so) teenage rebellion, and pettable threeheaded dogs? Well, Hades might just be the game for you. Initially released in 2020 for Windows, Mac, and the Nintendo Switch, Hades, as of this year, is now also available for select Playstation and Xbox consoles. Whether you’re a frequent gamer, a ‘meh’ sometimes gamer, or someone who just really likes Greek Mythology, this clever dungeon crawler by Supergiant Games offers something for all. Even if you aren’t usually fond of the dungeon crawler genre, the game is engaging in areas of story, gameplay, visuals, and audio.

Craving the full thing? Read the full reviews online at empiretimesmagazine.com

60 out of 101 Skinned Puppies: A Review of Cruella Daniel Tune

Ah, Cruella. The latest self-cannibalised offering from the Disney corporation to the altars of our collective nostalgia for their older, better movies. The film is so seemingly fucked on principal that it almost sounds like a wry joke about the state of American cinema in the capitalist hellscape that is 2021.

cocoons, from which insects hatch and destroy all of Thompson’s dresses. What am I, made of stone? How am I supposed to tell you that a movie with those images is not a rip-roaring good time? Cruella dances to the Stooges’ song “I Wanna Be Your Dog”, which is about BDSM. In a fucking Disney movie! That’s hilarious!

Do you remember the puppy murderer Cruella, from 101 Dalmatians? Well, Disney made a prequel where she’s a total girlboss! It sounds like a standup bit in a set targeted at bitter film students, but nope! This is our reality. Cruella is here, and dear lord forgive me, it’s actually kind of fun! It’s not in any way a good example of what art can be—it’s actually pretty bad in most ways that I consider important: Emma Stone in the titular role doing a truly monstrous British accent, one of the funniest “sympathetic villain backstories” ever put to film (I won’t spoil it if you haven’t already seen the extremely meme-worthy scene), and an absolutely ridiculous overuse of hilariously obvious pop songs – the most egregious example being that the film closes with “Sympathy for The Devil” (or D’EVILLE, GET IT??). Also, it’s nearly two and a half hours long, which just seems absurd for a movie that is this...pointless?

The world is hell, cinema is a rotting corpse, and I thought Cruella was pretty fun. Three out of five stars.

Maybe that’s a harsh word to use, although it’s not like this movie is particularly rich with thematic depth that people can spend hours analysing. Like, Cruella is several minutes longer than the Oscar-winning Parasite. But I digress. Yes, it’s silly, and kind of represents everything wrong with movies at the moment. It flagrantly spits all over the legacy of a beloved children’s film for no good reason other than to exploit our memory of the original for the sake of profit. I can list all the reasons it’s immoral: it’s ruthlessly and unapologetically commercial; it’s as shallow as a children’s pool; it’s for the most part an incompetently produced experience. It is the kind of thing that I should be staunchly and morally opposed to. But look, this is a movie where Emma Stone and Emma Thompson fight each other by wearing increasingly ridiculous dresses. At one point, Stone wears a dress made of trash. At another, she creates a dress made of insect

THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FUN... Tully Templeman

Imagine you are fifteen years old, sitting in the middle of a class about career advice. The teacher claims to have the key to job happiness, and writes it on the whiteboard, in a chunky and rounded scrawl: do what you love, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life. All thirty of the emerging young adult brains in the room have exploded. Yours included. Now, maybe you didn’t actually ingest this outright, but I did. Fast forward to eighteen, and I’m walking up the Carpark 1 hill to my first day of screen studies. Classes consisted of watching movies, talking about them, and then making smaller ones. The key had unlocked my future nicely, and I was living a dream. Until we had to watch those black-and-white classic films in Russian about poor labour workers. And then we absolutely had to write 2,000 words on scene blocking and why camera angle A was more meaningful than B. To pass GO and collect your second year of uni, you must stand before dozens of strangers, for ten excruciating minutes, and explain the history of German experimental cinema.

Still, I knew I would rather study this than anything else at uni, so I continued. Fifty percent of my assignments were great fun and at least once a month, I was exposed to a film that changed my life. But I found that I had little time for anything else. Between 2018 and 2020, I read less than twenty books outside of study. I was lucky to watch a couple of movies in my own time, ones I wasn’t trying to learn from or analyse for an assignment. I thought starting a creative writing degree might guarantee an artistic field for me to run free in, but no luck. Essays are really ingrained into tertiary study.

My timetable was now five topics heavy, leaving me feeling like I was constantly on the run, with no signs of catching up.

19 Step 1: Realising I am unhappy Step 2: Deciding to do something about it (critical step) Step 3: Reading books because I find the front cover intriguing. Watching movies that appeal ‘I’m guessing you lost your passion to how I feel right now. Writing for making little movies and writing absolutely anything about random stories,’ you might be saying. whatever pops into my head. But no, not really. My love is still Step 4: Starting other hobbies that strong, and the happiness continues could turn into passions or were to bubble. ‘What’s the problem then?’ passions in a past life (high school). Well, after spending years submitting half-coherent work to appease Step 5: ...I’m not sure what’s next but deadlines, trying to communicate I’m excited! between my left and right brain Thanks to this, my passions have to create things that don’t exist yet become interesting again. I picked up while both sides scream from sleep A Little Life and read frantically like I deprivation, and failing to keep up with my wellbeing, this “never working was twelve years old. I gave Schitt’s a day in your life” thing was beginning Creek another try and fell in love with comedy television all over again. to sound like an impossible dream. Now, my relationships with film and writing are still works in progress, but Writing starts giving me anxiety I just borrowed a couple DVDs from because my fried brain can’t recall the library, and I’ve just finished an complex words. Now, new projects article for really cool magazine, so I’m exclusively bring on a warning wave looking forward to pursuing where my of exhaustion since that is all I can passions want to go from here. associate with them. My spirit feels tired from being overrun with other peoples’ stories. It’s true. I did what I love, and now I can barely work for an hour straight. Burnout, I think they call it. It may look like a sad state of affairs but coming to these realisations started me on a path back to enjoying my passions again. Any problems encountered while ‘living your dream’ are ‘good problems’ to have. They are an easy cost to write off, but what happens when the passion becomes lost in the pursuit of success?

EMILY WILLIAMS To change mindsets and internalised attitudes - both our own and others - we must address the root causes. The ideologies of discrimination and subordination that are embedded in our everyday practices, beliefs, customs, cultures, traditions, and most of all, within ourselves. To change the institutions and structures through which discrimination and injustices are sustained- our families, religious institutions, economic systems, our laws. These structures and institutions do not accurately represent our society, the embodiment of personal existence is controlled by a faceless system, shouldn’t we give it a face? (Hey Murdoch.) The concept of a masculine subject has transcended and controlled our households, our structures, institutions, and laws. The masculine figure is ideologised and achieves its domination through the suppression and denial of the feminine, both body and attributes. Who are we to become if we are always told who to be? Imagine if we saw the ideas of empowerment to solve the status of a gender hierarchy, not operate within the male gaze, providing opportunities for one to become themselves. To change and challenge the patriarchal system, to acknowledge and dismantle systems of oppression; for a women’s place is in the house and the senate. Imagine a parliament, in all its Angloeuro centric glory that reflects the world we live in? Imagine if we had more than 22% of parliamentary seats

worldwide represented by femaleidentifying folks. Many policies, specifically for women and healthcare, are not done in consultation with a gender perspective. These policies often disenfranchise people of colour, of disability and non-binary folk. If only we had more voices in parliament that adequately represented this and are empowered to take a sit at the table. We, at Becoming, envision a society that is diverse, a compassionate person-centred approach to services. One that moves from the symptoms of injustice (“victim”, “object”, “other”) to the causes. To get to the root causes of the patriarchy.

What contributes to this?

The ‘faceless’ system mentioned previously, the media bias, endemic sexism, gender policing, gender stereotypes, the barriers enforced by the patriarchy.

How do we change this?

We elevate the voices and fight for a change. We empower youth, we empower you, to consider a career within politics, we design workshops, seminars, and educational material to prepare for a career that in itself is radical. We empower you as community leaders, we provide training and resources to build your activism. It will not be easy, it will challenge and upset the ‘natural order’ of a binary system but isn’t that half the fun? We are a grassroots

P G

movement that wants you to become yourself. It starts with this, but where it goes is up to you. We are the change makers within our communities, and we will fight with you to burn down the patriarchy.

Where to from here:

Email gtpsa.statedirector@gmail.com to see how you can be involved or for further information.

POST GRAD Meet Emily I am the FUSA Postgraduate Students Officer for 2021, currently studying a Master of Arts (Women’s studies), and was recently elected as General Secretary for 2022 I am also President of the Postgraduate Student Collective, as we rebuild the collective to form a community of postgrad students. In March I hosted our first event where we, figuratively, spilt the tea. This was a fun and engaging opportunity to meet other students and learn/discuss opportunities from people within different disciplines of studies. One of my goals for this association is to build a community and ensure there is support and guidance for all within this space. To do this I need a few extra helping hands, this could be volunteering as an executive board member of the Association, offering to help with events and social media or even just attending the events. So please follow the Facebook page to stay up to date (@FUPSCpostgrad) or email postgraduate.officer@flinders.edu.au for more information!

Q’s 1. What podcast are you into at the moment? 2. What makes you feel connected at Flinders? 1. A Neuroscientist Explains by The Guardian

2. The community and social aspects of studying

Billy

1. Myth and Legends by Jason and Carissa Weissner, The Joe Rogan Experience by Joe Rogan 2. Classes

jack

J and 1. Popcorn Culture by tic Ben Carlin, and Fantas and Geeks by Tessa Netting Anna Brisbin

Emilee

from 2. Seeing information different newsletters & being in various groups

1. I’m more into audiobooks and music than podcasts these days 2. My job as a student ambassador makes me feel connected to not only students and academics, but also students in high schoool taking interest in Flinders

Kyle

Soup Recipe Leeked Serves: 2 Ingredients 2 medium potatoes, peeled 1 leek with the head (just the pale section) 2 rashers or 3 eyes of bacon 3 cups od chicken or veggie stock 1 tablespoon cornflour 1 tablespoon oil of your choice 1/3 cup coconut milk 1 onion Garlic Optional extras: corn, celery or cabbage, or any other veggies you have are good Method 1. Chop up veggies and set aside. 2. Heat a large saucepan on medium-low heat. When hot, add oil, onion and garlic. Stir for two minutes, then add bacon. 3. When bacon is lightly browned, add potato and cook for a further two minutes. 4. Add leek and any other veggies. 5. Once all veggies are softened, add stock and stir. 6. Add coconut milk and cornflour then allow to simmer for five minutes (a handblender is handy to get the soup thick, smooth, and creamy!) 7. Serve with toasted sourdough or turkish bread!

empiretimesmagazine.com