The Tertangala Issue Four, The Environment Issue by The Tertangala

THE TERTANGALA THE E N V I R O N M E N T I SSUE

I S SUE 04 V OL UME 52

S T E A L I N G F R O M S UP E R M A R KE TS

Chloe Higgins and Belinda Quinn discuss who is really affected by theft from Woolworths and Coles.

CH E A P CO O K S F O R BA D CO OK S

Kelsey Sutor provides a few recipes for all the hopeless and broke chefs out there.

T H E R E G UL A R S

News and Opinion, The Debate, Arts and Culture, a

Gig Guide, a Pull-out Recipe Poster and much more.

PHOTOGRAPHY

CO-EDITORS

CONTRIBUTORS

Belinda Quinn Brittany Carter

Ruben Tabuteau

Kelsey McIntosh

Isabelle Chesher

Ben Kohler

DESIGNER Jess Nesbitt

Sue Dennmyn

Belinda Quinn

Jamie Spresser

Rebecca Wiggins

Joel Ephraims

Brittany Carter

Laura Polson

FICTION EDITOR

Chloe Higgins

Sarah Navin

Chloe Higgins

Hayley Scrivenor

Tilly Kidd

Brittany Carter

Nicole Langridge

John Glenn Doyle

Tilly Kidd

Rebecca Wiggins

Alexandra Smith

Hannah Rivers

Natalie Zagaglia

Milo Kelly

PRINTER Print & Mail

COVER ART Saltwater Dreamtime, Zachary Bennett-Brook

thetert@gmail.com

ILLUSTRATIONS

Callum Downes

Jake Cupitt

SUB-EDITORS

Belinda Quinn

Peter Monoghan

Trent Thomas

POETRY COORDINATOR

Isabelle Chesher

Andre Charadia

23-25 Meeks Road, Marrickville

NSW 2204 PH: (02) 9519 8268

twitter.com/Tertangala

facebook.com/Tertangala

CONTENTS E D I TO R I A L S Editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Notes

N E W S AN D O P I N I ON Improved Cycling Conditions

Fighting For Recognition

Palcohol, Powdered Alcohol

Fashion and Domestic Violence

Budget Breakdown 2014

UOW 101 Column

Your Opinion

The Debate

Feature Article

TH E FO O D I S S UE Cheap Cooks For Bad Cooks

Be A Global Citizen, Grow A Veggie Patch

Happy Greek Easter

Authentic Or Faux?

The Social Benefits Of Chewing Gum

Good Food, Mum

Pull-out Recipe Poster

So Called Superfoods

When Food Becomes The Enemy

Tasty Beats

Gluten-Free Living

The Art Of Procratsi-Baking

My Kitchen Drools

ART S AND C ULT URE Artist Profile: Bec Hurd

Cafe Review: White Rabbit

Film Review: Need For Speed

Gig Review: Mitch & Mike Gordon

Creative Writing

Poems

Gig Guide

DISCLOSURE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

DISCLAIMER

The content of this publication is made for and by the

Tertangala and WUSA acknowledge the traditional custodians

Responsibility for Tertangala is taken by the WUSA council.

are of individual authors and do not necessarily reflect

Dharawal people, and pay respect to their elders past, present

students of the University of Wollongong. Views expressed those of WUSA or the publisher.

of the land upon which we meet and work, that of the and future, for they hold the memories, the traditions, the culture and the hopes for Indigenous Australia.

The University of Wollongong accepts no responsibility for this publication.

EDITOR’S NOTES

We’ve got a little secret we’re going to let you in on; environmental issues aren’t exactly our jam. Fortunately our job involves working with writers who do know their shit, and because of that you’ve got an interesting read in your hot little hands. While you were on break, our contributors have been working hard to find unique angles for this edition of the Tert. They’ve been researching, reporting, and debating about local, Australia-wide, and world-wide environmentally focused issues. We’ve got your regular news updates, including information about the UOW Uncut campaign, Studio20Live, and former UOW student, Elizabeth McCarthy’s I Dream of Gina documentary. Bec Wiggins is back with her David-Attenborough-style commentary of UOW students in winter, and Ben Kohler and Sue Dennmyn go head-to-head in our debate—‘Has capitalism lead to environmental destruction?’ Hannah Rivers sits down with two young and local environmental activists, Peter Monoghan fills us in with the Maules Creek protest, and Kelsey McIntosh writes about small-brand Wollongong clothing business, Minty Duds.

EDITORIALS

We discuss the big environmental issues — climate change, green washing and the effects of mining. And some fun topics too, like new music genre ‘ecological electroswing’—see Laura Polson’s Glastonbury interview with the Formidable Vegetable Sound System. Our Arts and Culture section is back bigger than ever with Trent Thomas’ Transformers review, Natalie Zagaglia’s RAW exhibition review, two artist profiles and more. There’s wall-poems from our Food Issue Launch (thanks to all who came!), and Alexandra Smith’s interview with renowned indie dance group, RÜFÜS. Whatever you did over the break, whether you caught up with friends and family, got those tasks that you never have time to do done, or spent far too much time scowling at another one of your FB friend’s overseas pics (was it just us or did you too feel like the only person not in Europe?), we hope you enjoyed it. But for now, it’s time to hit the books, endure those cold morning lectures and look forward to Unibar weekends. Keep us close by, just in case you need some light-reading to escape from the crazy study, and we’ll see you around campus. BELINDA QUINN & BRITTANY CARTER, CO-EDITORS

Do you want to help shape the University’s Environmental policies? Why not apply to join the Environmental Advisory Committee! See the EAC website, and send your application by 15th August at 5PM

Are you a student with an interest in the environment? Do you want to change the Uni’s environmental policies? Do you have ideas about reducing waste, litter, energy usage or improving the campus environment? If yes, then you’ll be pleased to know that the Environmental Advisory Committee (EAC) is looking for two student representatives. In a meeting last week, the committee voted to expand the number of members, so that both postgraduate and undergraduate students can be represented in a fair and effective manner. For those who don’t know, the committee advises the Vice-Chancellor on issues of environment and sustainability. Officially, the job of the committee is to implement the Environmental Management Plan (EMP), which details the steps UOW is taking to improve the environment, reduce waste, and operate more sustainably. But EAC is more than that: it is a connection between students and staff, and between students and the administration. It lets students bring their ideas, their proposals, their complaints and their problems

to the direct and immediate attention of the UOW administration. Every day the Uni faces problems at the highest levels, on a huge range of topics: EAC members make decisions in the areas of wastereduction, energy consumption, lighting, heating, recycling, environmental awareness, and hundreds of others. If you want to be part of this decision making process, then EAC is for you. Please visit the committee website, go to www. uow.edu.au/about/environment/advisory or Google UOW EAC, to submit your expression of interest. You will need to include relevant experience, and reasons why you want to join. The details are on the website, alternatively you can contact me, pfnm745@uowmail.edu.au, 0439448093 or on Facebook. You can also speak to the Environmental and Sustainability Initiatives unit (www.uow.edu.au/ environment for details). Deadline for expressions of interest is August 15, 2014, at 5 PM, so please visit the website soon! - Peter Monaghan, current student representative to EAC

COMMUNITY ADVERTISEMENT

TERT NEWS

POSSIBLE NEW EDITING SERVICE AVAILABLE FOR STRUGGLING STUDENTS BY RUBEN TABUTEAU @epictangent

Students looking for editing assistance with assignments outside of friends or family have a new option, following the launch of an online editing service called Hello Essay. Hello Essay launched in May this year, offers a system of paid editing services provided by professional editors, which is intended, according to its developer Zack Homer, “to solve the little understood problem: the lack of effective and ethical writing support”. Homer explains that during the process of developing the service he sought to correct several key flaws in existing similar editing services and said that many “checked spelling with few comments, changed the author’s voice and even failed to return the essay in a timely fashion”. The new service gives students the option to choose which editor to work with, before they submit their assignment for editing, alongside any important information regarding the topic, concerns and other pertinent information.

NEWS

After the Editor has received these, they will complete their editing over a 48 hour period. The basic editing service includes checking for spelling and punctuation, consistency in style and tone, sentence structure, and any errors in citation. In addition to these services, students will reportedly have access to a tiered system of additional help. These additional services can provide suggestions on the organisation of the submitted essay and recommendations to improve clarity.

When questioned on the risks of his service resulting in plagiarism, Homer has been quick to demonstrate that Hello Essay has developed a policy deliberately aimed at ensuring academic integrity of its service. Homer identified the primary issues of plagiarism to arise when editors are unclear as to where correction and amendment strays into rewriting. “Writing assistance itself is not the issue,” he says, “knowing where to draw the line makes all the difference.”

The ‘Rush Premium’ option even guarantees a 24 hour turnaround in editing, with a reported average turnaround of between 4-12 hours. Perfect for last-minute procrastinators.

To counter any possibility of the Hello Essay service engendering plagiarism, Homer has developed a code of ethics to which all its editors must follow, which expressly forbids rewriting any essays submitted, introducing new concepts or arguments to a work, altering or removing the students writing voice or editing papers suspected of being plagiarised.

One of the most important features of this new service, however, is not necessarily the range of assistance offered. It is the manner in which this service is provided.

The service has received positive feedback for its user-friendliness and effective service. More information is available at www.helloessay.com.

TERT NEWS

NEW DOCUMENTARY SET TO PROBE GINA RINEHART’S PERSONALITY AND POWER BY ISABELLE CHESHER @isabellechesher

Elizabeth McCarthy’s upcoming documentary, I Dream of Gina, will attempt to shed new light on heiress Gina Rinehart. According to Forbes Asia and the Business Review Weekly, she is the richest woman in Australia, and one of the wealthiest women in the world. Yet the mining magnate is notoriously media-shy, and has not given an interview in twelve years.

will be different to a current affairs piece. “The documentary will look at serious issues in a cheeky, playful way, not just using traditional [journalistic] methods”, she explains. For instance, Gina impersonators will play a big part in the satirical elements of the film. Blending serious themes with a fresh style of storytelling, McCarthy hopes to engage viewers in a way that a typical news piece cannot.

Rinehart is also the largest shareholder in Fairfax Media, owning 18.67 per cent, and holds 10 per cent of shares in Ten Network Holdings (commonly called “Channel Ten”). McCarthy hopes to explore Rinehart’s personal character, as a very public yet deeply private figure – as well as how she influences Australian politics.

Despite being contacted by phone and email, Hancock Prospecting declined to comment on the documentary. But in the past, oppositional media has not fazed Rinehart.

McCarthy says that the film is both about Rinehart personally, and what she represents. “The documentary will be looking at Gina largely as a figurehead of mining... and will hopefully show that Australia needs to transfer away from our dependence on fossil fuels,” she says. McCarthy, a former student from the University of Wollongong, recently raised $25 000 for I Dream of Gina through a crowd-funding campaign. The money has allowed her crew to start preliminary work, but involving the community has been useful in other ways too.

She has rejected claims that her empire is built on a non-renewable resource, and that the coal industry damages the environment. Indeed, Rinehart famously said in 2012 that the media only publishes the views of “climate extremists”. In March this year, Rinehart’s article ‘The Age of Entitlement – Has Consequences’ claimed, “every day Australia goes further into debt, with no clear plan in operation to get back [...] where we were.”

She believes the solution is to invest further in mining. Otherwise, as Rinehart said in a national address last year, “this country has no hope of repaying our record debt”. McCarthy may not be able to sway Rinehart, or politicians like Barnaby Joyce, who told Fairfax in 2013 that “Gina is a great friend, and Australia needs more entrepreneurs like her”. But I Dream of Gina has a different purpose. “I want to make people question Gina’s legitimacy, as this hugely influential person who isn’t answerable to the population [like an elected politician],” McCarthy says. “And it’s not just about Gina” she adds. “It’s about Australia. We’re a country that’s philosophically at a crossroads.” In McCarthy’s view, it is the public – not the one per cent - who should choose our country’s future. Elizabeth McCarthy expects I Dream of Gina to be released at the end of 2015. For more information, visit www.pozible.com/ project/176316.

“It’s great to see such interest from people even before the film has been made”, says McCarthy. “And the crowd-funding helped us to see the kind of questions the community would like to ask Gina, should we get the opportunity.” So far, McCarthy has sent one interview request to the mining magnate. Thanks partly to the public’s input, she can now send a more detailed request to Rinehart, which will specify the interview’s content. McCarthy stresses that I Dream of Gina

NEWS

TERT OPINION

ABBOTT TAKES A TRIP TO “CANADIA” TO DISCUSS CLIMATE CHANGE BY ANDRE CHARADIA @AndreCharadia

Among the fluff that the leaders of mutually friendly countries usually say, especially when they share politics like Stephen Harper and Tony Abbott do, the two prime ministers announced that they seek to form a bloc with the ‘like-minded’ centre-right governments of India, New Zealand and Britain. The group comes as a response to renewed global moves towards carbon taxes and trading schemes, and US President Barack Obama’s push to put action on climate change on the agenda at the G20 summit and other forums. Harper and Abbott reassured the world that climate change is still a thing, but that action should not come at the expense of

OPINION

economic growth. “It’s not that we don’t seek to deal with climate change.We seek to deal with it in a way to protect and enhance our ability to create jobs and growth – not destroy jobs and growth in our countries,” Harper told the Business Spectator. ‘’There is no sign – no sign – that trading schemes are increasingly being adopted,’’ Abbott warned in Business Spectator. ‘’If anything, trading schemes are being discarded, not adopted.’’ The perpetuation of the idea that emissions trading and other prices on carbon have ‘job-killing’ effects is not entirely true. Granted, old carbon intensive industries

may decrease in size, but the carbon price here in Australia helped to kick start the renewables sector, both with the price signal and the investment from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. The world is most definitely moving towards these kinds of measures too, as the World Bank map below shows. More importantly though, governments and political parties need to stop peddling the myth that we can act on the causes of climate change without actually changing anything, or, as Harper and Abbott seem to be saying, by doing even more of what’s causing the problem.

TERT OPINION

Granted, countries like Australia and Canada have got something to lose in moving away from fossil fuels. Canada’s biggest export is crude oil, and Australia’s second largest are gas and coal. Our economy and our lifestyles rely on cheap, reliable energy, and fossil fuels still remain to be the cheapest options. But we’ve also heard plenty about what continuing to grow so intensely, and on both finite and ecologically unsound resources like fossil fuels, can do not just to the environment, but to the lifestyle and economy we take for granted.

the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) moves to regulate carbon emissions from power plants under the Clean Air Act. These are two particularly effective policy ideas. But they can’t be the be all and end all of action on climate change: there has to be a meaningful change to the way our economy works and the way we live our lives. These include phasing out the use of fossil fuels and switching to cleaner and renewable sources of energy, eating locally and less, and using less of the other finite resources.

A price on carbon and ‘direct action’ are good starts - price signals like ETS and carbon prices, and practical actions like

It’s not popular to say it, by any means.We’re used to a certain way of life, and humans as a species are inherently a little bit afraid of

change. But our pollies owe it to us to not stroke our heads and tell us it’ll be all OK, and instead to give us the cold hard reality. Australians coped with the radical changes under the 13 years of Hawke and Keating governments, not because they patronised and coddled the nation, but because they were upfront and honest about the realities of a changing world. No party in parliament, even the Greens, are currently doing this, and it needs to change. As the reality of climate change is starting to hit, we can’t afford to retreat into the comfortable and familiar. We need to tackle it head on. We’re running out of excuses, and out of time.

OPINION

TERT NEWS

WELLINGS SUPPORTS FEE DEREGULATION – STUDENTS RALLY BY ANDRE CHARADIA @AndreCharadia

University of Wollongong ViceChancellor Paul Wellings has voiced his support for university fee deregulation, ending months of silence on a government policy revealed in early March. In an article, published on June 23 in the Australian Financial Review and several days before contacting students via email and SOLS, Prof Wellings expressed his support for the Abbott government’s proposed university fee deregulation. Prof Wellings praised Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne for giving “each university a chance to control the level of funding per student and to have greater ability to tune its own strategic direction independently of the government”. Prof Wellings added that the fee changes would allow for competition. “The new model proposed by the Commonwealth is designed to create competitive tensions between the existing universities and potential new higher education providers,” he wrote in the Financial Review. This position has come under attack from UOW council Alumni

NEWS

representative Michael Zelinksy and the National Tertiary Education Union. Mr Zelinksy accused the VC of being ‘out of touch’, telling the Illawarra Mercury potential students could be warded off by the possibility of having to take on large debts to finance their educations. “[Professor] Wellings doesn’t seem to understand it’s only those from rich families who will feel confident to take on hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of debt with high interest rates,” he told the Mercury. This is a concern shared by Alexander Brown, a UOW casual staff member and member of the university NTEU branch, who has been working with other unhappy students to form the UOW Uncut campaign. “This is really part of a bigger question: do we want people to make their decisions about university on the basis of money or on what our society really needs?” Mr Brown told the Tertangala. He said that it could have impacts on parts of the University that were established to cater to Wollongong as a regional centre. “The UOW medical

school was set up because there was a shortage of doctors in the area the University serves,” he says. “Potential students may not take up degrees like medicine if they become more expensive than they already are.” Mr Brown told Tertangala those concerns go beyond the fees themselves, to employment and what being saddled with large HELP debt could mean. “Employment in Wollongong, especially full-time work, is limited.” The UOW Uncut campaign, lead by Brown will rally with other Australian campuses at the National Union of Students Day of Action, August 20. Students and staff members can get involved if they wish to voice their concerns. “None of these changes have gone through [Parliament] yet, but it’s important that local students have a place to have a voice, and get informed,” he said. For more information regarding the UOW Uncut campaign search for the ‘UOW Cuts and You’ FB event or contact Alexander Brown, alexandersragtimeband@gmail.com.

TERT NEWS

UOW DEBUTS FIRST LIVE NEWS SHOW BY BRITTANY CARTER @_BrittanyCarter

Last semester, UOW hosted its first season of student run news show, Studio 20 LIVE. An extension of the UOWTV Multimedia journalism team, the group streamed the show in real time, via Youtube every Thursday from week six onwards. Sourcing local talent and news, the show was run by students from a range of different faculties with the help of journalism lecturer and previous WIN News reporter Shawn Burns, who says he can’t wait to see how the show progresses over the years. “Journalism students and volunteers from across the university are working towards the overarching goal of UOWTV Multimedia, which is to showcase UOW storytelling, creativity and journalism online with a social media focus,” he says. Burns says the show teaches students important hands-on skills while offering

them the chance to experience the difficult formalities of the behind-the-scenes work involved with live broadcast journalism. “It includes researching, interviewing, reporting, storytelling, design, pre and post-production work, and teamwork,” he says. “Students learn by doing... [they] design the program, the content and the delivery.” Sarah Navin, fourth year Communications and Media/Journalism student co-hosted the first four episodes of the show. She says she definitely noticed a difference in the team’s development between the fourth episode and when she came back to present in episode eight. “It’s been a good weekly dose of fun and stress! But worth it for sure,” she laughs. “It has developed a great entertainment & current affairs sort of balance, but there is still a long way to go.”

She says the production allows for student creativity and experimentation, while offering them the ability to test out different techniques and topics and evaluate both personally and as a team what worked and what needed improvement. “I have found that, as a presenter, my ability to speak confidently and with clarity down a live camera barrel (often improvising) has improved significantly,” she says. Studio 20 Live currently averages 157 views a week, with its seventh episode attracting 267 views, its largest audience last season. The first episode of season two premieres on Thursday of O-Week, Spring Semester.You can tune in at www. youtube.com/user/uowjournalism at 1pm.

NEWS

TERT INVESTIGATION

AUSTRALIA: ILLEGAL DOWNLOAD CAPITAL OF THE WORLD BY TRENT THOMAS @Trent1493

Illegal downloading has increasingly become a component of mainstream society especially in Australia, which according to Torrent Freak is the illegal capital of the world. This was driven home with the record breaking season four finale of Game of Thrones. Australia accounted for 11.9% of illegal downloads, the only country to be listed in double digits. Melbourne was the number one city in the world to illegally download the season four finale, and Sydney third. With Australia taking such a large role in the illegal download revolution there are several issues that need to be explored.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CRACKING DOWN ON ILLEGAL DOWNLOADS The federal government has increasingly discussed trying to stop illegal downloading in Australia. Attorney-General George Brandis says he is considering legal incentives for service providers to help

INVESTIGATION

copyright owners halt illegal sharing. Some of the discussed strategies include a three-strike policy which could result in perpetrators being disconnected from the internet after their third offence. The government could also force internet providers to block offending peer-to-peer file sharing sites such as BitTorrent or The Pirate Bay. Internet service providers may also be required to issue warnings to their customers. University of Wollongong Law student Josef Ferraro, 21, says the government has every right to enact legislation against illegal downloads. “I believe that they should protect the intellectual property of artists and that they have a right to impose punishment on those who breach copyright and steal others work. However, a problem with this is the jurisdiction of governments and laws, as the downloading of material online crosses many nations’ jurisdictions.”

A landmark case which featured 34 parties such as Village Roadshow, Dreamworks Films, and Disney Enterprises against iiNet in 2012, ruled that the internet provider was not responsible for their customers actions. There is a reason that internet providers may be reluctant to discourage illegal downloads according to Communications and Media Professor Christopher Moore of the University of Wollongong, such providers “always follow the money… who profits from illegal downloads? Internet Service Providers who get to charge more for bigger bandwidths.”

FOXTEL’S BUSINESS MODEL AND CONSUMER REACTION One of the biggest opposers of illegal downloads in Australia is pay TV provider Foxtel. Each Game of Thrones episode in Australia receives the same amount of TV views as it does downloads.

TERT INVESTIGATION

When speaking to the ABC’s 7:30pm Report on the June 18, Foxtel’s Bruce Meagher said “I can’t think of any other circumstance where you would say ‘I think you charge too much for this product therefore it is legitimate to steal it.’” The table below shows the top ten illegally downloaded shows as well as their American TV ratings. In some cases such as Game of Thrones there is almost as many worldwide downloads as US viewers. The table’s top three shows - Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, and The Walking Dead are shown first on Foxtel. However, it could be argued that these are the results of Foxtel’s choice to operate with an outdated business model as consumer group Choice told ABC’s 7:30 Report “It expects people to pay for a whole range of products when they may want [just] one. You’re getting Real Housewives of every city, rather than just Game of Thrones.”

INDUSTRY REACTION

free, but Josef Ferraro offers another answer.

The Industry’s reaction to illegal downloads have been mixed. For instance, Time Warner’s (parent company of HBO) CEO Jeff Bewkes controversially claimed that most pirated TV shows were better than an Emmy”. Game of Thrones Director David Petrarca, said it created a much-needed “cultural buzz” for the show.

“It has become such a normative practice in society that it’s now deemed acceptable. Ninety-nine per cent of people who steal music online would not go into a record store and steal their favourite artist’s new CD, but have no qualms in going online and stealing it.”

However, this view isn’t unanimous with The Walking Dead Executive Producer, Gale Anne Hurd telling Variety, “There’s a mistaken belief by many of my peers that piracy is somehow good, that viewers will develop a habit to pay for it. I’m not sure they really understand… the people who pirate are not then going to choose legal downloads or legal viewing in the future.”

WHY DO PEOPLE ILLEGALLY DOWNLOAD? So why do people choose to illegally download? Sure it’s easily accessible and

Another reason people download illegally is to avoid spoilers. Furthermore, according to a multiple choice survey by News. com in 2010, 50.7% illegally download because they have to wait too long to see it on TV, 41.5% want to be able to watch it whenever they want, and 38.9% said it was to avoid ads. This has caused Australian TV networks to adapt their practices, with more shows now fast tracked and/or made available online such as Channel Ten’s Ten Play. Yet, TV networks still haven’t found a definitive way to stem the loss of viewers to illegal downloads.

INVESTIGATION

TERT COLUMN

NOT QUITE DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: THE WINTER LIFE OF UNI STUDENTS

Rebecca Wiggins is in her 3rd year of a Bachelor of Communications and Media studies and Bachelor of Arts double degree. She majors in Journalism/Professional Writing & Sociology and enjoys spending most of her time blogging. She is co-founder and writer for the popular Uni themed blog UOW101, found at www.uow101.wordpress.com

BY REBECCA WIGGINS @UOW101

I’d like to start off by saying: Damn, it’s cold. It may be winter everywhere but UOW has to be the coldest place right now. Maybe it’s our campus’s squishy location between the mountains and the sea, or maybe we’re just special, but I’ve always felt that no matter what the weather is like elsewhere, our university has its own very extreme climate. Because of this it can be easy to rely on power-sucking temperature control solutions (damn their ease of use!). But, as responsible young people of the modern world (who also happen to attend the dream campus of any nature-lover) it’s up to us to take care of our environment to preserve it for the future. There are plenty of environmentally friendly ways to keep warm on campus which are employed by a wide collection of different students. These unique specimens have adapted to their environment and the harsh winters of UOW. It is only by studying them that we shall unlock their secrets to success. Take for example, a subspecies of student who frequent the library. They’re extremely fortunate as they live in a habitat surrounded by large quantities of books. These could

UOW101

potentially be used as fire fuel for warmth. However, understanding the environmental impact this primitive method would have on their delicate ecosystem; these students have pursued alternate methods. Energy conservation is crucial for these organisms as they continuously expend vast amounts of energy procrastinating while they insist they are ‘busy doing work’. To combat energy loss through heat, these people rely on knitted garments which cover their body, creating a layer of warm air between them and the outside elements. Dressing warmly is their secret weapon. Another alternate heating method is employed by a branch of the student family which rarely leave their territory even for social events, which other species of students regard as very important such as classes. They dwell in enclosed spaces with plentiful supplies of alcoholic solutions (and sometimes also kebabs). At UOW, there is one main area which meets such requirements. You will often find them at ‘the Unibar’. It’s small space that provides an environment for them to huddle together in effort to share body heat and gasbag. This creates a hot pocket of air much like that employed by the unrelated penguin of Antarctica

who lives in similar temperatures. This method of heating utilises clean, student fuelled energy in order to minimalise negative environmental impact. Students who live in nests away from their families and out on their own exist in possibly the harshest conditions of all. Not yet fully grown and still learning, they do not always have the means to maintain a certain standard of comfort. As a result these students have evolved a behavioural trait to conserve energy and retain warmth. Often they will spend most of their hours asleep, only rising for compulsory tutorials and labs and skipping lectures, which they consider to be far less important. These students only expend energy for the most basic tasks, and instead exist in a comatose state, remaining in their warm beds playing Xbox. This is a primal instinct carried and perfected by students living out of home; the masters of energy conservation. I know it’s super cold and your brain may seem like it just doesn’t want to work right now (especially at the start of session when you’re still coming to terms with the long and tragic breakup you had with a regular sleeping pattern over the holidays), but luckily for us there are a bunch of ways to warm up and keep comfy.

WHY NOT BECOME A SCARF TUTOR?

Studying her Honours as a Human Geography student, Sophie-May Kerr guarantees you will get that warm and fuzzy feeling working as a SCARF tutor.

Are you interested in helping children from refugee families living in the Wollongong area? Then you might consider getting involved in a volunteer tutoring program facilitated by SCARF (Strategic Community Assistance to Refugee Families). I began working with SCARF in 2013 after being introduced to the organisation through UOW’s Golden Key Society. I now visit a young Burmese girl at her family home once a week. Having been at school in Australia for about four years her English skills are great, so the main focus of our time together has been to improve her mathematics. It’s been a long time since I’ve had to do maths the primary school way, and I must admit to having a peek at the answers in the back of the booklet every now and then just to make sure I’m on the right track. After only a couple of sessions I was surprised to discover my student’s limited understanding of the concept of time, something most of us tend to take for granted. One of our projects then became learning to tell the time and using real life examples and problems to calculate differences in time and how long things take. This is such a practical and

essential life skill and it has been very rewarding to see my student’s progress and her excitement when she gets things right. Being a home tutor with SCARF has quickly become one of the highlights of my week. I am always made to feel welcome by the whole family, especially the younger siblings who peek around corners and whose smiling faces and laughter are quite infectious. The time I spend with my student is not all about churning out a truck load of maths sheets though. We often go out into the yard to play games and it’s not unusual to have a few of her friends come around to join in the fun! I feel so proud listening to her telling me about the improvements she is making in maths at school. I can’t take all the credit though, she is a hard worker and I feel my role as a tutor is just as much about instilling confidence as it is about teaching maths skills. SCARF is a wonderful, rewarding and supportive organisation to volunteer with and I encourage more people to sign up and become involved with this fantastic program. For more information visit www. scarf1.org.au.

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VOX POPS

HOW DO YOU THINK AUSTRALIA WILL BE AFFECTED BY CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE NEXT 50 YEARS? JAMIE SPRESSER & BELINDA QUINN

“I don’t feel like I know enough, honestly it’s a really tough question, but having said that, I will say that we do need to do more about the climate change. It’s undeniable.” Caleb Rae – Psychology

“I’ve got a teacher who’s pretty passionate about it, he thinks that climate change doesn’t exist so I’ve been exposed to both views, but I do believe that humans are creating a problem and all of our cars and all of the things we’re pumping into the environment are definitely going to come back and bite us. I definitely think that as bad as it is now, 50 years from now it will be a lot worse. It’s something that we definitely have to monitor, it could get out of control if we don’t think about where it’s all going and what it’s all doing.”

Sarah Navin – Journalism and Bachelor of Communication and Media Studies

YOUR OPINION

“It will be a lot drier, and the rising sea levels on the coast will be a big problem.” Josh Kinred – UOW Library Staff

VOX POPS

According to The Guardian, Australia is the 16th largest emitter of C02 in the world, which is more than any other western nation per capita. Environmentalists have strongly opposed the decision by the federal government to repeal the carbon tax, as well as approve the construction of Australia’s biggest coal mine in Queensland. The mine is expected to export 60 million tonnes of coal per year, emitting even more carbon into the atmosphere. According to Corinne Le Quere, British scientist and author of the Global Carbon Project report, emissions need to “fall substantially and rapidly” if we want to keep below two degrees warming on pre-industrial levels. Due to recent decisions, we decided to ask students how they thought Australia might be affected by climate change in the next 50 years.

“I think the seasons are going to change, spring and autumn are probably not going to exist in couple of years, the glaciers will affect the oceans currents and the weather is definitely going to change.” Marie Barotova – Teaching

“I don’t know too much about it, but if the movie 2012 is any indication then there’s going to be floods down south and blizzards and stuff, so it doesn’t sound good either way.” Nicholas Thorpe – Medicine

“There won’t be as much difference between winter and summer, it’ll become more tropical where usually it’s a lot colder and it’ll affect the agricultural industry a lot with the different climates that they need to grow in.” Braiya White –Science and Arts

YOUR OPINION

THE DEBATE

WHERE THERE’S A MARKET, THERE’S A WAY BY SUE DENNYM

DEBATE: HAS CAPITALISM LEAD TO ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION? NO

Businesses are amoral, and consumers need them to be that way. If a business doesn’t try to outdo its competitors, it fails and its rivals take over its market share. The less competition for a business, the less they have to try to innovate and keep that market share. This results in higher prices, lower quality goods and less choice for the consumer. In the effort to grow and compete, a business will create what’s known as ‘negative externalities’. These are problems that affect people’s lives but have no immediate cost to the business, like air, noise and light pollution, environmental destruction, and disposal of waste in oceans. In the past, governments have ordinarily put a price on these negative externalities, using fines, taxes and restrictions to give businesses an incentive to avoid creating problems. Like taking a toy away from a child when they’ve misbehaved, and keeping knives out of reach, governments need to protect the public from business, and businesses from themselves. Today we hear more about the dangers of placing costs on negative externalities. A carbon tax creates an incentive for businesses to reduce their carbon output, but apparently slugs everyday Australians with a rise in electricity bills and grocery prices. A mining tax repays Australians for the minerals that are taken from the earth and the land that’s ravaged in the process, but apparently it’s a job killer. According to the prime minister, people were so outraged by these taxes that they elected a coalition government to scrap them. Australians are not as mindful as they should be that government interventions, like taxes and regulation, are there to protect the community from negative externalities. They also seem largely unaware that these restrictions are widespread, and are often not controversial. Think about the amount of regulation that decides the consumption, sale and advertising of alcohol and tobacco. If such controls were relaxed, surely there would be more jobs in the alcohol industry, and the tobacco industry may cease shedding jobs in Australia as it has over the past two decades. Indeed, the taxation of these industries has hit the pocket of many everyday Australians yet we see no outraged

THE DEBATE

rallies against these regulations in Canberra. Think about all the controls on our lives (speed limits, seatbelts, random breath-testing, passports, compulsory voting, no smoking areas, gambling restrictions), that have beneficial outcomes. Consider the fact that you are obliged to save 9 per cent of your wages for superannuation, and how little opposition that relatively recent measure encountered. It’s clear to me that the public not only needs governments to impose these restrictions, but is often content in allowing them to take place. But what’s the point of all this? Going back to the beginning, businesses need to compete in order to create more choices for consumers. Today, consumers can generally afford to buy from businesses that produce the least negative externalities, such as choosing a wind and solar power company, buying rainforest alliance coffee, purchasing locally sourced produce, and avoiding products made with palm oil. You can’t blame businesses, capitalism or our market economy for environmental destruction. Remember businesses are just like kids – they want to eat sugar and play with knives; they want to do things that will ultimately hurt themselves. Of course they’re going to say ‘I’m hungry, give me more sugar’ and ‘I want to play with the knife again’. The key is to say no. Governments must be responsible and forsake the easy political points of opposing taxes. They must remember that businesses didn’t elect them, people did. There’s evidence to suggest that consumer behaviour can make a difference too. For instance, very few coal generators in Australia achieved a profit in 2013, and even less are making a profit this year. Queensland’s state-owned generator Stanwell Corporation is specifically blaming roof-top solar power. Solar panels have seen an increase in popularity as homeowners wish to minimise their own negative externalities. Furthermore, greater competition in the solar panel manufacturing sector has led to greater innovation.This has resulted in cheaper, more efficient and more economically viable solar panels – meaning that solar power is on its way to being cheaper than electricity from coal and gas fired power stations. So while some politicians are trying to be the fun parent, you as consumers can put pressure on businesses, and give them a mouth full of broccoli.

THE DEBATE

THE CAPITALIST DESTRUCTION OF NATURE BY BEN KOHLER

DEBATE: HAS CAPITALISM LEAD TO ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION? YES

Today, the human species faces a threat that could possibly lead to our extinction. Ecological disaster resulting in our destruction has steadily become a more likely scenario. How this has come about is one of the biggest world-wide debates in our history, and has had massive implications in terms of how we look to solve the problem. Many of the figures who have participated in this debate do not see the nature of our capitalist, industrial societies as the fundamental cause for environmental destruction.They believe that, by making people more aware of their affect on the environment, and by increasing regulations on the economic system, we can reach a solution. Subsequently most of the proposed solutions we have seen have been individualistic and rely on some small adjustments to the way capitalism works.We are often told that people need to change their habits regarding things such as transport and that measures like carbon taxes are what the world needs. Capitalism has led to the level of environmental destruction we know today, and has consistently raised different environmental concerns throughout history. For example, in the early-mid 1800’s a major concern across much of Europe was the degradation of the soil and its impact on agriculture. It was the subject of extensive work by scientists, which founded the fields of soil science and agricultural chemistry. Findings in these new fields had a significant impact on possibly the most influential thinker in political history, Karl Marx. He was interested in the work of soil scientists and agricultural chemists, and used their work for his analysis of capitalist agriculture. The observations he made are pertinent still today.

Humanity needs nature in order to survive, and indeed capitalism needs nature in order to survive, but the system is so horrendously destructive. Fossil fuels are used instead of renewables because it is profitable, industrial waste is dumped because properly disposing of it is time-consuming and costly, and agricultural practices that are ecologically destructive are used because they are the most conducive to making profits. This is why the concept of “green capitalism” is so absurd. The system itself creates the problems that many people are saying it can be used to fix. The problem is not our environmental consciousness, as many commentators often remark. There has been increasing massawareness about the issue, but still the problem seems to be getting worse. For instance, the extinction rate for species is now around 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than the natural rate of between 1 and 5 a year. Further, last year we hit a global concentration of 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Capitalism itself is the problem. Capitalism’s sole concern at the end of the day is profit and anything that stands in the way of that is nothing more than a barrier to be knocked down. For example, Mexico complained to the World Trade Organisation about US laws regarding dolphin-safe labels on tins of tuna. The law required a degree of care be taken to ensure that dolphins weren’t killed and tinned along with tuna. Mexico said that these laws were unnecessarily trade-restrictive, and sadly, the WTO upheld the complaint. The only logical solution is a radical one: we need to get rid of capitalism entirely. Instead of letting nature, and our lives, be subject to the privatised tyranny that is capital, we need to build a world not of capitalist private ownership and profit, but of socialist common ownership and control, the needs of people and the planet, co-operation and human solidarity.

Marx wrote about a “metabolism” existing between humanity and nature. The basic idea is that there is a constant physical and chemical exchange of matter between humans and nature that is affected by human labour. From this Marx developed the metabolic rift theory, which suggests that because of capitalism, our interaction with nature has become increasingly destructive.

THE DEBATE

PAPERGIRL Want all kinds of art delivered free to you by bicycle? Wollongong totally has that. Funded by a cultural grant from Wollongong City Council, Papergirl takes local artists’ work out of the formal gallery space and places it into the hands of volunteers who distribute the art in the style of old-school paperboys.

WOLLONGONG CREATIVE COMMUNITIES DIRECTORY

Papergirl kicked off in Berlin in 2006 and has since spread to twenty-five cities around the world. Mixed-media textile artist, Emily Gunthorpe now coordinates the Wollongong Papergirl project and says it’s all about “building positive relationships with the community through art.” The philosophy of the project revolves around collecting, exhibiting, distributing and celebrating art. Local artists generously donate their artworks to Papergirl and in turn receive exposure and a chance to reach out to their local creative network. You can submit anything from “paintings, photography, poetry, illustrations, music sheets, [and] postcards”, as long as it’s paperbased. Emily believes that Wollongong’s art community is improving. “Each year I am seeing so much improvement and cultural

NOW YOU SEE ME GALLERY Looking to showcase your art, but feel like it might not be good enough yet? Wondering what your creative strengths and weaknesses are? The new Now You See Me Gallery in the Wollongong City Central Chambers might be a great way to get your creative juices flowing. Young artist, Tegan Russell started up NYSM because she believed a lot of great, local art wasn’t being seen. The gallery aims to work as an online and physical space that supports and connects artists, while presenting their skills to the community. Tegan came up with the idea while rollerblading, as she was discontent with how things were being done in the art world. “I want art to be recognised as something that is part of everyday life for every human. Creativity is necessary for our evolution and contentment within ourselves.” She believes that getting artists together can be a force for amazing things to happen. “I definitely can see a growth happening in the creative community. I feel very proud

BY BELINDA QUINN

@BelindaQuinn10

The ever-growing, creative environment in Wollongong is what first came to mind when I thought of our environmental theme. There is something about its smaller community that makes the local creative scene feel warm and connected, in a way that Melbourne or Sydney can’t compete with. A wide range of future events are bringing local creative folk together. From the student-run Wollongong Writers Festival, to galleries popping up around town specifically for emerging artists—it’s hard to ignore the creative diversity of Wollongong. There’s an endless list of people here that are welcoming, laid-back and passionate about making art accessible to everyone. Creativity in Wollongong can be way of bringing people together to actively do something; be it drawing a portrait, listening to slam poetry, dancing to some live tunes or doing some community activism. So, I thought I might provide a small local directory of a few places that may give you a starting place if you’re unsure of how to get involved in Wollongong’s growing creative community.

development in our city.” However, this doesn’t mean there isn’t more work to be done. “What I would like to see is more investment in art and culture and a greater understanding that this investment would improve community engagement, tourism and job opportunities,” she says. Papergirl will be running a launch for the project on Friday, August 8th, 6-9pm at Project Art Space, with drinks, snacks, music and a free ‘How to Haiku’ workshop (by Tertangala’s very own sub-editor, John Glenn Doyle). Papergirl is expanding, looking for partners and to collaborate with local community groups and creative businesses. You can volunteer your time as a guest artist for a workshop or volunteer as a papergirl or paperboy distributer. The artworks will be distributed at Viva-La-Gong on Saturday, November 8th. If you’re looking to get involved or donate some of your own art, contact Papergirl’s website: www.papergirlwollongong.org You can book to join a workshop at this email: papergirlwollongong@gmail.com To stay up-to-date with the project, like the Facebook page: facebook.com/ papergirlwollongong

of Wollongong and excited to be involved,” she says. Tegan plans for the gallery to have a database that commercial galleries can trawl to find fresh talent,. She says the database is a also place to get artists talking to one another, “making one big connection of emerging artists who can collaborate even [if they’re] on other sides of the country.” The gallery will also include workshops such as ‘Artists Anonymous’, which will bring people together to help clear those pesky creative blocks. The NYSM Gallery will be curating the ‘Making Friends Exhibition’ at Project Art Space on Friday August 1st, 6:30pm, featuring new art by 30 local emerging artists. The event will include live music, art and snacks and will be followed up with the release of a magazine that features artists that appeared in the gallery during the first four months of its opening. Tegan plans to bring more people onto her team, so if you’re looking to volunteer and learn how to work in a gallery space, contact her via the details below: tegan@russell.com or look up www. nowyouseemegallery.com

WOLLONGONG WRITERS FESTIVAL UOW FEMINIST SOCIETY ‘ZINE MAKING WORKSHOPS In response to the University of Wollongong axing the arts Gender Studies major, a group of passionate students started up the Gender Studies Free School. For the last year-and-a-half, the school has worked around the philosophy that education should be free, open and accessible to the public. They seek a diverse range of speakers from Gender Studies lecturers to performance artists, indigenous writers, and students. This semester, the Free School plans to run zine-making workshops. A zine is kind of like a miniature magazine that doesn’t have to go through any external editing by a publisher or an editor. Usually handmade, photocopied and often political, a zine can derive from anything you’ve ever wanted to create or share with the world. One of our past editors, Chloe Higgins is writing her Creative Writing honours thesis on Zine Culture and says, ”zines can be interpreted

as an alternative to capitalist modes of cultural production.” Zines have worked as a tool to spread ideas. In the 90s zine-making was a strong influence within the riot grrrl movement, a pivotal addition to third-wave feminism. It was a key form of inclusion and communication that created a safe space for girls to reach out to each other without the threat of sexism. The movement continues today with Wollongong-based punk femzines such as Lemon Sucker and Dorks Like Us. The wom*ns space and queer space on campus hold a few zines that tell the experiences from the perspective of people who are often marginalised, ignored by the media or spoken for. The Feminist Society’s workshops will be run weekly. To get involved in FemSoc’s zine-making, keep up-to-date with the Facebook page—more details such as location and time should be posted in earlymid August: facebook.com/UOWFemSoc

Writers’ festivals have been popping up all over Australia for the last 50 years. From the National Young Writers’ Festival in Newcastle, to Sydney Writers’ Festival and the Emerging Writers’ Festival in Melbourne, all bring a great community of writers together. Since 2013 Wollongong has it’s own writers’ festival, organized completely by students. Wollongong Writers Festival (WWF) typically find new and creative ways to network and discuss important issues and ideas. They are beneficial for any kind of writer or artist, including novelists, playwrights, poets, screenwriters, journalists, songwriters, bloggers, artists, designers and academics. Founder of the festival, Chloe Higgins, is spearheading the event for 2014. WWF has grown from its first festival last year, and now spreads over two days (plus a series of lead-up event from August 8). It’ll include panels, workshops, pop-up performances, theatre, music, literary trivia, an inter-uni poetry slam

and magazine launches. The festival will have an inclusive, laid back atmosphere (all events are free!), kicking off at Art Arena on Friday, October 10th, followed by a day at North Wollongong Hotel on October 11. The magazine launches will take place on the Friday, with the South Coast Writers Centre anthology, Seeking Horizons, UOW’s Literary Society Zine and the Tertangala. The Saturday will include more panels and workshops, and will end with some trivia and a slam poetry event with Enough Said. Artists involved in the festival including John Glenn Doyle, Eunice Andrada, Dianne Bates, Martin de Biasi, Haider Catan, Jesse John Brand, Adam Carr, Lorin Elizabeth, Rebecca Hurd, Claire Johnston, Patrick Lenton, Bridget Lutherborrow, Peter McLeod, Bronwyn Mehan, Oliver Mol, Ron Pretty, Emmie Rae and more. To stay up-to-date: Twitter: @WGongWritFest #gongwriters Facebook: facebook.com/ wollongongwritersfestival Website: www.wollongongwritersfestival. com

SPOKEN WORD POETS — ENOUGH SAID Slam poetry events are nothing new, having kicked off in the mid-80s in Chicago. The events involve spoken word poets hopping up on a stage and combining rhythm, language and a fair bit of courage to animate the emotional expression in their poetry. The audience then determines the winning poet. These events have become huge in America and have been spreading in Australia since 2007 after Miles Merrill launched the Australian Poetry Slam. However, spoken word poetry can be traced back to around 750 BC, where the author Homer was thought have performed epics in town squares. Enough Said used to be placed in-between bands at Yours and Owls (now Rad). It now runs on the last Thursday of every month at Studio 19 —a creative hub on Crown Street in the Central Chambers. With a cosy and supportive culture, it’s an easy place to open up your work to a group of cool, intelligent people. The venue is filled

with embroidered pillows, dark hardwood floors and a comfy bay window couch to sit on. Co-founder and UOW graduate, Lorin Elizabeth said on the Wollongong Writers Festival Blog, “There is a stereotype to what ‘slam poetry’ is meant to sound like but my favourite poems thwart that formula and there’s tons of poets in Aus working outside it.” Enough Said often has time for an open mic after the slam poetry, so anyone can get up and tell some truths. Lorin said, “so much of spoken word is about opening writing up to the people, bringing it down from the elite and allowing everyone to engage with it regardless of their level of education or how much they read poetry on the page.” On top of keeping their poetry open and accessible, Enough Said knows how to string some beautiful, eye-opening spoken word poems together—definitely worth a visit. To get in contact: facebook.com/ poetryinwollongong

PHOTOGRAPHY: JESS NESBITT

THE

ENVI RO N M ENT ISSUE

GLASTONBURY, GUMBOOTS AND...GARDENING? BY LAURA POLSON @laura_polson

Permaculture and the legendary festival Glastonbury might seem like an odd mix. Yet, at

Glastonbury, there is a place for everyone, from metal heads to greenies. Charlie McGee, lead singer of Aussie band the Formidable Vegetable Sound System, found his place amongst this mix in both the 2013 and 2014 festivals. Laura Polson met up with Charlie to talk all things permaculture and the band at one of his Glastonbury shows this year.

“Everything you need is right in front of you, when you learn to see, good things come to you. All you have to do is stop and take a look around.” Inspiring words, right? Sounds like they should be splashed across a majestic nature image and shared on Tumblr. These are lyrics, and although they can be related with everyday life, they are actually meant to be making comment at something else entirely - your gardening skills. I am sitting in a solar powered, tent filled with Indian flags known as the ‘Small World Stage’ in the Green Futures Field at Glastonbury. Muddy gumboots are left at the door as we sit cross-legged, awaiting the next act. On stage the band seem to be having no luck, as their sound isn’t working. The lead singer takes the mic and tells the crowd, “Keep calm and grow your veggies”. Ten minutes later the sound has finally kicked in – and in a big way. This is a band on a mission. The lead singer Charlie McGee, asks the crowd “Does anyone know what permaculture is?” Few do. In fact a lot of people, according to McGee, fully understand the concept, and instead mistake it as just a term for gardening. Through his album and live show he aims to fill in

these knowledge gaps, in order to encourage people to learn about permaculture and to start helping the environment. “We have run out of time to start fixing the damage we’ve done to this earth,” he says, “so if we don’t take action now – we’re screwed!” To the audience, the band’s performance is wildly entertaining. Rapid instrument swaps from banjos and trumpets to ukuleles are teamed with blasting dub step beats. The combination makes for some seriously funked up folk music. Add some crazy dance moves and the crowd begins to grow. By the time the band is done, we’ve been taught the twelve principles behind permaculture. After studying permaculture McGee wanted to share the wealth of knowledge he had obtained. He found singing about it helped him remember the principles, and figured that people may be able to remember them through song too. As it turns out, it isn’t quite as simple as just gardening. McGee believes it’s about people organising themselves and the places they live around a particular design system, in order to create a sustainable “abundance of food, fibre and energy for provision of local needs.”

THE ENVIRONMENT ISSUEA

“

Even if it’s in a pot – grow some food. It tastes better than mi goreng.

1. Care for the earth (husband soil, forests and water) 2. Care for people (look after self, kin and community) 3. Fair Share (set limits to consumption and reproduction, and redistribute surplus) The flower then branches out to the twelve principles, which McGee communicates through some of the band’s songs. Examples of these include observe and interact in the song ‘Look Around’, catch and store energy in ‘Energy’ and produce no waste in ‘No such thing as waste’, to name a few. So it’s a little bit more complicated than you or I may have thought. That’s why McGee thinks the album may just be the start of someone’s permaculture journey. I did ask if he receives positive responses to his messages. Although even if I hadn’t, the answer is pretty clear. He’s bombarded with people buying albums and even a family wanting a picture after the performance. Though his favourite responses seem to come from those most unexpected. In his hometown in Fremantle, Western Australia, even mining magnates have come up to say they liked the show and that they’d like to give permaculture a try.

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“

The system suggests new ways of thinking that can be applied virtually to almost anything. In the Essence of Permaculture by David Holmgren, the system can be explained through the Permaculture Flower. The centre of the flower includes three ethics.

McGee’s educating mission took him all over the globe, including Wollongong in the early stages of his career. He says he’d love to come back to Wollongong and play a ‘stomp n’ show’, as he believes the Illawarra is an area with great permaculture potential. It seems he’s not the only one with this opinion - a permaculture course by ‘Elemental Permaculture’ is taking place at Warrawong High school from September 21 to October 4. With a two-week break in his busy touring schedule, McGee even managed to plant an entire garden. Leaving no valid excuses for the rest of us. His advice for students? “Even if it’s in a pot – grow some food. It tastes better than mi goreng.” I for one cannot wait to find a garden plot, a pot or anything to get started. As the rest of the Formidable Vegetable Sound System’s song quoted at the start of this article says, “don’t be scared of the dirt.” The Formidable Vegetable Sound System’s next Australian show will be the Sydney Garden Show, later this year.You can find out more at formidablevegetable.com.au. For more information on the Elemental Permaculture course at Warrawong High School visit elementalpermaculture.wordpress. com. If you are interested in learning more about permaculture this site is an easy to follow resource permacultureprinciples.com.

EARTHWORKER: PAVING THE WAY FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE BY JAKE CUPITT @JakeCupitt

Deep in heart of coal country, in Morwell in the Latrobe valley of Victoria, there’s an initiative that could provide our nation with the means to attain a sustainable future. Eureka’s Future is a manufacturing company that produces solar hot water systems with the aim of reducing carbon emissions, breathing life into Australia’s dwindling manufacturing sector and providing more than fifty people with full-time work.

When asked if there was room to expand further in the future, Musil was excited to say that “at this early stage we’re installing solar hot water systems into social housing through partnership with the Father Bob Maquire Foundation – but this is just the beginning. Through the activity of the cooperatives too, we intend to provide opportunities for training and employment for young and disadvantaged.”

Based on this description, the company may seem ordinary, but there is a key difference: Eureka’s Future is a co-operative, being entirely owned and run by its workers. Each staff member owns a percentage of the company, meaning that they are their own bosses.

Earthworker are very conscious of their presence in the coalheavy area of Latrobe Valley, and understand that the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy sources would have a massive effect on employment rates in the area. Under the heading ‘Towards a Just Transition’ on the company’s website, it states “Earthworker recognizes the need for any transition away from coal to be ‘just’ and fair for communities who currently depend on the coal industry. A ‘just transition’ means replacing the jobs and energy that fossil fuels currently account for…”

Eureka’s Future was created and funded by a Non-Profit Organisation called Earthworker Co-operative. Dave Kerin, Project Coordinator, and Dan Musil, the Project Secretary, formed Earthworker together in 2014 after working together in various forms over the last ten years. Musil says that the business’ structure “ensures that the profits of the company are invested directly back into the manufacturing, constantly improving working conditions, the quality of their production and financing a special fund for social justice.” It is refreshing to see an Australian company that is flourishing in its youth with an ethical and environmentally friendly outlook. Earthworker places a huge emphasis on supporting people in need, and giving “a hand up not a hand out”. This aspect of their business comes in the form of a social justice fund, which was initially created to “support low-income and elderly households.”

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Earthworker Co-operative only currently own Eureka’s Future, but they have the intention to create a nationwide network of worker owned, locally operated businesses. These would act as sustainable manufacturing platforms that will ideally phase out the country’s heavy reliance on fossil fuels. “Already there is significant work under way in setting up a green brewing cooperative in Melbourne, a Carbon Fibre & Food Farming Cooperative in New South Wales and an IT cooperative,” Musil said. “We want to support and foster communities anywhere to start building their own alternatives.” In a feasibility study conducted to assess the viability of the co-op model in Latrobe, 89% of all people surveyed said that

they would be more inclined to buy a Eureka’s Future solar hot water heater if local workers manufactured it. Eureka’s Future is just one example of a worker owned manufacturing company. Co-operative style business models have functioned efficiently and contributed to economies all over the world. On The Guardian’s website, comic artist Sam Wallman writes, “Across the planet cooperatives are emerging and expanding. Spain’s Mondragon began 60 years ago; it now employs 80,000 people with [an]annual revenue of 14 billion euros. At the same time the Venezuelan government has helped 20,000 people lift themselves out of poverty with public policy that embraces the co-op model. A Chicago window factory abruptly ceased operations in 2008, the unionized workforce organised a sit-in that lasted several days”. Continuing the collaborative theme, Earthworker Cooperative has chosen to partner with BankMECU, “Australia’s first customer-owned responsible bank”. Every customer of BankMECU owns one share each, giving them equal access to the benefits of BankMECU and the right to express their beliefs in how the bank is run. Like Eureka’s Future, the annual profits of BankMECU are reinvested back into the company to give customers better interest rates and lower fees. Four per cent of the annual profits of go towards community and environmental concerns that customers say are important. This allows BankMECU to give fixed low interest loans on the purchasing and installation of Eureka’s Future’s solar hot water heaters.

only worthwhile if people everywhere, including the most vulnerable, can have access to energy and money saving technology.” Co-operation is Earthworker’s strongest asset. As a Non-profit Organisation, its funding is limited and stretched. For instance, their factory in Morwell is still under construction. The only place they can currently produce their solar hot water systems is in their business partner, Everlast’s factory. In support of the construction of Eureka’s Futures’ own factory, Musil has set up the 100,000 Australians campaign. If 100,000 Australians pledge $22 to the cause and become members of the initiative, Earthworker will have all the funds they need to purchase manufacturing equipment and finish the construction of the building.

“We want to establish, foster and support cooperatives all over Australia, and beyond,” Musil said. “The Hunter Valley and Illawarra regions, like the Latrobe Valley, are in desperate need of alternatives to the destructive coal industry and we are currently in discussion with some folk in the Hunter about what can be done there.” Musil encourages anyone who would like to get involved with the cause to get in touch. You can find and support Eureka’s Future and Earthworker on their Facebook or Twitter accounts. www. earthworkercooperative.com.au.

Musil said “We think providing renewable energy goods is

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COAL RUINING THE HUNTER BY HANNAH RIVERS

I love everything about Australia; from the mesmerising earthy tones of the landscape and the variety of rich scenery, to the passionate torrents of rainfall soaking into the cracked earth. The bitterness of the winds in the alps, its all-or-nothing approach to fires, droughts and floods. The polarity that exists between rugged mountains and oceans that gently lap onto white sandy hills and even the delicate red dust of the desert. Nature is everything, where would we be without it? My eternal love and respect for nature comes from a childhood immersed in country life. This has also fostered a deep-rooted love for Australia in all of its colours, shapes and forms. However, the story I’m about to tell is not a new one. In fact, it has been repeated so often that it is almost habitual to discuss. But here I am, again, trying to bring it to the attention of my fellow peers. In early July, my boyfriend noticed billows of dust clouds rising above a heap of upturned dirt piled in mountainous forms, growing every time I returned home from university. “What was that?” he asked, as he sat in my mother’s car. “Oh, just another mine explosion.” She sighed in submission as we drove on. The Hunter Valley is an area historically renowned for pristine farming land. With vineyards, dairy, homesteads and thoroughbred horse studs interspersed. In parts, this is still true. A larger proportion, however, is coated by a layer of coal dust, clinging onto anything and everything. I grew up in the Upper Hunter region and my childhood was a dreamy amalgamation of play in rivers, paddocks and the outdoors. At 15, I began to notice the open cut coalmines infringing on the once pristine views of pastures. I wrote to the local newspapers: “How could this happen? Who is working to stop this?” My small success was that someone wrote back stating: “If a 15 year old can notice this, then how can our politicians not?” Since that time, the mine we spotted explosions coming from, has become one of the largest open cut mines in the southern hemisphere. ABC radio reporter Tony Eastly stated, in reference to the Hunter Valley, that the “2013 data collected by the EPA (Environmental Protection Authority)... exceeded the national

standard for the PM10, that’s particles of up to 10 microns in diameter, more than 170 times.” In layman’s terms, there were over 170 time periods (generally 1hr to a day) within a year that dust of diameter less than 10 microns (head hair is about 70 microns!!) exceeded EPA safety limits. This dust is small enough to pass through the body’s natural defence against foreign bodies. The mining industry continues to pump funds into the Hunter communities in the form of scholarships for graduating highschool students, community development, sporting endeavours, schools and more. It is hardly surprising that the local mining newspaper, Coalface, claims that 57.7% of residents in local town Singleton, “believe that there is a negative impact on the local community if the continuation [of mines] was not approved.” The health and survival of the Hunter Valley, like so many other communities in Australia, has become a toy and commodity for the rich. However, as much as I cannot justify these mines taking over the land I love so much, I am also acutely aware that they bring employment, business, job security and prosperity to my hometown. Even my father works in a power station. I cannot make accusations such as, ’you are wrong, I am right’ as that would be narrow-minded, and I could not condemn the workers that are just trying to make a life for themselves. What I despise the most is the lack of power we as citizens of our country have over powerful conglomerates. I despise that economic gain is prioritised over non-renewable resources and I despise that nature always takes a backseat. This is just one story in a plethora of experiences surrounding powerful mining companies. As much as it discourages me that I do not have much power, I am optimistic about the future of human beings living with green technologies that will not impact too much on our current way of life. I am optimistic because I try to take (small) active steps and have seen countless others do so as well. These include having conversations with people about the issue, writing about it in public areas, getting involved in environmental activist groups and even just acknowledging that the problem exists. It is hard to be conscious 100% of the time, but the more awareness there is, the more likely change will occur.

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DOES GENERATION Y BUY INTO GREEN WASHING? BY LAURA POLSON @laura_polson

Generation Y is frequently being labelled ‘The Green Generation’. With our evergrowing interest in environmental concerns – it would make sense that we are big buyers in the green marketing industry. But not all products are as green as you might think. Laura Polson talks to environmentally concerned UOW student Zofia Zayons, and owner of organic shop All Good Things Jen Skylas, about whether they believe Gen Y buys into green washing. Eco-friendly, Recyclable, Biodegradable, Grass-Fed, FreeRange, No-Animal Testing, Natural, Organic, Fair trade, Green, Greener, Greenest. Sometimes it feels like the products we want to buy are speaking to us. Each boasts why they are better and why you should choose them. Though when it comes to purchasing environmental and animal friendly products the claims are a lot more serious. When a product is falsely promoting its green values it is considered to be ‘green washing’. Green washing isn’t always easy to detect, especially if you haven’t been buying green products for long. Jen Skylas, owner of Wollongong’s organic shop All Good Things, has been beginning to notice a shift, with a younger market seeking these types of products in her shop. She believes this is due to awareness and education made more accessible through social media. “Higher disease rates in cancer, obesity, ADD, auto immune disease... as well as the environmental issues like global warming’ are making people sit up and take notice of their health and the environment,” she says.

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Zofia Zayons, an International Studies student minoring in Global Development and the Environment, thinks people that are new to a greener lifestyle could “launch themselves in to it [quickly] and become subject to green washing.” Zayons, who’s just returned from studying abroad in Sweden, believes that “people who buy green just for the status are likely to fall into this trap.” In 2014 scholars Leslie Lu, Dora Bock and Matthew Joseph released a study called ‘Green Marketing: What the Millennials Buy’. One of the first of its kind, the study examined the recent rise in Gen Y’s interest in green shopping and the potential to which they are susceptible to buy into green washing. “There is a large opportunity that companies can exploit by manufacturing and marketing green products and services to [the] Milllennial [generation],” it says. But are we easy to exploit, or are we more critical then marketers think?

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The most powerful thing we can do as consumers is to vote with our dollar. I would personally pay more money to the farmers who are doing the right thing, then to factory farmed foods and big businesses.

“

The report found the following to be Gen Y’s top reasons not to buy green products.

rather than just being told its green, then there will be greater motivation to use the vote of the dollar,” she says.

1. Green products are considered too expensive. 2. Millennial consumers are unable to differentiate between green and non-green products. 3. There is a lack of trust surrounding green products. 4. Millennials often believe that green products are of inferior quality.

The truth is all products will affect Earth in some way. It is important we find the ones who actually do it in the most minimalistic way possible - not just say they are. Green washing can become a particularly harmful marketing tool, dishonestly leading buyers to believe that they are being environmentally friendly and performing a false sense of political action.

Zayons agrees in that “the more informed this generation is, is how sceptical of ‘green’ [products] they are. Eco friendly has certainly become trendy, but with that, often comes a hefty price tag which can deter younger buyers.”

All Good Things is located at 91 Burelli Street, Wollongong. Like their Facebook page to gain more green advice and information on new products www.allgoodthingsorganic.com.au

Skylas tries to help buyers avoid the green washing trap by stocking products with the highest level or certification and from leading suppliers in the industry. She too believes that labels can be misleading and says, “There are organic foods out there that are still junk food.” Skylas offers some valuable advice for those struggling with the environmental price tag: “The most powerful thing we can do as consumers is to vote with our dollar. I would personally pay more money to the farmers who are doing the right thing, then to factory farmed foods and big businesses”. Should the government subsidise the cost of certified green products? Zayons thinks so, as well as providing more accessible information to raise awareness on these issues that will drive the market demand. “If people are made aware of these issues,

ALL GOOD THINGS’ TIPS TO AVOID GREEN WASHING: • • •

Do your research, ask questions, speak to your local grocers, butchers, fish markets etc Always look for certification labels if you want to by organic foods. Read the labels. If you don’t know what some of the ingredients listed are then research them. There are lots of apps and websites that help you to decode such information. Try looking up all the certification bodies and their codes. If there are words there that you can’t pronounce, don’t buy it, ask questions, and seek out the information.

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THE GENIUS WITHIN: A PROFILE OF LOCAL ARTIST TEGAN RUSSELL BY CHLOE HIGGINS @Chlo_Higgs

In ancient Rome, the word ‘genius’ referred to a divine entity that lived in the walls of an artist’s studio and would come out and assist the artist and affect the outcome of the artwork. On this topic, in her 2009 TED talk titled ‘Your elusive creative genius’, Elizabeth Gilbert said, “People did not believe creativity came from human beings, people believed that creativity was this divine attendant spirit that came to human beings from some distant and unknowable source for distant and unknowable reasons…disembodied creative spirit.” For Tegan Russell, this ‘genius’ is exactly where her art comes from. “You’re working in collaboration with this other thing that we can’t explain, and that’s what creativity is,” Tegan explained.

ARTIST PROFILE

Tegan is a painter, drawer, sculptor, teacher, entrepreneur and curator. In 2011, she began her Bachelor of Visual Arts at the National Art School. In 2012, she transferred to the University of Wollongong where she completed her degree in 2013. This year, she opened her first art gallery, Now You See Me, in Wollongong. Now You See Me is a professional space to connect, show and support creative people. Making art is in Tegan’s veins. She has clear memories from when she was three of “looking at things and wondering why the angles appeared a certain way to [her] eye, or looking at reflections in the bath and trying to figure out how the water made everything look upside down”. She then started depicting these things on the page. At thirteen she taught herself how to use oil paints. “I started to look for more and started depicting emotion,” she said. From there, she began to look beyond the physical properties of objects and focus on their energy. “I think conveying the energy of something is just as powerful as depicting the object. If you were going to draw an orange you could draw it realistically or you could draw it abstractedly and capture its essence.” As Tegan matured, so too did her art practice. “As I learn about the world I learn things about my art, and my art teaches me things about the world.” But Tegan’s art hasn’t always stemmed from such a positive place. “I had severe anxiety growing up… not fitting in, feeling outcast, feeling weird. I got left out at school and didn’t fit in to the education system, even up to university… Everything I was taught in school just didn’t make sense.” This only propelled Tegan to make more art. “Art for me was a way to deal with that anxiety,” she said. “Finding ways for me to be happy by myself… I could just lock myself away; it was an outlet for me to enjoy myself.” Recently, Tegan realised why she never felt like she fitted in, even during her university level art classes. While everyone else was planning their works methodically, she was going the other way. Tegan’s best work is produced when she listens to the guiding voice inside and sets aside her rational, critical mind. Tegan believes her most recent work, a figure of a blue naked body with the head replaced by pot plants, is her best work to date. But it wouldn’t have come had she not listened to the ‘genius’ guiding her hands. “The process I went through with that art was like ‘rub out the head’, and then ‘don’t rub out the head, why would people want to see a body without a head?’”

Tegan pushed through and kept listening to the voice. “‘Put pot plants across her arm’ and it’s like ‘why the fuck would you put pot plants across her arm?’” her rational voice fought back. But Tegan kept her word, and listened to the voice until the end. “And it’s the best artwork I’ve created... ever.” Not planning her pieces, but letting something beside her rational mind guide her, is not the only thing she does differently. While studying art, Tegan always felt pressured to consciously create meaning in her work. She believes setting an agenda within a work before it is created stunts the work’s growth and puts the focus on getting from point A to point B. Instead, Tegan prefers to put the focus on the process over the product. She argues this leads to a more symbolic and conceptually complex work. For Tegan, the process is more important than the meaning. “I create art for fun because I love doing it. It’s a great form of entertainment… I feel like each time I go through the process of creating a piece of art, I look back and I learn something about myself.” For other people, this viewpoint is sometimes hard to accept. “I’ve had people say ‘Can you just make it up? What would it mean if it did mean something?’” Tegan believes the reason for this is built into our society. “In Western culture, people want to understand and people want to label things.” But there isn’t always a need for this, she says. “I think it’s really interesting, for some art, for us to just accept that we don’t understand it and just experience things as they are. How does it make you feel? Does it give you a weird feeling in your gut?” This need to understand is inextricably linked to our loss of the ‘genius’ as the maker of art and creativity, Tegan said. Nowadays, all credit, responsibility and quest for meaning is laid upon the artist. The Greeks had it more accurate, she believes. “Western society has missed that, I think. They’ve made it about the ‘I’.” From now on, Tegan is committed to listening to the genius inside. Tegan is curating an exhibition of 30 local artists on August 1 at Project Artspace. Email Tegan for more information or to be added to her mailing list. You can see more of Tegan’s work at www.nowyouseemegallery. com, on her Instagram account @NYSMgallery or Facebook pages ‘Now You See Me Gallery’ and ‘artbytegan’.

ARTIST PROFILE

ARTIST: TEGAN RUSSELL

NOWYOUSEEMEGALLERY.COM

THE STRUGGLE TO STOP THE LOSS OF THE LEARD STATE FOREST BY PETER MONAGHAN @UOWEAC

Leard State Forest is the largest vestige of natural bushland on the Liverpool plains, in north-west NSW, near Narrabri. It is home to 396 different species of native plants and animals, 34 of which are critically endangered. It is also home to several distinct ecological communities, particularly the once widespread Box-Gum woodland. Cropping, pasture and infrastructure development has reduced the woodland to the point where, today, only fragile, fragmented remnants of it remain. State and Commonwealth legislative safeguards are, it seems, not enough to protect the ecology of the Leard State Forest. Today, the forest is under extensive threat, with the woodlands and wildlife facing decimation in the short and long term. The decision by NSW-based coal producer, Whitehaven Coal Limited, to develop a coalmine at Maules Creek within the forest, has extraordinary ramifications. Opponents of the mine say it will devastate the forest’s ecological health and ruin the groundwater used by local farms and businesses, rendering them unviable. Whitehaven say they’re stimulating the local and state economy, and creating jobs. Residents are not so optimistic, pointing out that Whitehaven has shaky financials, no ability to compete with overseas coal miners in the long term, and a history of abandoning coalmine operations, leaving zero net job growth and no economic benefit to the locality or the state. The outcome of this massive transfer and destruction of resources, say locals, will be the swap of the Leard State Forest’s pristine bushland, for an empty, polluted, desolate void. Not exactly a fair trade, especially for state-owned land.

The Maules Creek mine development is only one of three mines being built or expanded within the Leard State Forest. The NSW government advises potential visitors to the Leard State Forest (as they do to visitors of all state forests) that “all native plants and animals are protected in forests, parks and reserves.” The government places certain restrictions and regulations on an array of activities in state forests, from hunting and fishing, through to camping and driving. The restrictions are designed, it seems, to protect the forest, and for good reason. But protesters of the Maules Creek mine ask a simple question. If “all native plants and animals are protected in forests, parks and reserves” then why, in Leard State Forest, have bulldozers, harvesters and other heavy machines been able to tear through swathes of native plants with apparent impunity? “When I saw the cleared areas for the mine, I realised I’d never properly experienced disgust,” said Sam Cooper, a University of Wollongong alumnus who graduated in 2013. As a former research student in the School of Biology, he is acutely aware of the destructive capacity of the Maules Creek mine. “The largest and most pristine patch of an entire native ecosystem … is currently being rapidly cleared to make way for [the mine],” he says. According to Mr. Cooper and the Front Line Action on Coal group, the Maules Creek mine will emit 30 million tonnes of CO2 every year. “That number is roughly equivalent to the yearly emissions from New Zealand (and there are more than 100 countries that emit less than NZ),” he says. “Thirty million tonnes per year is 82 000 tonnes per day.”

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This is a coal company without integrity and certainly without any social license to destroy Leard Forest and pollute the globe.

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In joining the Front Line Action on Coal, Mr. Cooper travelled to Maules Creek, where he took part in a tree-sit protest. He took up residence in a canopy in the forest, being the third person to continue the vigil, which was designed to watch over, and prevent Whitehaven Coal’s immediate clearing of the trees in the area. After spending more than 40 hours in the canopy (with the aggregate time of the protest reaching 182 hours), Sam was able to come down. A legal decision against Whitehaven Coal forced them to cease their land clearing. While describing himself as “ecstatic” about the decision, Mr. Cooper also had comments about Whitehaven Coal, who had continued clearing land for as long they could prior to the legal decision. “This is a coal company without integrity and certainly without any social license to destroy Leard Forest and pollute the globe,” he said. While more than 220 protesters have joined the actions against the coalmine development in the Leard State forest, but they say they need more people to join them. The legal injunction will only stall the company until spring, when land-clearing will, in all likelihood, resume. Whitehaven Coal’s share prices have tumbled, from $6.00 in April 2012 (some months before they received approval for the Maules Creek mine development) to the current price of $ 1.68. Investor fears were worsened by the 2012 shutdown of the Sunnydale mine near Gunnedah, a shutdown the Whitehaven managing director, Tony Heggarty, attributed to low coal prices. Heggarty bemoaned the “stringent environmental conditions” placed on the Maules Creek development, and admitted there was “no magic wand” to improve the company’s declining profitability. But based on Whitehaven’s recent performance, market analysts are sceptical about the outcome for the Maules Creek site. It is possible, analysts say, that the mine will not be profitable. In this scenario, the company will abandon the site, as they did with Sunnydale, leaving polluted groundwater and a huge crater behind them.

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The protests at the site have further eroded shareholder confidence. So too have reports about the NSW government’s concerns with Whitehaven’s lack of regulatory compliance. For their part, Whitehaven rejects suggestions of deliberate footdragging, instead blaming their numerous submission delays on the complicated nature of the development process. But to those working in the Leard State Forest, the submission delays seem purposeless, since the company continues their work. “[T]he rules have been bent to breaking point for Whitehaven Coal and we’re fed up with it,” said Roselyn Druce of the Leard Forest Alliance. Echoing sentiments shared by local farmers, residents, environmentalists and other activists who have participated in the protest, she said, “We want the NSW government to intervene, but if they don’t, we will fight Whitehaven Coal for every inch of this forest.” Sam Cooper, for his part, says while the court decision on winter clearing is a victory, “the war will go on.” The mining companies must be pushed to abandon their “absurdly misanthropic” developments, says Mr. Cooper, and so more protests and blockades are needed. Both Mr Cooper and the Front Line Action on Coal have called for more people to become involved. “The only way things are ever fixed is by people standing together and organising resistance,” he says. For more information on the Maules Creek protest, head to the ‘Front Line Action on Coal’ FB page, or to http:// frontlineaction.org/. Peter is a student representative for the Environmental Advisory Committee. Contact Peter if you have any ideas, comments, requests or problems related to UOW, and the environment, or if you want something addressed at the next EAC meeting. pfnm745@uowmail.edu.au

LOCAL ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST PROFILES BY HANNAH RIVERS ISAAC ASTILL, PHOTO: CHRIS ISON

Environmental activists are sprinkled among us, sitting in our tutorials, trains and workplaces, dormant and waiting. Waiting for moments. Whether the actions be as simple as silently picking up a piece of rubbish, or something more vocal and participating in civil disobedience. Tertangala writer, Hannah Rivers spoke to two local activists who have been involved with UOW, Isaac Astill and Tash Jones.

ISAAC ASTILL Isaac spoke at an Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC) conference in Melbourne last year and his enthusiasm and passion for sustainability was inspiring. He facilitated a workshop at UOW in 2013 at the S4S Leadership conference, and was the recipient of last year’s Bob Brown Young Environmentalist of the Year award. What are you currently doing/working on? I’m the Director of Campaigns at Make Me Fossil Free. We help thousands of Australians move their money away from the fossil fuel industry and towards renewable solutions! The big four banks - Commonwealth, ANZ, Westpac, and NAB all invest billions into destructive industries like coal seam gas and coal ports. We help people leave those banks behind, and move to fossil free alternatives! Where is your favourite natural place in Australia? Definitely my hometown. I come from a rural town called Yankalilla in South Australia. It’s home to one of the best swimming beaches in Australia, a beautiful type of seahorse called the Leafy Sea Dragon, and of course a great community. I’m always keen to visit home, grab a beer, and get down to the beach! Why is the environment important to you? A healthy community relies on a healthy environment and

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a healthy climate. This is especially true in Australia. Our communities are consistently under pressure from scorching hot months, long droughts, and sudden floods. Climate change loads the dice for these events to happen more often, and more intense. I want to see Australia reach its potential. That’s why helping Australians move their money away from fossil fuels and towards renewables is important to me! What are your top tips for students living on a budget to live sustainably? Make sure you move your money away from the big four banks - Commonwealth, ANZ, Westpac, or NAB. It doesn’t matter how much money you have or don’t have, the big four banks hate losing customers! And make it public! The movement of people moving their money will only grow if people know it’s happening. I moved my money to Bendigo Bank and asked for a photo with the teller, Harley. He loved it! To find out more, you can join the movement at www.fossilfree. com.au. If you had the power to change anything right now, what would it be? If you bank with the big four banks, and I had the power to change it, that’s the one thing I would change! Imagine the power of us all moving our money away from the big four banks and towards renewable solutions!

NATASHA JONES AND THE ENVIRO COLLECTIVE, PHOTO: ROBERT PEET

NATASHA JONES

humans lived in and with the natural environment.

Natasha Jones is an ex UOW student who was actively involved with the Environment Collective. She helped run the weekly ‘Enviro Films’ showings and has always been a passionate lover of the environment. Her ability to live sustainability whilst on a student budget is truly inspiring.

What are your top tips for students living on a budget to live sustainably?

What are you currently doing/working on? I’m living in Exeter, England with my English boyfriend, working temporary office jobs, teaching private language lessons for English and Spanish, and doing bits and pieces of travel. Where is your favourite natural place in Australia? That’s a hard one. It would have to be between the Blue Mountains and the Kimberley coast. Why is the environment important to you? For many reasons, some selfish, like I want to be able to travel to beautiful natural areas of the world and see wild animals and eat wild foods and trek in areas untouched by industrialisation, and I want to take my kids to do the same things. Some logic reasons, like I understand basic ecology and the fact that we rely on our natural environment and other non-human species for our own survival. And other instinctual reasons, like I just feel more comfortable and at peace in nature. I feel tired and stressed and dirty, living or spending too much time in a city, where-as in nature I feel very content and confident. I think this is instinctual because for thousands of years

Eat less meat and dairy. This will save you money AND save dirty emissions. Also grow as much of your own food as possible, even just herbs. Dumpster dive, as this will save you money, it’s fun, and it will enlighten you to how much food wastage there is and hopefully inspire you to waste less food yourself or to support local farmers markets or co-ops that waste less food (you can also volunteer at local co-ops and get discounts on foods). Buy less new clothes and technology. The clothing and technology industry are huge contributors to dirty emissions and bad working conditions, so try to buy second-hand things wherever possible to save you money and reduce your support for these industries. If you had the power to change anything right now, what would it be? I would change the way Australia is governed. Being overseas and travelling makes me realise more and more just how gorgeous and vibrant Australia is, and how much potential we have to be a sustainable, ethical, welcoming country with rich culture and values, it’s just such a shame that we’ve been governed by idiots. I would want to fully restructure the governance in Australia, not just get rid of Abbot & Co and send in a new bunch of idiots to mess everything up, but create smaller, more localised, community governments, incorporate much more Indigenous law and culture in how these small local community governments are run. Ha, I can dream!

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FILTER TECHNOLOGIES REVOLUTIONISE CAMBODIA WATERWAYS BY SARAH NAVIN @SarahNavin

Imagine living in a rural or outer urban area in Cambodia. You belong to a family of seven, occupying 21-acres by the river with 15,000 other people… sharing the same filthy water. It’s a Southeast Asian crisis. Diarrhoeal diseases kill over 10,000 Cambodian children a year, 9 million people are living with poor sanitation and 4.6 million people have no safe drinking water, WaterAid reports. Action4Asia involves an ambitious team on a 15,000 kilometre cycling expedition from Singapore to Mumbai, visiting communities first hand and discovering the multiple technologies and solutions available to obtain safe drinking water. Former UOW international students David Cook and Paul Cave, who are both 23-year-old biologists from the United Kingdom, and Norwegian teacher Arja Grenager Sormo, 26, embarked on the expedition in January. Their aim over the past seven months has been to positively publicise the work that charities are doing to improve living conditions and investigate the issues affecting local people. Water filtration methods have been a key priority, with the expedition raising funds for the water and sanitation charity Aquabox, a life-saving water tank and treatment that can make up to 2,000 litres of water safe to drink. “Aquabox send these filtration units to places like the Philippines and Syria... The water comes up through the aqua filter and through these micro-pores, cleaning the water, so there is no need for chlorine or iodine tablets [in the UK Aquabox],” Action4Asia expedition leader David Cook says.

The Aquabox is most useful for disaster situations, as it also contains a tarp, mosquito net, rope, cord and blankets. Michael Wright, President Elect and Service Projects Chair of the Rotary Club of Phnom Penh, has firsthand experience in distributing Australian Aquaboxes to flood victims. “It can, literally, be a life saver. When families have to evacuate their flooded homes they typically end up in temporary shelters (at best) or on the roadside”, Michael says. “Diarrhoea becomes prevalent and can be quickly followed by typhoid and cholera. All of these are killers, especially to the very young and very old”, he says. As well as the membrane technology used by Aquabox, ceramic water filters and biosand filters are also explored as beneficial long-term methods. According to the UNICEF and The Water and Sanitation Program report on ceramic filter projects from 2002-2006, they are “lightweight, portable, relatively inexpensive, chemical free, low-maintenance, effective and easy to use”. A ceramic pot sits inside a larger container with a spout. The pore size of the ceramic clay means it is able to remove virtually all bacteria, protozoa and helminthes, through what is known as microfiltration. “I was amazed when I saw these ceramic water filters.You put the water in, and then three or four hours later the water drains through the pot and then you have clean water,” David Cook says.

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What we wanted to do was show the children that within their homes, and within their school, everyone is using the water filter,” says Tom. “We are building that generation of water cleanliness.

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Locals also buy charcoal or firewood and boil the water to make it safe to drink. Tom Matuschka is a Rotarian of the Rotary Club of Phnom Penh Metro, and the CEO of a NonGovernment Organisation called Asian Hope. He says many families living below the poverty line on the river struggle to purify it sufficiently or long enough through the heating method; so are forced to drink contaminated water. “Those folks were drinking directly from the river, in water that was stagnant. It was being held by fishing boats, and houseboats,” he says. “Their whole life and family business [is] in that water and then they were taking that water and drinking it.” Action4Asia interviewed a Cambodian woman who has nine children as well as grandparents living under the one roof. A total of fifteen people use the family’s ceramic water filter, which was received about a year ago. She said the family use it a lot and find it much easier than boiling water. High levels of arsenic content can lead to arsenic poisoning in people who have long-term consumption of contaminated drinking water. Arsenic poisoning may begin with symptoms such as headaches and severe diarrhoea, progressing to blood in the urine and muscle cramps. There is an increased risk of skin cancer and heart disease, and the poisoning is ultimately fatal. Asian Hope spent US$16,000, to disperse 1,200 ceramic water filters throughout the community, including schools, health centres, and public offices. While trends show that the families follow respected leaders in the community, the social campaign also aims to instil health habits in younger people. “What we wanted to do was show the children that within their homes, and within their school, everyone is using the

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water filter,” says Tom. “We are building that generation of water cleanliness.” The ceramic water filters cost US$12 and lasts two years. They were funded through rotary donations, but families must pay a small portion of the cost. The team found that this enables families to feel a sense of ownership, which significantly encourages them to use the filter more frequently. An eightyear-old girl even worked odd jobs, earning less than 75 cents to get a water filter for her family. “We found in the past that if you just hand out the water filters, they may become a planter for a plant or it could be a child’s toy. But if the family put in only 25 cents of 75 cents, even if they have to pay for that in small increments, the level of ownership rises significantly,” says Tom. Tom educates the Cambodian people that the ceramic water filters improve their health, which in turn saves money on medical costs and prevents sickness. This enables them to work more and ultimately creates better functioning families and communities. A study by UNICEF in cooperation with the Royal Government of Cambodia and the support of AusAID, randomly visited 506 of the 2000 households that received the ceramic filters up to four years prior. It found that there were half as many cases of diarrhoea, compared to households without a filter. There was a reported 99.99% less E.coli (which indicates the faecal contamination) in treated water. On top of these inspiring changes, accompanying sanitation awareness programs that empower locals are vital to improve the health and hygiene of some of the world’s poorest people.

MINTY FRESH BY KELSEY MCINTOSH @KMcintosh21

Tucked away from the hustle and bustle of the daily grind is a new and creative addition to Wollongong city’s market. Only the locals really know where it is, but it’s something worth knowing about. Whilst this hidden gem is not about cold drip piccolo lattes, organic superfood smoothies or the latest Bec & Bridge design, Minty Duds takes a unique approach to distinguish itself in an already developing local market. During the final semesters of his Environmental Engineering degree at UOW, Dave Everitt was searching for something more. He describes it as “striving to start something somewhat creative, visual and tangible to satisfy the side of the brain that engineering doesn’t exactly stimulate.” With an avid interest in small business enterprise, Everitt began building the label Thomas Foolery, and further, the business Minty Duds. The idea of printing art graphics onto t-shirts to

THE ENVIRONMENT ISSUE

be sold at local markets developed into a unique business for the passionate student. An earthy, yet relaxed and open vibe meets you as you enter the Minty Duds shop. Palettes, railway sleepers and fence posts are visible, which in a quick glimpse could be passed off as merely an artistic statement. As a conscious decision made by Everitt, these recycled material pieces, alongside second hand hardwood joists, concrete rio, old furniture and ornaments, contribute to 90% of the shops fit out. The label Thomas Foolery is one of many hanging on the clothing racks in store. To the potential t-shirt buyer, reading the fine print on clothing labels is not a common step in the purchase process. But, if you look closely, you notice that Thomas Foolery uses organic cotton and bamboo fibres exclusively. Another conscious decision made by Everitt. When setting up the business, he worked closely with the

UOW Solar Decathlon project, leading to an exploration of the environmental impacts of manufacturing clothing and the ‘rag industry’ in general. “As it turns out, producing textiles can have a horrendous impact on the local environment,” he says. As well as being 100% organic, Thomas Foolery t-shirts are sourced from suppliers that use only sustainable energies, making the end product 100% carbon neutral (after offsetting the packaging and transport emissions). Looking to build something more out of the success Everitt deemed as his ‘hobby business’, Minty Duds was created. He decided that there must be many other small brands out there trying to make it in an industry that’s dominated by major business. Whilst Thomas Foolery remains the house label, Minty Duds only sells products sourced from small, independent labels. Products are not limited to clothing, but

range from leather iPhone cases to candles for men, fondly known as ‘mandles’. “We offer people brands and labels that they’ve never heard before and that is what sets us apart from other apparel stores,” Everitt says. Whilst operating under an environmentally conscious model, Everitt and his team at Minty Duds try to help the little guys. The shop also plays host to events for local businesses and artists. Even Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery acknowledges Minty Duds’ invitation for the public to experience something different, a sign of Wollongong’s coming of age. Situated at 5 Crown Lane, do your environmental conscious a favour and pop into the store. Alternatively, check out Minty Duds and Thomas Foolery on Facebook, or order online at www.mintyduds.com.au.

THE ENVIRONMENT ISSUEA

WALL-E – A POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE MOVIE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT? BY TILLY KIDD

Andrew Stanton’s Wall-E, released by Pixar in 2008, addresses the consequences of fast paced consumerism and the social need to escape life’s programming. In the opening scene we are exposed to wind turbines that sit on top of garbage piles, slowly spinning in grey fog. The camera zooms through the fog towards strangely shaped buildings in the distance; as we get closer it is revealed they have been built with compacted garbage and have overtaken the real city buildings in height. An eerie silence follows as the camera pans across the apocalyptic wasteland and one last lonely robot trails through its streets cleaning up the mess left behind. Wall-E compresses garbage into blocks and places these garbage blocks one by one into building formulations.

There is no doubt that the plastic Wall-E toys, the DVDS, and the marketing campaigns will all be waste in 5-10 years time. Mass consumption is essential for marketing success and plastic tie-in toys are a quick way to ensure consumption and profit for a children’s film. Stanton, through Pixar, works within the capitalist system where the best way to reach modern audiences is through selling ideas with modern marketing strategies. Ironically, Stanton’s film mocks this wasteful system and his adherence to it in reality seems to encourage a step forward for the environment by taking two steps backward. As the deserted wasteland left behind in Wall-E reveals, mass consumption is not an effective way to get your message across, and trends quickly pass.

For a film with little human dialogue, Wall-E acts as a reminder of the basic need for social interaction. The arrival of the mysterious and modern robot Eve first brings rivalry, then love, and an adventure into space where humans have lived for 700 years. Humankind is entirely dependent on corporate control and are willingly brainwashed by consumerist trends. Star Wars and The Matrix references become evident in these scenes.

Stanton has denied that the environmental message in his film is intentional. When interviewed on the intent of his film Stanton claimed that the main point of his project was to amplify the love story between two robots. He states, “I don’t have a political bent, I don’t have an ecological message to push”. I find this statement odd when the film so clearly juxtaposes the garbage filled wasteland with the beauty of a single living plant. The climax of the film hinges on the importance of the plants preservation— and this is a positive theme for a children’s film.

Wall-E is petrified by this fast paced lifestyle where machines and trends are quickly replaced before anyone has time to realise what they have left behind. He symbolises the need to slow down and appreciate life rather than continually renew or advance it. Wall-E jumps at loud noises, runs from flying objects and yelps at bright or flashy colours. He is a man-made object who has developed more emotion inside him then the complacent species that created him. He reminds us of a frail grandparent, set in his ways, but brave and wise enough to face the new world with a certain caution and nostalgia. With Wall-E and Eve’s revelation of a living plant on Earth, the humans are inspired to start doing things for themselves again, and revive their planet slowly and surely. Wall-E expresses many important themes for young audiences. It is pro-exercise and eco-friendly.Yet in a way- and this is problematic for numerous films with environmental issues -Wall-E endorses the issue of consumerism that it is critiquing. Highlighted in The National Review, Greg Pollowitz says it’s hypocritical that the film is produced by a company that “wants us to buy Wall-E kitsch for our kids that are manufactured in China at environment-destroying factories and packed in plastic that will take hundreds of years to biodegrade”.

So why would Stanton so carefully distance himself from this message? Potentially because of the way it could affect ticket sales. Potentially as a means to justify the environmentally damaging marketing campaigns used to sell Wall-E. Or, with the ongoing global warming debate, a sitting-on-the-fence attitude may have been viewed as an easy way out for Pixar and Stanton. But then again, if Stanton hadn’t sold his robot plot through Pixar, large audiences may not have seen the positive ecological film at all. Wall-E is a beautifully constructed story with phenomenal cinematic techniques that reveal Pixar’s creative genius and highlight modern issues. However, the controversy over Wall-E’s hypocrisy proves how important the environmental themes it presents are in reality, and how necessary it is for change to occur. The use of wasteful marketing regimes for a film with an environmental message reminds us how difficult it is to break free of the fast paced consumerist world that we find we are caught up in and how easy it is to follow marketing trends rather than try to escape them. Hopefully Wall-E, the lonely robot that made an impact with one tiny plant, did remind us of one thing: the easy way and the right way are rarely ever the same.

THE ENVIRONMENT ISSUEA

COVER ARTIST, SALTWATER DREAMTIME

ARTS & CULTURE

10 QUICK QUESTIONS WITH COVER ARTIST SALTWATER DREAMTIME BY BRITTANY CARTER @_BrittanyCarter

Zachary Bennett-Brook’s vibrant and complex patterns spin a contemporary twist on the traditional roots of his cultural heritage. Having always enjoyed painting and drawing, it wasn’t until he began his HSC years that his passion for art really developed. Now twenty-three with a university degree under his belt, he’s establishing a name for himself as an emerging artist in the Illawarra. Using broken, snapped, and recycled surfboards and fins as canvas, Bennett-Brook’s works pop with colour as well as tackling some serious environmental issues. Fresh off a plane from Hawaii, he was nice enough to chat with us and reveal a little bit more about his work. WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU DO? My name is Zachary Bennett-Brook and I’m a proud Torres Strait Islander man from Wollongong on the South Coast of NSW. I create artworks, which combine my passion for the ocean and surfing in conjunction with my Indigenous heritage. My artworks are often painted on recycled surfboards and surfboard fins, and a wide range of other materials and objects I use as my canvases. WHAT IS YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS? My creative process changes from artwork to artwork. For example, if I was painting a surfboard, depending on the

ARTIST PROFILE

condition of the board, I may have to repair or fix it before the painting process can begin. With damaged surfboards, I often cover them in layers of paper mâché, which allows the paint to be absorbed and stick better then straight onto the fibreglass. With many of my artworks I paint the background black first. This allows a nice surface for the paint to stick to as well as allowing the bright colours I use to pop and look aesthetically appealing. WHAT KIND OF MEDIUMS DO YOU USE? I often used recycled materials as my painting canvas, these often range from surfboards and surf associated materials to skateboards and anything else that connects with my passions. I use sample pots of house paint as my main medium as well as spray paints and Posca paint pens. DESCRIBE THE SPACE WHERE YOU NORMALLY CREATE. My art space often changes depending on the time of day and weather conditions. It can vary from painting in my garage, to sitting outside on the lawn or painting inside. It varies as I need a good light source to see what I’m painting and I don’t really enjoy painting outside on a freezing cold day, however in the summer time I love painting outside in the sun. Many of the artworks are inspired from the ocean and coastline; this is often represented through the colours or patterns I use.

IS YOUR ARTIST PRACTICE INFLUENCED BY YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL SURROUNDINGS?

WHAT DOES COMMUNITY MEAN TO YOU AS AN ARTIST?

Yeah, it sure is. I create artworks from recycled surfboards and fins, putting a modern twist and my own unique touch on traditional Indigenous Australian art. Each year numerous surfboards are snapped or damaged, ultimately contributing to the growing amount of landfill around the world. As a result I recycle and use old or damaged surfboards as my blank canvases to paint my creations on.

Being Indigenous community plays a large role in our way of life. There are many different communities I’m active and associate with. The term community means to me somewhere that you feel you belong and can be a part of in a positive way.

HOW DOES WHERE YOU GREW UP AND WHERE YOU LIVE NOW AFFECT YOUR ART?

It would be great to see Wollongong become more art aware in a similar way that Melbourne is. I remember visiting Melbourne when I was younger and being blown away with how art savvy the city is. I feel Wollongong is slowly becoming more art interested which is a great thing.

Growing up in Wollongong I have always been surrounded by the water. Being Torres Strait Islander we are known as the Saltwater People, for thousands of years the ocean has played a vital role within Indigenous culture. I have such a strong connection to the sea as both a surfer and Indigenous man that it plays a critical role in my life and the way in which I create my art. IF YOU WERE LISTENING TO SOMEONE DESCRIBE YOUR WORK, HOW WOULD YOU LIKE IT TO BE DESCRIBED? Organic, aesthetically pleasing, eye catching and unique. It would be rad if someone were to describe my artwork in that way.

ARE THERE CHANGES OR IMPROVEMENTS YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE IN THE WOLLONGONG ART COMMUNITY?

WHAT’S THE NEXT STEP IN YOUR CREATIVE JOURNEY? WHERE DO YOU WANT TO BE? At the moment I just want to keep creating unique and eyecatching artworks, allowing me to combine my passion for the ocean with my Indigenous heritage. In the future I would love to open a shop/gallery where I can sell and display my work and host workshops to share my passion and inspire others. You can check more of Zach’s work out on Instagram @ saltwaterdreamtime, Facebook ‘Saltwater Dreamtime’ and at www. saltwaterdreamtime.com.

ARTIST PROFILE

RAW COMMUNIQUÉ BY NATALIE ZAGAGLIA @NatGabriela95

Imagine yourself at an art exhibition. If the first things that come to mind are silent hallways with unusual artworks and sophisticated people making intelligent comments you can’t quite understand, then you obviously haven’t been to a RAW showcase. Originally in Los Angeles, this independent arts organisation has now spread to more than 60 cities across the US, Australia, Canada and the UK. Their mission is to provide independent artists from all creative genres with the tools, resources and exposure they need to inspire and cultivate creativity. Through monthly showcase events, RAW promotes and connects each area’s art community. Having never been to a RAW event before, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but their latest Communiqué, did not disappoint. Showcasing a wide variety of genres including visual art, music, hair and make-up artistry, fashion and live performance, the event came together to form an incredible one-night explosion of local emerging talent. As I entered the building the first thing I saw were two models standing on a platform and leaning against a large cardboard tree. They were wearing nothing but underwear, and were covered from head to toe in striking, colourful and textured body art; their hair wild and magnificent to match. From then on it was clear it was going to be an unforgettable night.

The event was hosted by Hotel Illawarra, and I was sceptical as to how they were going to alter the space to make it suitable for an exhibition. To my pleasant surprise they had completely transformed the interior of the building, creating an underground and grungy yet vibrant atmosphere. The music was pumping, and low and colourful lights danced around the room as it buzzed with intrigue and excitement. DJ Deluxe kept the crowd energised throughout the night; however the volume seemed to consistently grow until conversations were forced into awkward yelling matches or became impossible; something noted in our previous RAW review. Everywhere I turned there was something interesting to look at. Although high traffic and small spaces made movement around the hotel slow and tiresome, everyone seemed friendly and welcoming, making the intimacy less awkward and claustrophobic. The first body of work I came across was that of Monique Davis’. Her artwork was extremely detailed and beautiful, utilising a variety of styles and materials such as acrylics, pen and watercolour. Talented graphic design artist Kiara Mucci, also caught my eye. Brought to life through a fusion of her own drawings and colour that she adds through Photoshop, her whimsical prints and illustrations transported me back to childhood days filled with happiness and delight.

EXHIBITION REVIEW

Various acts and performances kept spectators engaged and entertained, including music performances by The Naddicks, Mitch & Mike Gordon and The Maze, an acrobatics performance by the Diner Divas, and a fashion parade. My favourite musical performance was by The Naddicks, a punk rock band from Canberra who focus on tackling youth issues in Australia like violence, alcohol, drugs and mental health. Their performance was fun, unpredictable and exciting as they moved from fast paced to slow and intimate tracks. I had the privilege of speaking to the lead vocalist and songwriter Joel, who passionately strives to make a positive change through his music. He writes from personal experiences that he hopes the youth of Australia can connect with. Shannon Alice’s live artwork creation was another highlight, which used pastels to play with the female form. Asking two of the body art models to be her subjects, she brought them to life on the paper before the audience’s eyes; drawing contours and lines will such ease and skill. It was interesting to watch her draw – a process often hidden until an artist’s work is finished and displayed. Earlier in the evening I spoke with Alice about her practice.

EXHIBITION REVIEW

She spoke with such poise, vigour and passion; discussing her exploration of femininity and empowerment as well as the idea of rebirth of the self (many of her works are selfportraits that explore her own transformation as a person). It was an amazing to hear about an artwork from its artist’s perspective, rather than having to interpret them on my own. This is one of the qualities that makes RAW unique. It not only allows budding artists to showcase their work, but it removes the gap between observer and artist. With such a relaxed atmosphere it was easy to approach each talent, creating a deeper understanding and connection of the works in the space. In my experience anyway, this was one of the first times that artists were able to be tangible and provide a deeper insight into their creative process. The next RAW showcase, Allure, will be held at the Manning Bar at the University of Sydney, August 1st. If Comminiqué was any indication of what a RAW showcase entails, I would highly recommend attending. You can find out more about RAW at www.rawartists. org. Alternatively you can visit their Facebook Page: ‘Raw Natural Born Artists’.

GIG REVIEW: RÜFÜS AT WAVES BY ISABELLE CHESHER & ALEXANDRA SMITH @isabellechesher

I arrived at Waves, Towradgi Beach Hotel to see Rüfüs play on a bitter, windy Friday night, half-wishing I was at home by the heater in a pair of flannelette pyjamas. But the youthful crowd of people heading into the venue weren’t fazed by the miserable weather. As I entered the building, I started to feel jitters of excitement too. Something intangible in the air gave me the sense that we were in for a fresh, exciting gig. The warm up act at this point was Eddie Jones, a techno DJ whose set was pleasant enough, with the expected beats and hooks to keep people moving and interested while waiting for the main act. The crowd seemed to have enthusiasm for Jones’ music, but if I’m honest, his set ran a little too long, and it was another 25 minutes after Jones finished before Rüfüs appeared onstage. Once the crowd could sense Rüfüs approaching, the atmosphere became electric. The dark, packed venue twinkled with the flashes of smart phone cameras and friends mingled on the swelteringly hot dance floor. When the band members – singer and guitarist Tyrone Lindqvist, keyboardist Jon George and drummer James Hunt – finally took to the stage, they were welcomed with raised hands, and the roar of a few hundred fans chanting their name. The sound quality was excellent, and the clever use of lighting was perfect for the mood that the band was trying to create. As Rüfüs set up, their figures were shrouded in blue-black shadows, and smoke slid across the stage, building anticipation. Lights streaked pink, purple and white when the band played their upbeat opening number, ’Modest Life’ as the audience screamed the lyrics back at them. When Rufus played the first

GIG REVIEW

few bars of ‘Tonight’ against a kaleidoscope of bright blue and green, the mood lifted once again. The band members clearly knew what to say to please the crowd, making sure to remind everyone that they were local boys. Whether that particular gig at Towradgi Beach Hotel was really “one of the best gigs we’ve ever played” as Lindqvist claimed, seems a little unlikely. But their love of playing together was never in doubt. Electronica is not the type of music that I usually listen to, and yet I still felt lucky to be at Rüfüs’ gig that night. Looking at the people dancing around me during the encore, ’Desert Night’, I realised that every one of them seemed genuinely happy. That’s a rare and wonderful thing. 1) DO YOU FEEL AS THOUGH THERE’S A SENSE OF ‘MUSIC COMMUNITY’ THAT YOU’RE PART OF? Yeah definitely. In Australia there’s such camaraderie between all the Australian musicians. Being a small country, there aren’t many places you can go to (within Australia) compared to other countries, so you might see a lot of artists at airports who are keen to hang out. And no matter what genre, most musicians we’ve met seem to be pretty supportive of one another. 2) PEOPLE HAVE THIS IMAGE THAT ITS NONSTOP PARTYING ON TOUR. IS THAT TRUE? (Laughs) Well there’s definitely a lot of working but yeah… there’s a bit of partying too. I guess that’s just part of the job. When we’re not on tour, in particular the time where we’re

writing new stuff, there’s hardly any partying and its pretty quiet for us. Just a lot more time in the studio. Being on tour takes its toll and you do find yourself looking for the opportunities to just relax from time to time. 3) IN THE SONG WRITING PROCESS DO YOU GET TOGETHER AND ‘JAM IT OUT’ OR WRITE YOUR SEPARATE PARTS AND THEN PUT IT TOGETher? Ah no, it’s a very mixed and even process in that way. We all sort of write together and it doesn’t really matter what we play on stage like who recorded what in the studio or who wrote which part, we’re not restricted by that. 4) WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE WIDESPREAD USE OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY IN PRODUCTION AND PERFORMANCE? HOW DO YOU MAKE YOUR GIGS HAVE A ‘LIVE’ OR ‘RAW’ FEEL? I guess we’ve always been playing on the idea of that being the way our music works. It’s this crossover of electronic and real-life instrumentation, and we’ve always loved playing with that when we’re recording in the studio, so it’s very similar on stage. Like working out what we can and can’t play live. Or we might decide to change it up, for instance, the drumming is digital in the studio but we might decide to play live on stage. 5) HOW DO YOU PSYCH YOURSELF UP BEFORE A GIG IF THE NERVES KICK IN? We like to keep calm before we get on stage. It’s a lot easier if you’ve got a good headspace. We’ve been playing in front of

pretty big crowds recently, over ten thousand people and so I think that once it gets to a certain amount of people you sort of lose the idea of being nervous. But it doesn’t really matter if it’s a thousand people or seventeen thousand people we try not to think about the crowd and just focus on what we have to do. It was definitely nerve-racking to start off with, especially when the crowds started to get bigger over time, but you learn pretty quickly that you know, we’re just human. I think when you’re performing you sometimes feel like everyone’s just staring at your fingers or something but you’ve got to realise that the crowds here to listen to the music. 6) DID ANY OF YOU GO TO UNI OR TAFE AFTER SCHOOL OR DID YOU VENTURE STRAIGHT INTO THE MUSIC WORLD? James (the drummer) and I both went to uni for a year and then deferred. Well I left my degree to start another degree, audio engineering, which is where I sort of learnt the trade that we’re in. I’m pretty stoked that I did audio engineering because I probably wouldn’t be where I am now. 7) HOW WAS STUDYING FOR YOU? UNI YEARS ARE SAID TO BE THE BEST YEARS OF YOUR LIFE. IS THIS A MYTH? Yeah I loved it! I mean when I first went, I was doing an Arts Degree and was probably partying a bit too much and not doing a whole lot of my studies, but once I started my other degree and having a purpose and being passionate about something I wanted to do, I started to try and make the most out of why I was there.

GIG REVIEW

SPOTLIGHT ON HOCKEY DAD BY CALLUM DOWNES @penniless www.pennilessblog.com

Born out of teenage boredom during a “period where there was no surf”, music lovers everywhere can thank the surf Gods for producing Wollongong’s freshest act, Hockey Dad. The self-confessed party boys crack a “veebs” with Tertangala writer, Callum Downes, to shed light upon their humble beginnings and the comparably boisterous release of their debut EP, ‘Dreamin’’. Following a recent performance in Melbourne with StepPanther, front man Zach Stephenson was feeling slightly under the weather as we began chatting beneath the red filter lights of Rad Bar. “The other day I nearly threw up on an aeroplane, because I was heaps drunk”, he recalls whilst pulling up a milk crate to perch atop. “I felt like I was going to vomit, but do I use the bag? I wasn’t even like airsick I was just hung-over sick. So I was like, is it wrong to use the bag?” Having never toured, this “confusing and terrifying” ordeal is the only real story from the road the young duo can share for now. But that’s all set to change rapidly in the next few months as their ‘Dreamin’’ EP tour sees them yo-yo up and down Australia’s east coast, bringing their energetic and charmingly melodious rock to the nation. “Maybe ask us after the tour”, suggests drummer, Billy Fleming. “We’re bound to fuck up once” he mumbles through grinding teeth. Billy’s excitement is noticeably restrained as he worries over the impending exams he’s set to complete upon their return. “I’ve got trials for the HSC straight after the tour.” Such anxiety is a surprising transition away from the typically nonchalant remarks of Billy, whose sun-bleached mop top compliments his laid back attitude. It’s a fitting haircut, paying tribute to the bands upbringing in the coastal town of Windang, just south of Wollongong. “I’m just a shaggy musician” he jokes. But it’s not just shaggy haircuts that pay homage to the duo’s cherished childhood memories. The film clip for their latest single, ‘I Need a Woman’, is dedicated to the under-celebrated sights of their hometown, including the beach, the lake and the local takeaway store. “We live like two doors down from each other.You know, it’s a really small town where everyone knows each other… sick for growing up!” Zach reflects. “I guess we just really wanted to make a video of us just hanging out and doing what we used to do,” he says.“So, we just went out one afternoon and got a mate to film us with a VHS camcorder, just heaps shit. Like, real mum photography. Home video style!” The coastal lifestyle clearly influences Hockey Dad’s distinctive sound. A sound they developed after becoming bored of other musical pursuits. Both Zach and Billy were part of another band project that fell through after Zach had a drunken epiphany.

“We were both listening to the same sort of music at the time, and we went to see a band at the Wollongong Town Hall called Mother and Son, and they fucking changed my life! I was like man, fuck, I wanna play that, I wanna do that!” From that point on, the boys were hooked on the fun loving surf-pop vibe. Behind garage doors, they churned out Beach Boys style covers for several weeks before stretching out and writing their own material. “It just felt good”, reflects Billy with a grin. “Yeah, it’s just so much fun to play” adds Zach. Banging out these tunes outside of the garage and across the Illawarra gradually became a regular thing, and before long, they had caught the interest of Wollongong’s latest record label, Farmer & The Owl. Equipped with generous support from their new label, the boys set their sights on recording with Big Scary’s Tom Iansek, at his home studio in Melbourne. “It was like an old, 1940s milk bar turned into a studio,” recalls Zach. “It’s not like open for business or anything, but it’s definitely not like your normal studio I guess,” he says between laughter. “It just felt really at home which was nice.” In terms of the recording process, there could be some speculation that the raw energy from their live show could be lost. Renowned for producing a surprisingly big sound for a two-piece outfit, the boys have been turning heads with their simplistic, yet chest-pounding brand of indie rock but Billy assures us that the EP “keeps it real”. “Everything we recorded were live takes. We just jammed it out, like there were no orchestras dropped in or anything… if anything, our live show doesn’t do the EP justice, rather than the other way around!” It’s this live sound that audiences across the nation will be treated to throughout their ‘Dreamin’’ EP tour in early August. Locals can catch them at Wollongong’s Rad Bar alongside Babaganoijj on the 3rd of August. “Just be ready for a reverbed-out drum fest and lots of screaming girls,” warns Zach. For Hockey Dad’s tour dates check www.facebook.com/ hockeydadband. Their EP ‘Dreamin’’ is available for purchase via hockeydad.bandcamp.com/releases or at itunes.apple.com/au/ album/dreamin-ep/id893756023.

BAND INTERVIEW

TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION BY TRENT THOMAS @Trent1493

GENRE RATING: 7.5/10

MOVIE RATING: 5.5/10

Director Michael Bay is clearly not aware of the Hasbro catch phrase “more than meets the eye” as his new blockbuster Transformers: Age of Extinction lacks in substance, is overloaded by Bay’s signature special effects and is carried by an unnecessary complex plot. The fourth film of the franchise continues in the same aura of its previous installments achieving incredible box-office success with the most successful opening weekend this year worldwide. Following a similar formula to the earlier films, fans won’t be disappointed with what they are given; another fun-filled action experience relying heavily on visual effects and epic battle scenes. The biggest change to the series comes via the cast. Mark Wahlberg replaces Shia LaBeouf as the central human protagonist. Wahlberg plays Cade Yeager, a struggling inventor and macho single father who discovers a beaten and vulnerable Optimus Prime and, as a result, gets caught up in a whirlwind of events aiming to inflict the demise of the Auto-Bots and Yeager’s family. Whilst Michael Bay has a reputation for miscasting roles, including too many racial stereotyped Auto-Bots, his casting of Wahlberg is a great decision as he is a perfect and safe centerpiece for a box-office smashing blockbuster. A much more suitable fit then LaBeouf ’s erratic Sam Witwicky. Harold Attinger is a possessed CIA agent facilitating a secret agenda for the termination of the Auto-Bots and is executed well by actor Kelsey Grammar. Stanley Tucci is also a standout in the film as Joshua Joyce, an arrogant businessman intent on creating his own Transformers. Cade’s best friend and all around goof Lucas Flannery (T.J. Miller), provides somewhat laughable moments of the film. Unfortunately the film falls flat with the incorporation of Tessa Yeager (Nicola Peltz) and Shane Dyson (Jack Reynor). Peltz plays Cade’s daughter and is a major letdown, continuing Megan Fox and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s Transformers legacy

FILM REVIEW

of being cast on looks rather than acting ability. Shane Dyson, Tessa’s secret Irish-American boyfriend, is played by Reynor. His performance is due to his drab character and he also has issues with what accent he wishes to convey throughout the film. Due to a monstrous running time of 165 minutes, the film possesses a very convoluted plot which deflated the spectacular action scenes as the movie wore on. Transformers films would be better suited to a max running time of 120 minutes with a quick moving action-packed storyline rather than a drawn out, complex and intertwining plot with an excess of battle scenes. The plot along with the running time is the downfall for Age of Extinction. The storyline spends an incredibly long time setting up the characters and the situation then suddenly descends into an intricate mess of different characters. We are introduced to Dinobots, Decepticons, The Creators and Intergalactic bounty hunters. Whilst all these Transformers are enjoyable it becomes difficult to understand which results in a loss of interest as no single aspect of the plot is done with proper commitment. This means the full potential of the film is never reached, as it is distracted by the introduction of many characters in order to set up sequels. Lock Down, the main antagonist, is a fresh and exciting addition to the Transformers universe that is disappointingly underused and gets lost in the film. Lock Down is an intergalactic bounty hunter, aligned with nobody and hired by Attinger to capture Optimus Prime. He’s working for unknown aliens whom he believes to be the creators of the Transformers, another highlight which promises some exiting new frontiers in the sequels. Overall, this film is perfect for mindless escapism as it provides a fresh start to an enjoyable concept and displays remarkable visual effects and action scenes. However it falls into the trap of being monotonous, recycled and overly multifaceted. It is a film made directly for its fan base, that is, those who like loud, action packed, and visually pleasing films, and would not do anything for those expecting otherwise.

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST BY BEN KOHLER

RATING: 8/10

Bryan Singer, director of X-Men: Days of Future Past, became my favourite director for a couple of days after I saw the film. Thank you, Bryan Singer. In case you don’t know anything about X-Men, it is set in a world where some people have mutations that take the form of super powers. Professor Charles Xavier runs a school that is secretly for mutant kids, but acts as a base for the X-Men, his team of trained mutants fighting for justice. Singer directed the first and second of the X-Men films and in doing so did very well. They were both satisfying films, particularly for X-Men fans, as they were made by someone who clearly appreciated the source material. But Brett Ratner ruined everything when he directed X-Men 3. The worst thing about the third instalment for me is its butchering of the Phoenix storyline. God damn you Ratner. Additionally, in my opinion, the Wolverine movies sucked, primarily because they were just made to make money with no serious thought given to the actual film. First Class was better however; as it had an awesome cast and was well made.

Fassbender? Hell yes! There’s also Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Lawrence, Ellen Page and Peter Dinklage. We are finally introduced to some of the characters that many fans have been waiting for: Quicksilver, Sunspot and Blink. One of Days of Future Past’s greatest strengths is that it clearly had a lot of effort put into it. With a well-written script, the film has the right balance of action and drama. Its welldeveloped concept is executed with great ability. For non-X-Men fans some of the content would be a bit difficult to grasp and continuity wise, the film could cause headaches. The general audience could have done with more explanation to the background of the plot. Kitty Pryde’s sudden time travel ability has even confused fans of the comics. But I suppose Ellen Page is just a woman of hidden talents. Days of Future Past fixes a lot in the series and is an excellent movie. It’s undoubtedly the best in the X-Men franchise. Thank you, Bryan Singer. Don’t ruin this for me, Ratner.

Days of Future Past is set in a future ravaged by highly advanced robots designed to destroy mutants, but humanity becomes endangered too. Sent back to the 70’s, Wolverine must alter the course of events that lead to the future he comes from. There are a lot of great things about Days of Future Past. Firstly, the awesome cast. It has actors from the first three X-Men films as well as First Class. Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, paired with James McAvoy and Michael

FILM REVIEW

WET LOVE BY HAYLEY SCRIVENOR

When Steve walks into the house I am in the kitchen. I have been pacing between the kitchen and dining room for the last twenty minutes. Picking things up. Putting them down again. Organising our collection of dried fruit into jars. Sorting our tuna stash into little columns in order of flavour, so that their red and yellow and light blue rings line up in an orderly fashion at the back of the cupboard. I am looking down at the jaunty mermaid on the lid of one of the tins when I hear the door slam. Anxiety spreads like hot oil through my viscera. In that moment, I would have traded anything to rid myself of the hot guilt pooling in my pelvis. I hear the shower start up. I am relieved to delay our inevitable standoff, but worried that Steve seems to want to avoid it as well. I remember when I first read the headlines about the discovery of an exciting new species. “Sirens discovered in Australia!” said one. Another just said “MERMAIDS!!!” They had found a pod of seven of them. Although genetically closer to the orca family, you had to admit the top half did look strikingly human. The first photos showed a distinct torso with arms, a neck and a head. The lower half looked similar to a dolphin. They were the same black as the tail of a killer whale, a matte black that didn’t reflect light. Large yellow-green eyes took up most of their slightly-smaller-than-human heads. They had a bony ridge roughly where the nose would be on a human face. It was quickly ascertained that they didn’t have anything close to human intelligence. Despite the recurring reports on Sunrise and some very real interest from the international community of marine

CREATIVE WRITING

biologists, in a surprisingly short amount of time they went the way of any other news item. I guess there’s only so many times Mel Doyle could ask the same vapid questions of a local who had never actually seen one in the flesh, and most of the marine biologists didn’t interview well. Only one specimen stayed in Australia, the rest were shipped to laboratories overseas. I hear the one they have at San Francisco Zoo draws a huge crowd. The one that stayed in Australia ended up at the University where my friend Sophie worked. Sophie told me about the first female researcher who discovered what happened when you were left alone with the specimen (they jokingly called it “Finn”). Finn circled the girl as she took water samples. It was a shallow tank so she was only wearing cut-off shorts and a singlet, the water just brushing the top of her thighs. Sophie’s colleague didn’t worry when Finn started swimming closer to her. There had never been any noted aggressive activity and she had a waterproof personal alarm on her, which was the lab’s policy. Suddenly, Finn reached out his webbed hand, cupping her vagina. An indescribable sensation flowed like a liquid through her body. She told Sophie that she saw herself floating far above her own body as wave after wave of pleasure crashed against her until Finn withdrew his hand and swam away, completely unfazed. Since then, it had been whispered among all the females in her team that 10 minutes alone with Finn in the lab would be an experience you would never forget.You had to be alone or he wouldn’t start to circle. Sophie had tried it. When I asked her to describe it she just rolled her eyes back into her head and fluttered her eyelashes theatrically. She said “you have

to try it. I can get you in; no one would ever have to know.” A lot of people would say I shouldn’t have told Steve. That what I was doing wasn’t betrayal. But I told him, because I always tell him everything. I told him the mermaid (merman?) would touch the outside of my clothing and the feeling would be orgasmic. I told him lots of women Sophie knew had done it and all of them swore it was just a little harmless fun. We had talked about the ethical implications. We figured seeing as the creature didn’t feel anything, it was kind of akin to letting those fish nibble on your foot skin. We agreed it would be harmless fun. After Steve’s shower I hear movement in the bedroom. I put the last jar of freshly re-homed dates into the cupboard. I walk into the room in time to see Steve towelling off, drying his crotch vigorously. “So…” he says, drawing out the ‘o’ sound. “What was it like?” I am relieved to see him smile. I smile back. “Just like Sophie said it would be.” Later, we get pizza and watch TV. Steve wants to bitch about something that happened at work and I am happy to let him. It’s a normal night and we climb into bed around 11, spooning for a while before Steve nods off to sleep. I lay there wondering if I can really leave it at that. Because I lied. It wasn’t just like Sophie said it would be. Something unexpected happened. The merman had cupped me in his hand, like he had done to all the other women. But then, as the waves were spreading over my body, it brought its

face out of the water and kissed me. His kiss was wet and salty and his tongue was surprisingly human. Pleasure flowed like heat from everywhere he touched me. I felt him pull clumsily at my belt. And in that moment, with his skin touching mine, I wanted him to undo it. Arms that were surprisingly strong wrapped around me and lifted me on to him. I have no idea what entered me, all I could feel was even more intense waves of pleasure. I lost all sight of who or where I was as well as all concept of time. It was like starting from a close up of a speck of foam on the ocean, and then zooming out until you are looking at Earth from space. It makes my breath catch just to think about it. I open my eyes and stare at the celling. I can hear Steve start to snore gently as he lies beside me. I close my eyes and think back to the tank. I have crossed a line, a line between myself and… what? Is Finn an animal? Am I? How am I going to explain it to my gynaecologist? I make a mental note never to eat any of the carefully colour-coded tuna in our pantry. My mind jumps erratically from how I should tell Steve, to the freakish STI I might have contracted. After I peaked, Finn set me afloat in the water and waited for me to stand unsteadily on my feet again. For a moment there was only the sound of my ragged breathing and the splashing of the water as I struggled to do up my shorts. He was looking right at me. His yellow eyes intent and unblinking. The powerful muscles in his tail shone wetly and it was then, just as he was turning away, that I swear I saw him wink at me. The thought keeps racing through my mind. The damn thing winked at me.

ILLUSTRATION: MILO KELLY

PA R T Y I N â&#x20AC;&#x2122; P O E T S AT T E R TA N G A L A L A U N C H PA R T Y A few months back, The Tertangala threw a launch at Rad bar in town to celebrate six months of mag making. With some good tunes from local artists Lotus 9, Reactionary and Hockey Dad, our writers, artists and readers had the chance to get jiggy over some drinks. We put some butchers paper up so people could draw and write up some poetry, which is published on the next page. A big shout out to everyone who came, as well as Rad for having us!

If you see the plausible outcome, Retreat from the golden unicorn, Knitting complications in the sunrise, Was rough and salty, But it brought me to feel the tangy orange sour taste.

(JOEL/BELLE)

In a world full of hate, All you can do is love, In a world full of judgement, All you can do is tolerate.

(ANON)

Tert, Hurt, Skirt, Bert, Turnt, Shirt, Dirt, Kurt, Qwert(y).

ANON

Onions rough, And wear your ceiling, Facetime, Caramel soft, Linen cliff, Chops.

(ANON)

Ode to Jon’s hair It is curly, He is never surly, It is long, He owns 11 bongs, It is washed, He doesn’t wear a watch.

(ANON) One thing I know for sure, No amount of bleach, Could take the smell of cologne away; Forever embedded in my sheets.

(FUCK YOU)

GIG GUIDE THANKS TO ALEXANDRA SMITH

AUGUST Sunday 10th THE TAMB OURINE GIRLS + SUPPORTS TBA RAD, Tickets Presale: $10+bf, Door: $15

KING BUZZO (THE MELVINS) DEBUT SOLO ACOUSTIC TOUR - PRESENTED BY FRONTIER TOURING & FARMER AND THE OWL

Thursday 14th

Anita’s Theatre, Tickets Presale: $38.50+bf,

AR T VS SC IENCE

Door: $45

Wollongong UniBar, Tickets $17

Sunday 24th

Saturday 16th

BUSBY MAROU + DARREN MIDDLETON &

M I C HELLE XEN + THE NEON +

KARL S WILLIAMS

SEL AHP HO N IC + A A RON HUL

Waves, Tickets $20+bf

RAD, Tickets $10

Tuesday 26th

Thursday 21st

PITY SEX (USA) + POSTBLUE + SUPPORTS

B EATEN B ODIES + SUPPORTS TBA

TBA

RAD, Tickets Presale: $12+bf, Door: $15

RAD, Tickets Presale: $50+bf, Door: $20

OLD MAN ROWING BY PATRICK HUGH it’s night: towards the shore the old man’s rowing half-dead fish in a flimsy boat - they stink of salt and so does he - ‘their weight,’ he thinks, ‘it is too much’, yet will not slow his going he understands the way is interrupted by the sandbars and the coastal reef (three times he’s dropped the knife between his teeth) the Ocean murmurs you’re not up to it he knows, however, trouble fore and aft will dissolve and drown along with darkness when moonlight makes her way down just in time and shows a steady course for the old man and his raft a path through white-washed waves, so fish for market are heaved to dock by the old man past his prime.

Friday 22nd

GIG GUIDE & POEM

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