Pelican Volume 90 Edition 5 - HOPE

DREAMING AND 12 DISABILITY OTHER REBELLIOUS ACTS WITH THE 44 WORDS HILLTOP HOODS SEEING THE POSITIVE 21 IN CLIMATE CHANGE Booladarlung I Edition 5 I Volume 90. I August 2019 I EST. 1929

HOPE

Show your guild card and grab a pickup pizza for

$13.95 offer applies to large pizzas only

adway BroPIZZA 165 BROADWAY, NEDLANDS 9389 8500

OPEN 5PM - 1AM FRI & SAT, 5PM - 12 MIDNIGHT SUNDAY, 5PM - 1AM WEEKDAYS WWW.BROADWAYPIZZA.COM.AU

2

PRES SOPHI SUSI TORIAL ITORIAL

Oh hey, didn’t see you there. Thanks for picking up this copy of Pelican. This issue is all about HOPE if you haven’t noticed yet. Hope is such an important part of our humanity, and a trait which I think we undervalue in Australia. A quote by Langston Hughes that I quite like is: “Hold fast to dreams, For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird, That cannot fly.”

So on that note, let’s all be hopeful for what the future will bring. Here’s a bunch of things that I’m hoping for: • That dry July will end soon • My incredibly bad luck in the dating game will improve • I’m going to get better at budgeting And a couple which are a bit more pertinent to you as a student: • Ref outlets opening early Sem 2 • Establishing a partnership group in WA for student health and wellbeing • The Guild’s case to the Uni on reducing late penalties will be successful I hope you have a really great semester.

Look after yourself, work hard, and have a lot of fun. Remember, get in touch with the Guild is you need anything, we’re here to help.

All the best Conrad xoxo

TORIAL

I think to have hope you have to have a belief that things can and, in some ways, will get better. You have to have a vision of the better thing in your head for you to have the thing of hope in the first place. Like right now, it’s lunchtime on a blue-skied Sunday and I’ve had weeks to write this editorial. Weeks.

That’s so many hours. Too many days.

I’d hoped that I’d get it done sooner. I mean I’d hoped a lot of things in that time. That my dog would stop barking at when I’m trying to get to sleep. I’d hoped that the weird smell in my room would go away. That my Mum was kind of joking when she asked me to drive her to the airport at 5 am on this very same Sunday I’m writing this very same editorial or the belief that Frank Ocean will release another album before I die.

Or that I stop listening to slowed down reverbed lo-fi remixes on YouTube. I also kind of hope Leigh Sales leaves her job when I am in a good spot in my career so that I can perform a swift take over.

Hope is the belief that these things are even possible in the first place. Hope is important. When I think back on the instances I choose not to have lost hope, I don’t think I’d even be writing this editorial on a Sunday around lunchtime in the first place. Just that beautiful, possibly naive, thinking of like, “Hey maybe things aren’t always going to be this bad”. Who knows? I just hope I stay well, and I hope you do too.

Thank you for reading.

Sophie

Some people said a theme like ‘hope’ was idealistic. How could we expect students to write about hope at a time like this - hasn’t our generation lost hope? Yes, alright, perhaps we have lost faith in the intellect of our world leaders when they make deranged decisions reminiscent of the “Off with their heads!” Queen of Hearts. But to say we’re completely devoid of any hope? Well, that’s absurd. In actual fact, I think our generation is one entirely driven by hope. I see it in the way we choose to shop cruelty-free, eat ethically and support sustainability. I see it in our Salvos get-ups, KeepCups and beeswax sandwich wraps. In the way we are conscious of the waste we produce, the footprints we leave. I see it in our advocacy for the voiceless and our continued fight for equality. I see it all the protestors, strikers, and activists who have realised change starts now - with us. In the midst of all this doom and gloom we are fighting for our future. We are the generation that declares, “We have not lost hope!” We believe that world healing is possible.

And have looked inside ourselves to start a revolution. We are the ones who believe we have a future worth fighting for. Yes, we may be disenchanted with politics as a democratic and fair system.

But to say we’ve lost hope would be to say we’ve given up, and that’s far from the truth. This edition of Pelican your holding is a testament that hope well and truly exists. So stay hopeful, there are better days ahead and a lot of good left in this world worth fighting for.

Susie

HEAD EDITORS:

CONTRIBUTORS:

SOPHIE MINISSALE SUSANNAH CHARKEY

AVA CADEE, X

X = Words, O = Art ELOISE SKOSS, X SIAN O’SULLIVAN, X

SUB EDITORS:

ISABELLA ZALMSTRA, X

ARTS: AIMEE DODDS & STIRLING KAIN

PAULINE WONG, O

CAMPUS NEWS: CAMERON CARR

ISABELLE YUEN, X

DIVERSITY: ELIZA HUSTON & ELANOR LEMAN FASHION: MAJA MARIC & SAMUEL WORLEY

PATRICK GUNASEKERA, X ELIZA HUSTON, X

ANINYA MARZOHL, X SHAMINA ROZARIO, X, O TEGAN GIBSON, O

FILM: THOMAS TANG & DOMINIC KWACZYNSKI

SHANNON GREY, X

LIFESTYLE: AVA CADEE & ELOISE SKOSS

KAMILYA NELSON, O

LITERATURE: ASHA COUCH

& LAURENT SHERVINGTON

SHENADE TEVES, O

MUSIC: PATRICK ROSO

KASEY GARRETT, X LACHIE MACRAE, O STIRLING KAIN, X

POLITICS: JACOB MITCHELL

DUNCAN WRIGHT, O

SCIENCE: ZOE CASTLEDEN

& LACHLAN MACRAE

EAMONN KELLY, X

TECHNOLOGY AND GAMING: BAYLEY HORNE

JACOB MITCHELL, X

MIKE ANDERSON, X LAURA BULLOCK, X, O SEYYED MORTEZA HOSSEINI, X ALYSSA TANG, X GEORGE SAMIOS, X PARSA AMID, X

WANT TO JOIN THE PELICAN TEAM? DROP US A LINE AT THE CONTACT DETAILS BELOW!

JESS CUNNOLDS, X CATE TWEEDIE, X CHRISTINA VO, X PATRICK ROSO, X DAC, O

pelicanmagazine.com.au/ fb.com/PelicanMagazine @pelicanmagazine pelican@guild.uwa.edu.au

COVER ART DUNCAN WRIGHT,

@DUNCANWRIGHT_ DESIGNER XANDER SINCLAIR

The views expressed within this magazine are not the opinions of the UWA Student Guild or Pelican Editorial Staff but of the individual artists and writers.

The Pelican team acknowledges that the UWA Campus is located on the lands of the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation who are the original storytellers and custodians of their land.

4

CONTENTS 3 Editorials and Presitorial 4 Contributor and Subeditor List FEATURES 6 Letters to the Editors Art by Pauline Wong 8 Aunts in Agony Ava Cadee and Eloise Skoss Art by Pauline Wong 14 There’s Hope For the ‘Funny Girl’ Yet Eloise Skoss 21 Climate Change is the Greatest thing to Happen to Mankind Shamina Rozario 44 Still Standing: Words with the Hilltop Hoods Cate Tweedie 46 Black Water: A Graphic Novel Christina Vo LIFESTYLE 23 The Young Person Perspective on Climate Change Photography by Tegan Gibson 50 Change the World in a Small way Every day The People of Pelican DIVERSITY 12 Disability Dreaming and Other Rebellious Acts Patrick Gunasekera 34 Mental Health Advocacy Fatigue Mike Anderson 36 The Love we Accept Laura Bullock Art by Laura Bullock FASHION 10 Harajuku Hope Isabella Zalmstra TECHNOLOGY AND GAMING 41 Dear Minecraft: I Hoped For Better George Samios 42 One Port to Rule Them All Parsa Amid

LITERATURE 24 Pretty Shannon Grey Art by Kamilya Nelson 25 Florence and the Whale Shamina Rozario Art by Shamina Rozario 26 We Hope Kasey Garrett 33 A Guide for Hope via Failure? Review: Georges Perec’s Life: A User’s Manual Eamonn Kelly 38 Voice Seyyed Morteza Hosseini ART 20 Art as Resistance Aninya Marzohl 27 Afterlight Art Shenade Teves 30 Photography Done Wright: Words with Perth Photographer, Duncan Wright Interview Stirling Kain 51 Boaring Intuitions #3 Comic by DAC MUSIC 16 Hip Hop(e) Eliza Huston 48 Words with Alice Ivy Patrick Roso FILM 40 Help Me Carrie Fisher You’re My Only Hope Alyssa Tang POLITICS 35 It’s Time for Australia to Take Action on Genocide Recognition Jacob Mitchell 43 What Tom Gleeson’s Gold Logie Win Tells Us About Australian Politics Jess Cunnolds SCIENCE 18 Positive psychology: The science behind how hope can change your life Isabelle Yuen 28 Space: The Final Frontier Lachie MacRae 5

LETTERS TO HOPING FOR AN END TO STUDENT POVERTY

BRACE YOURSELF, GUILD ELECTIONS ARE COMING

Although Uni has become increasingly accessible to disadvantaged students it has also led to a growth in student poverty, a.k.a the ‘starving student’ stereotype.

The Universities Australia Finance Survey of 2017 found that 1 in 7 students regularly forgo food because they can’t afford it. For low SES students, this number jumps to 1 in 5 and 1 in 4 for Indigenous students. These figures are depressing, but for most students, they are not surprising. It’s unacceptable that those seeking higher education should be forced to live in poverty to do so.

Dear Comrades,

Higher education in Australia is a multi-billion-dollar industry. The 2016-17 revenue of higher education was $37.9 billion, accounting for 2 per cent of our GDP. It has also increasingly become an export industry, with international student fees providing Australian universities with $9.3 billion in 2017 alone. The Federal Government allows students to apply for payments such as Youth Allowance, Austudy and ABStudy to supplement their income while studying. But it’s no secret that applying and qualifying for these payments is extremely difficult. Long wait times, lack of information and difficult forms are only some of the obstacles applicants face. In 2004 the UWA Student Guild conducted an inquiry into student income support.

Based on their findings, they recommended significant increases in the amount of income support allocated to students and that the age of independence be lowered to 18. Yet, the Federal Government has not sufficiently responded to these recommendations and the needs of students continue to be ignored.

Yours sincerely, Youth Allowance Reject

In these dark and troubled times, I have come to offer my intrepid fellow readers some hope! As we know, with semester two comes a sudden increase in the number of random, desperate political wannabes sliding into our DMs or asking if we’d like to meet for coffee (never agree to meet for coffee, that’s how they sink their claws in). I don’t doubt my fellow reader’s ability to ignore these intrusive messages from our “friends” in green and red (and whatever colour the angry communists who scream at people withdrawing money from the ATM wear) but come September we’re all going to have to start running the gauntlet. As a long-time attendee of this fine university, I am here to offer hope and help to anyone less experienced with Guild Hacks then! Firstly, you need to think about your route to class. Avoid the path leading up to Reid and swing by the other side of the Art Buildings instead. If you do have to do that way, walk on the grass. The hacks can’t touch you if you’re on the grass. If you have to go near Oak Lawn?

Walk in the middle and don’t make eye contact. Be brave, they can smell your fear. Secondly, you need to think about your wardrobe. Don’t wear green, don’t wear red, and definitely don’t wear the colour that the angry communists wear. Trust me, you’ll thank me later.

Thirdly, and most crucially: you need to have a strategy in place for when you’re tired and you just want to walk to the bus stop after having your soul sucked in your STATS lecture. My preferred method is a purposeful stride and a thousand-foot stare. I’ve also seen the fake telephone call deployed to devastating effect, and of course, there’s always the good old telling the people accosting you to “f off” method. My fellow Comrades, we must look out for one another and remember not to let the guild hacks get to us!

Yours faithfully, [Redacted]

Art by Pauline Wong // @pauline.wong.10 6

FACT: You can hotbox in the Reid Library Circle

THE EDITOR HUNGRY FOR HOPE

THE EXISTENTIAL CRISIS OF THIS CENTURY

Dear Pelican,

Dear Editor,

Hope is a funny thing. It taps you on the shoulder when you’re at your lowest, and reminds you that things are going to be okay. Like, when you realise you’ve left your tampons in the car but find a crisp twenty in your bag.

Or when you find out that your crush has got mono from one of the EMAS DJs but then you find and match with your hot tutor on tinder. Life is about growth.

Climate Change is considered a “critical threat”, according to the Lowy Institute, by two thirds of Australians. Yet, where is the “critical action”? It’s time to do something.

Anyway, that’s not the point of this letter. I am writing to the editors today because I am filled with hope because it is quite possible that eventually, someday, possibly WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A REF WITH ACTUAL FOOD IN IT.

Movements such as the Student Strikes and the countless activist groups across our country have occasionally gained strong media and political attention, which definitely corresponds to greater public awareness. But then the conversation dies out; we stop talking about Climate Change and we fail to generate the political and social action that is proportional to the size and scope of this calamity.

If that’s not something to hope for I don’t know what is.

Gossip Guild Xoxo

READY FOR THE REVOLUTION

Climate Change is happening now and it effects you and I in a multitude of ways. Just think about how depressed and lonely, not to mention hungry, you will be once Indo Mie’s Mi Goreng factory is flooded and production ceases. More pressingly, Emu Export, as a water and energy intensive product, is likely at even greater risk…

Need I continue? Dare I continue?

Dear Editors, I’m hopeful for a future that my kids can experience all the things I have and more. The thought of climate inaction is terrifying to me, I know several people too afraid to consider having children because they’re so uncertain of what the world will look like in 20 or 30 years. I have hope that people reading this will see a call to action. The catastrophic impacts of climate change are only a decade or so away. Land will become inhospitable; oceans will rise and lakes dry up. How can we hope to plan our futures when we don’t know where we’ll be? I’m hopeful that leaders and governments around the world will perceive climate change as in the near future rather than speculation. It takes a crisis to create a revolution, I hope people see that the crisis is already here.

Actually, what we as average people need to do is start talking about Climate Change. That’s the first step in taking action ourselves. Start reading, then start talking!

Ask your friends and your parents, ask your doctor and your dog how they think Climate Change will affect them. Get the conversation about the double C word going, and contribute to our struggle with the existential crisis of this century.

Sincerely, Someone Someone

Sincerely, Fighting for the Future

GOT LOTS TO SAY BUT NO ONE TO LISTEN? WRITE TO US!

Are you outraged with the opinions in this magazine? What makes your blood boil at UWA? We want to hear it! Send us your campus rants, witty whinges and outrageous confessions. e. pelican@guild.uwa.edu.au | w. http://pelicanmagazine.com.au/ | fb.@PelicanMagazine ig.@pelicanmagazine | t. PelicanMagazine

FACT: Saving the Middle East only gives you a credit in POLS1101

7

AUNTS IN AGONY Eloise Skoss and Ava Cadee

Dear Aunts in Agony,

Dear Aunts in Agony

I am in danger of being swamped by house plants. Too many days of scrolling through cute apartment pictures on Instagram have left me with a crippling addiction.

What started as a cute little cactus from Bunnings has grown and expanded into my own personal jungle.

Fiddle leaf figs, ficuses, snake plants and ferns occupy every surface in my apartment. I can’t even make my way between room to room anymore. Try as I might, I still can’t stop accumulating more and more plants in my quest for green and luscious aesthetics. Please help me, my bank account and every spare countertop in my apartment are quickly shrinking.

Yours sincerely,

I have seen every single show. In a desperate attempt to avoid the pain of spoilers or the FOMO of not being in on the latest TV craze, I have made it my personal mission to watch every single show. I’ve consumed countless Netflix originals, transformed myself into multiple identities to prolong my Stan free trials and my TV recorder is bursting at the seams. I haven’t seen the light of day in months and now my brain is constantly overrun with television quotes. I fear that every moment I am watching one show, I am missing another. I just can’t take it anymore, I’m so overwhelmed and binged out but I don’t want to take my finger off the pulse of the pop culture explosion and risk missing a reference to the Office or Stranger Things like a loser.

Flower Power

Yours sincerely, Remotely Interested

Dear Flower Power, I can definitely understand your plight in battling your plant addiction. I mean, plants provide us so much delicious oxygen and aesthetic, it is hard not to want to keep acquiring them. But ask yourself this. When was the last time you saw a friend? Took them out for a coffee instead of driving to the nearest plant warehouse sale you saw on Facebook? Yes, plants give us life, but that doesn’t mean you have to become a recluse and crazed plant lady. Remember that even though your plants may be thriving now, eventually they will shrivel one day, and you will be left with empty macramé holders that serve as a ghastly reminder for our own fragile human mortality. So, cultivate the friendships that really matter, rather than another houseplant.

With much agony,

Dear Remotely Interested With so much content to be viewed, consumed and binged – who can resist falling down multiple deep dark Netflix holes? But I promise you, there is hope yet for a television addict. Remember that as you get swept up in fantasy worlds, life is happening right before your very eyes. That would be an even bigger shame to miss. So, the next time Netflix asks you if you’re still watching, dust off the Cheezel crumbs from your stretchy pants and go outside. The world is waiting.

In agony,

Your Aunts.

Your Aunt

8

FACT: For tax purposes, the Guild is technically a Church

Art by Pauline Wong // @pauline.wong.10

Dear Aunts in Agony,

Dear Aunts in Agony,

I am struggling to cope with the death of old StudentConnect. The new website is too bright- I feel like I am burning my retinas every time I log in. I miss the old red-and-white simplicity of the old website. It had an old-school charm, a remnant of an era bygone, and I catch myself constantly thinking about the smiley face that would pop up when you completed your enrolment each semester. I miss it SO much. Every time I close my eyes, it’s there! My dreams are filled with those red side panels, and the too-small font. I am consumed by thoughts about how I didn’t appreciate the simple things in life enough when I had them. I’ve been listening to a lot of Joni Mitchell lately, much to the annoyance of my parents, but she was so right- I didn’t know what I had ‘til it was gone. How do I move on?

I’ve been in a bit of a rut dating-wise lately. By lately, I mean for my whole life. Sure I’ve had a few drunken encounters here and there, and I once even had one of those are-we-flirting-or-are-we-just-friends situations with someone in my group assignment, but nothing special. My friends have suggested I download tinder, but I am SO unsure. It seems so intimidating, all that swiping and face-value judgment, it seems so superficial to me and even though I do know several people that met their significant others on the app, I feel like that doesn’t actually happen very often. I’m not necessarily looking to meet the love of my life, but I do want some romance in my life- am I looking in the wrong place?

Sincerely,

Swiping for Love

Yours faithfully,

StudentDisconnect

Hello Swiping,

Ta, ta

First of all, your situation is by no means uncommon!

There are many of us that are also navigating the minefield that is dating in this modern era- a minefield to which the advent of Tinder has certainly added.

Tinder is amazing- you can access all the eligible men and/or women in your area, from the comfort of your own home. Tinder engages in you a form of primal instinct. You swipe left or right based on first impression, a necessity in sifting through the myriad of profiles at your disposal. This all seems well and good until you realise all your matches are long-haired boys who play the guitar and who are “into philosophy” after reading one book they bought at an airport. While we all know many couples who first met on a dating app, there is a certain level of fortuity in these couplings that not everyone manages to find. You might swipe your way to romance, but you might turn into the Tinder-equivalent of a cat lady, where you’re still single, but instead of having cats, you just have a whole lot of past hook-ups and old matches that you keep running into at Uni, to the point where you decide it’s time to move interstate.

It’s a risk you’ve got to take, and I wish you all the best on your journey.

In agony,

In agony,

Your Aunt.

Your Aunts.

Hi Disconnect, I am very sorry for your loss. There many stages in the grief process, and it is very normal to be experiencing a rollercoaster of emotions following the loss of something dear, even if that is the loss of a student administration portal interface. It sounds like you are currently in the denial phase, where you don’t want to believe what you know to be true, so you keep envisioning a world where old StudentConnect still exists. It is tricky to navigate these difficult times, just as it is tricky to navigate the new StudentConnect website- but do know, it will get better. If this is a problem mainly affecting your dreams, then there is an easy solution- just don’t sleep!! You can’t dream about Old StudentConnect if you don’t sleep, so pop the kettle, and make a double-shot Nescafe to wash down the Modafinil you bought off your friend’s sort-of boyfriend, and just get on with your life, until you are eventually in a place where you have bigger problems to consume your time and headspace, other than getting stressed over a new website design.

FACT: Voting in Guild elections is now compulsory. Non-voters SSAF fees will fund the Tav tabs of candidates. 9

Is it the disturbingly low balance of your bank account, barring you from access to life’s greatest pleasures?

Or is it the struggle to liberate yourself from the shackles of pressure, abuse and/or abandonment from those you love most? Or maybe it’s something not fully recognisable; something wrestling inside you, a destructive force you can’t escape from? Life takes sadistic pleasure in exploiting both the law and chaos of the world at our expense while we flounder in the pursuit of happiness.

While the human condition likes to suppress the agency of our own mind and heart, this piece seeks to introduce alternative fashion, like Harajuku, as a tool that allows me to battle my struggle with my inner demons and selfexpression. My anxiety has always tried to thwart my selfesteem and true personality throughout teenagehood.

It is an entity separate to me, akin to a vitriolic drill sergeant keeping my behaviour in check. She monitors and criticises every mistake I make and asserts her power by belittling the things I love or am interested in.

She paralyses me from opening myself to both strangers and those dearest to me, for fear I will be rejected. Her primary goal is to assassinate my character, alienate me and essentially hate me, imprisoning me from the social and expressive liberations of life. However, despite being a captive of my own mind, my deadly funky and freaky fashion sense and passion for the Harajuku style breaks through the obstacles of my interior prison, allowing me to finally express my true personality to the world.

Isabella Zalmstra

FASHION’S WARRIOR AGAINST CONFORMITY AND SELF-SUPPRESSION

HARAJUKU HOPE: 10

WHAT STOPS YOU FROM LIVING YOUR BEST LIFE?

Harajuku fashion, originating from its titular district in Japan, provides a tapestry of bold colours, patterns, textures and graphics for individuals to place their mark on. Do your eyes revel in ornate, classical period dresses? Or maybe you want to release your inner child, indulging in pastel girly tutus, bows and frills? You could be a punk rock princess with wings or a forest nymph queen under Harajuku principles, meaning that there are no principles. What you can do with Harajuku reaches only the limit of your imagination and creativity.

Essentially, Harajuku grants you the opportunity to truly manifest your innermost desires, fantasies, passions and personality quirks externally. As such, Harajuku is resistant towards normative fashion and conforming to social dress standards, and I think that’s inspiring.

FACT: Pelican’s next edition will be the new Playboy magazine. Models wanted.

“HARAJUKU GRANTS YOU THE OPPORTUNITY TO TRULY MANIFEST YOUR INNERMOST DESIRES, FANTASIES, PASSIONS AND PERSONALITY QUIRKS EXTERNALLY.”

However, not only does it embrace its anarchic, diverse spirit, it’s about promoting something more intangible, something that seeks to reconcile the inner fears that plague our mind.

My reverence for quirky alternative fashion and Harajuku (which I am using interchangeably for the sake of simplicity), blinds my anxiety with passion, beauty and empowerment. Fashion gives me an outlet to outwardly express the personality that is locked away inside my mind. Not only can I feel beautiful and almost like painting, I can be loud, outrageous and express myself without saying a single word. The total agency I discovered through my fashion sense acts as an incredibly powerful alleviant to my anxiety. Thus, I think the expressive power that Harajuku fashion encourages gives me hope for my own self-confidence, ambitions and pursuit of happiness, and can help with others too.

Reading from a magazine titled FAE (Faeries and Enchantment), the power of Harajuku resides in the notion of self-expression and living out your most glamorous, fantastical life. Cosplay model Traci Hines extols glamour as a vehicle for telling stories and creating art. Furthermore, she emphasises that she utilises glamour to stamp her personal signature on the world, that her ‘interpretation of it’ is solely for her to achieve her ‘own taste and vision’. Jeanette Gage who featured in this magazine dreams of transforming her house into a ‘huge gothic folly…with turrets and life-size outdoor unicorns… wearing purple sequin scarves and glitter painted hooves’. You get my point. Be it Harajuku, Faerie, Punk, Goth, Rockabilly, Lolita and everything in between, alternative fashion ultimately embodies the celebration of embracing your inner creativity,

playfulness, edginess and imagination. It is about defining what fashion means for you. As you’ve probably noticed, alternative fashion goes beyond what you are wearing and seeks to battle the banality of traditional adult life by celebrating individuality and stepping out your comfort zone. Thus, alternative fashion is about a courageous mindset, allowing happiness to be found through self-acceptance and pride.

My best friend suppresses his anxiety by wearing plain clothes and remaining unnoticed in the crowd. For some people this works for them, and that’s great. But for me, I do want to be noticed. I want people to see me for me. However, finding the confidence to express my words and thoughts to people when your drill sergeant constantly yells and berates you is stifling. But this is why alternative fashion gives me hope. That if I’m confident enough to dress boldly, wildly and beautifully, I will one day develop the confidence to unmask my beauty to others. Maybe it’s due to watching copious episodes of Bratz in my childhood, but fashion really is the passion that fills me with hope about creative expression in a world where conformity is encouraged, and anxiety is rife in our souls. Jesse Smart featured in FAE said that ‘The important thing when going out into the world is to take your glamour with you, to believe so strongly in your own fairy-tale that it becomes reality’. I think the world would look delightfully bizarre, fun and liberating if more people took their glamour with them. I hope society soon realises that it’s awesome to celebrate our weirdness – it’s the beauty of being human.

FACT: As of 2020, you can get 6 Credit Points for your summer Contiki

11

DISABILITY DREAMING AND OTHER REBELLIOUS ACTS Patrick Gunasekera I exit MCQ with two heavy reusable bags of fruit and vegetables. I wince as the handles dig deep into my fingers and my legs return to their usual aching. I’ll be home in roughly four minutes. Accompanied by the familiar loneliness of disability, I put one foot in front of the other in an arduous uphill hike as countless pedestrians pass by without acknowledging me or the pain I’m in. I wish someone, anyone, would just smile at me, or even remind me of what a great job I’m doing.

A brief respite at the lights allows me to catch my breath and rest the bags, fatigue shaking my body in small spasms before trekking on when the little person turns green. My back begins to crumble. I finally make it through my front door and drop the bags with haste, shutting the door behind me before getting on the floor.

I usually lie there for thirty minutes or so. I usually play music to fill my head with strength. I usually feel like the only person on earth who knows exactly how much gruelling work I do to survive the inaccessibility I am met with everywhere I go, how often this work piles up until I can no longer walk, no longer stand, no longer speak.

Okay, so who felt pity reading about what it’s like for me to go grocery shopping? Did you, reader, quietly offer your most heartfelt condolences to me and my disconsolate body? Relish in the presumed superiority of your own life? Agree amongst yourself that I am better off dead? Be honest.

My life is luscious and good, and every day I am excited about the person I am and the body I have. But I’m not going to tell you about all that because I have no interest in pandering to ableist ideals which insist I must somehow ‘overcome’ my disabilities in order to live a life worth living (read: a life abled people applaud and admire because wow a disabled person who can go grocery shopping on his own, oh my where’s the tissue box). Instead, I want to tell you about my dreams.

Yes, dreams. Everyone has them! Even the crazy person at the art gallery sussing out the new work with someone you can’t see or hear (me circa 2014 when I went to PICA and a gallery attendant non-consensually shadowed me around the whole exhibition. Rude!) and even the lame man flapping his hands in a frenzy at the bus stop (also me, probably on my way home after a big day). Everyone dreams. And, not everyone is allowed to dream.

12

I work as an interdisciplinary arts practitioner, navigating the many perilous spaces in Perth where a veneer of equity is plastered over institutions with all abled admin teams who provide platforms for a few underrepresented artists per year whilst maintaining financial partnerships with corporations who make great profits from stolen resources and the obliteration of Indigenous land (phew! Go and look up their sponsors yourself). Here, ‘diversity’ is a buzzword defined by white and abled people, and used more as a branding prospect than an opportunity to work at structural change. Most of the work I make is specifically about racism and ableism in the arts (look, someone’s got to do it), and when I start talking about cultural stuff, identity stuff, people get so excited they stop caring about the dense politics and personal nature of the work I’m making and start telling me how to make my work on their terms, stomping all over my own definitions of self in a merry tap dance of white and abled dominance. My ‘rage’ (as it was once described to me by an energetic gay white man who likes to use his one experience of oppression to jump on the identity politics bandwagon as a self-proclaimed sage (ye theatre people it wasn’t who you’re thinking it was another guy)) is never allowed to be witnessed in its entirety. My untiring questions about access, safety, accountability, are never allowed to actually be heard and pondered lest white and abled people in the sector reflect on their motives and actions, and lest this suddenly shatters their facade of ‘progressiveness’ and they are left with no choice but to face the legacies of genocide and incarceration on which their industry is built. In other words, I am an artist working in a time and place where my radical disability and racial justice dreams are too difficult, too transgressive, and, ultimately, (wait for it) invalid (*vocal stims* *falls over laughing*).

Disabled people are pretty much not allowed to dream.

You see, the world is set up for us to be outsiders: if it isn’t the material barriers (stairs, loud music, fragrances, no chairs) which impede our access to the wider community, it’s the social barriers (disgust, fear, infantilising, abled entitlement) which do. Under the social dimensions of ableism, it is assumed that we are ‘confined’ to sub-human bodies and/or brains and that we have no potential beyond providing abled people

FACT: If you whisper your GPA into a UWA parking meter you get a free ticket.

with inspiration, perspective, and a perverse gratefulness when they compare their lives with ours. It is assumed that our lives do not matter in comparison to theirs. It is assumed that our dreams do not matter in comparison to theirs.

Well, sorry to rain on your ableism fiesta, but we are just as real as you are. Yep, that wheelchair user you met at work was likely very offended by the well-intentioned but nonetheless super invasive and inappropriately personal questions you asked them (the questions which had nothing to do with what they were talking about but which you randomly asked anyway because you just had to know why they used a mobility aid and assumed they were okay talking about it and now they’re going to laugh about you with their friends behind your back and not feel sorry about it). And that autistic child you were babysitting definitely understood that little banter you had with their parents about how hard it is to care for them; the disappointed hush and lilt of your voices will likely haunt their self-image for a very long time. And yes, just like you, we are dreaming far and wide about all things imaginable.

WE ARE DREAMING OF ACCESS. WE ARE DREAMING OF COMMUNITIES OF MANY PEOPLE WHERE NO ONE THINKS OUR BODIES AND BRAINS ARE BAD IN ANY WAY. WHERE OUR AGENCY AS THINKING AND FEELING HUMANS IS RESPECTED. Where our voices are sovereign and our work is valued, not for abled people, but for ourselves. And where our impairments are not barriers for other people including us in their lives. Think parties where when someone needs to take a break from boogieing to sit in a chair on the dance floor, they aren’t forgotten by everyone around them and left crying in the toilets battling to give themselves permission to go home. Or local gigs which rotate in location and time of day, event organisers who don’t assume everyone who wants to attend can do late nights and loud noises. I dream that someday, somewhere, the intense isolation I have lived with for most of my life will begin to dissipate as the people in my city learn to love and care about crips like me, looking out for each other and eradicating exclusion.

We are dreaming of sex (deal with it, Amma). We are dreaming of mutual desire. We are dreaming of being seen, being touched, being close with people of all genders. We are dreaming of sex which stops halfway without any shame or frustration. We are dreaming of self-empowering sex which allows us to be our whole, best selves when all our access needs are met. We are dreaming of healing from trauma and abuse through care and patience. We are dreaming of queerness, deviance, sluthood, and romance. We are dreaming of our (a)sexualities being a celebrated space of autonomy, fun, and unfeared possibility.

Through our own dreaming, we learn more about ourselves as we want to be, gradually uncoupling our identities from abled definitions of success and suffering.

We learn to see the undeniable power of our criphood, how we can silence someone with a defiantly reclaimed slur and confront whole rooms in BDSM wear and a wheelchair. We nurture our own voices, speak our truths as they are, spare our words for the right people. We see ourselves in the work and legacies of our elders, building our communities into an effectual movement.

Defending the poor and working-class, fighting for financial agency, and freedom from not knowing where your next meal will come from because you don’t have the money to buy food and you don’t have the capacity to cook and you’ve run out of muesli bars again (frigging me every second week). Advancing the end of rich abled people making money from our involuntary incarceration in hospices and prisons. Championing healthcare and therapy which we can access easily and affordably, on our own terms and for our own outcomes.

Our many dreams build multi-issue methods of work in which no one is left behind.

Disability dreaming is a seriously radical act, demanding a sovereignty unrecognised by society as we have known it and a process of realising our crip selves on our own terms. It is what we need to disrupt the ableism that rules much of our existence, from financial security to family dinners. It is our own control over the abled gaze.

And ultimately, it will see our inevitable rise from timid and undesirable freaks in the public eye, to determined and unstoppable people, dreaming and daring beyond anything we’ve ever been told we are out of fear that our monstrosities may actually have power (spoiler alert: crip dreams are indestructible).

We are dreaming of families who do not deny our impairments, nor shame us for them. Families who love and support us for who we are, not who they want us to be. Families who do not claim they know our bodies and brains better than we do. Families who do not bar us from our own crip communities out of fear that we will become too autistic, too Deaf, too ‘different’. And families who don’t gosh darn insist that mobility aids make us weaker (absolute poop).

FACT: Dawn Freshwater set to be replaced by Dusk Saltwater

13

THERE’S HOPE FOR THE ‘FUNNY GIRL’ YET Eloise Skoss

When Lucy Dacus sung that [she didn’t’] wanna be funny anymore,” I felt like she was externalising my internal dialogue that underscored each of my social interactions since I was a small child. As a precocious and overconfident child, with little sense of nuance in social situations, I developed the ‘funny girl’ persona as a means of acceptance by my peers - a far more attractive role to play than that of the smart girl, or even worse - the weird girl. It became my defining characteristic.

In Year 4, I received a merit certificate at the school assembly for my impersonation of a crazy Italian pizza chef (creatively named Professor Pizza, my first of a host of sketch characters I developed). I didn’t win any merit certificates for my reading ability, my thoughtfulness, or for being good at the flag race. I was the funny girl.

Like Dacus, the ‘funny girl’ box was one I initially enjoyed, but grew to tire of as it began to feel like a chore. Eyes would reflexively be fixed on me when I spoke, the lingering gaze and collective pause hanging out for the punchline. With its delivery came a few smirks, chuckles, giggles or groans (the latter reserved especially for puns), each reaction a unit of social currency, a tip for a job well done in fulfilling my social role.

It would be dishonest of me, if only by omission, to not admit that there is certainly a degree of gendered-ness to the plight of the funny girl. You see, the ‘funny girl’ is a construct of the patriarchy, and all but dissolves 14

in the presence of one’s female peers. Among friends, my funniness is not performative, it’s simply my personality. They are fucking funny too, and they would never describe themselves as such. This phenomenon has been researched - we have been conditioned to attribute humour to men. A study has found that when people are given a bunch of cartoons with humorous captions, participants were more likely to attribute the funnier captions to male writers, even though when viewed anonymously, the ‘funniness’ was rated 50:50.

Haters (or critics, the difference is blurred these days) reading this may say I’m not funny anyway, or cringe at the audacity of this self-description. This is exactly the point. The funny girl’s job is to be funny, and thus her worth is derived purely from her ability to perform this role, governed by subjectivity and prejudice. Her hot takes and opinions (unless satirically delivered) are not sought after, and jokes that don’t land.

After a cursory glance through the search results on my favourite member of the digital oligarchy, I soon realised I was not alone in my experience.

My literature review also uncovered the all too common criticism of women comedians, that female comedians only talk about their vaginas and sex and periods and hating men and why do they have to brand themselves as being a female comedian, why can’t they just be funny.

FACT: Guild Membership ‘Pro’ coming in 2020 at just $0.99 a month!

appointment to the role. She has injected a new sense of liveliness to a panel formerly dominated by Fry’s inaccessible wittiness, and frequent condescension. She is just funny.

The rise of Phoebe Waller-Bridge gives hope to the future of the funny girl. If you haven’t yet been exposed to Fleabag, for which she is the writer and lead actor, I would advise you to crawl out from whatever geological formation you are living beneath and get streaming. Her lead character, who remains unnamed, encapsulates every hilarious conversation you’ve had with your friends, with love, sex, heartache and tragedy are explored in a way that is deeply poignant, yet painfully funny.

She was also a writer on Season 1 of Killing Eve, a series that makes me want to hit people around the head with a grocery bag until they agree to watch the hilarious pantomime-cum-spy thriller filled with almosttangible sexual tension between a highly skilled, haute couture-wearing Russian assassin and the frenetic and dishevelled MI6 operative who is tasked with tracking her down. Waller-Bridge is the Funny Girl, but she is by no means a trope or a token. She is funny without it being her role, and without it eroding her brilliance.

Iterations of the funny girl are littered throughout film and literature across the ages. It could be said that Barbara Streisand’s 1968 debut film role as actress and comedian Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, marked the origin of the moniker, though the trope predates even this. Quickwitted Jo of Little Women could even be considered as an early funny girl.

THE PROBLEM IS THAT, FOR AGES, WE HAVEN’T LET WOMEN JUST ‘BE’ FUNNY.

Cracking jokes shouldn’t come at the expense of being taken seriously, a fate often faced by women in executive and managerial positions. So many women I know are brilliantly funny, and I welcome an age where funny girls are embraced in the way that funny boys have been for ages. The old adage that a sense of humour in men means making funny jokes, and in women means laughing at them is approaching its expiry date. I have hope that funny girls will be able to flourish in their hilarity, without bearing the costs of being placed in a box by society, and being recognised for all their other gifts, from their crappy puns, to everything else in between.

When women are funny every day it is typically met with bemusement. When a woman is funny, it is a specific social role, she is the female comedian, the funny girl.

The funny girl was historically comical because she supposed to be. She is funny, because she is as much the joke, rather than just telling the joke. When women dare to be funny, they are subjected to far more scrutiny than a man would ever experience.

“You’re not funny,” is the ultimate antidote to audacity the audacity, that is of a woman to make an attempt at humour.

Things are changing, for sure. The other week my housemate’s boyfriend said I could make a good podcast, which is honestly the most millennial form of validation I could have received (except for one time a Facebook post told me I was 120 per cent funny because my birthday is in August). We are seeing the continued rise of fantastic female comedians (see Becky Lucas, Celia Pacquola and the girls at Freudian Nip), who are brilliant in their own right, and not just within the niche of ‘women in comedy.’ We have seen Sandi Tolsvig take the helm of QI from Stephen Fry, to great success. Despite the big (and male) shoes to fill on the much-loved show, there has been little backlash to her

FACT: The rabbits on campus ‘escaped’ from the PhD experiment labs.

Everyone suspects the vegans.

15

HIP HOP(E) FIGHTIN’ THE POWER SINCE 1973

Eliza Huston The world changed forever in 1973. Within the smoke and vibrations of a Bronx apartment building’s rec-room at what is now known as the ‘Bethlehem of hip hop’ 1520 Sedgwick Avenue - young African-American and Latinx partygoers bobbed their heads and ‘breaked’ to the exhilarating and blended sounds of DJ Kool Herc’s musical innovations. Made possible by two turntables and a mixer to extend the instrumentals of songs such as James Brown’s ‘Give It Up or Turn Ita Loose’, the technique, which Herc called ‘The Merry-Go-Round,’ allowed for emcees to rap over the instrumental breaks while b-boys and b-girls breakdanced on the floor – sending the crowd into an impassioned frenzy.

Hip hop was born.

Emerging from a generation that had grown up marching with their elders and Martin Luther King during the Civil Rights Movement, arisen from a collective that had swayed their bodies to the healing oscillations of Gil Scott-Heron, Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin, conceived from a people who organised the revolutionary and ground-breaking Black Panther Party in the footsteps of Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, and Malcolm X. Hip hop was never going to be poor in spirit.

It was pre-ordained that hip hop would go on to become one of the most commanding and controversial cultures of the last five decades – let alone a genre of music. In homage to an art-form, a philosophy, a nation, a force - and in the words of Nas - let’s “take a trip straight through memory lane” and reminisce about some of hip hop’s greatest protest anthems from its golden age.

‘FUCK THA POLICE’ – N.W.A., STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON, 1988 Upon its release, Australia’s own triple j was the only radio station in the world to play N.W.A.’s most controversial hit, ‘Fuck tha Police’. After six months of air time, the song was banned by the ABC after a complaint from a South Australian Liberal Party Senator, marking the beginning of many objections regarding ‘Fuck tha Police’s subject matter – even the members of N.W.A. themselves (Ice Cube, Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, Arabian Prince, DJ Yella, and MC Ren) were arrested for performing the revolutionary masterpiece at their own concert in Detroit:

They put out my picture with silence ‘Cause my identity by itself causes violence The E with the criminal behaviour Yeah, I’m a gangsta, but still I got flavour.

- Eazy-E 16

For the gangsta rap supergroup, who had grown up in the low socio-economic area of South-Central Los Angeles during the 1980s Reagan era and historically, ‘Fuck tha Police’ was the inevitable aftermath of a demographic (African-American and Latino male youth) who had witnessed and experienced disproportionately high levels of police brutality and harassment.

Regardless of the song’s polarising reception, from concerned parents to self-defined ‘good’ cops, ‘Fuck tha Police’ has only grown stronger as a highly personal and politicised response to the continuous violation of the physical, psychological, and socio-economic position of targeted minority groups in the United States. In Ice Cube’s own words, “we wanted to highlight the excessive force and … the humiliation that we go through in these situations. So the audience can know why we wrote ‘Fuck the Police,’ and they can feel the same way.”

‘FIGHT THE POWER’ – PUBLIC ENEMY, FEAR OF A BLACK PLANET, 1989 Straight-forward, pithy and unyielding, ‘Fight the Power’ is the ultimate protest anthem. Public Enemy’s highly influential hit borrows samples from a plethora of well-known black musicians and groups such as The Isley Brothers, The Dramatics, and James Brown – all of whom are habitually sampled within hip hop’s wider discography. ‘Fight the Power’s versatile ‘sample portfolio’ of celebrated black musicians is in turn mirrored in the song’s impassioned music video, which pays homage to a range of revered black activists and leaders, including Marcus Garvey, Angela Davis, and Frederick Douglass. The unrestricted foregrounding of musical and socio-political icons within the black community can, on a basic level, be interpreted as simply a montage of distinguished black people, but when understood in alignment with ‘Fight the Power’s brazen lyricism, the socio-political implications are radically iconoclastic and transformative:

Elvis was a hero to most But he never meant shit to me you see Straight up racist that sucker was Simple and plain Motherfuck him and John Wayne Cause I’m Black and I’m proud I’m ready and hyped plus I’m amped Most of my heroes don’t appear on no stamps Sample a look back you look and find Nothing but rednecks for 400 years if you check Filmed in Brooklyn and directed by Spike Lee, the music video presents Flavour Flav and Chuck D leading a march through the streets, complete with some protesters donning the sleek regalia of the Black Panther Party, black leather clothing with a matching beret. Notably, members of the crowd in the ‘Fight the Power’ music video are of all racial backgrounds.

While the song’s point of focus is undeniably centred on empowering and honouring black voices and perspectives, ‘Fight the Power’ has become a staple tune within the genre of protest music, especially against authoritarian and oppressive governments. Chuck D’s persuasive baritone rhymes call for oppressed peoples around the world to become politically active and to unite and organise against the common enemy, while also alluding to Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of a “Beloved Community”:

FACT: Your lecturer on half-speed makes for great ASMR

We got to pump the stuff to make ya tough From the heart It’s a start, a work of art To revolutionize make a change nothing’s strange People, people we are the same No we’re not the same Cause we don’t know the game What we need is awareness, we can’t get careless You say what is this?

My beloved let’s get down to business ‘LA RAZA’ – KID FROST, HISPANIC CAUSING PANIC, 1990 “This is for la raza.”

An ode to his Chicanx (Mexican/Mexican-American) culture, ‘La Raza’ is perhaps the most well-known Chicanx hip hop track in the United States. With firme rolas (funky overlayed sampled music) from El Chicano and Graham Central Station, ‘La Raza’, which means ‘the people’, combines pre-Columbian Mexican history and contemporary Chicanx culture by integrating Aztec iconography, street art, and lowriders to visually demonstrate the permanence and evolution of Chicanx people in their ancestral homelands. Additionally, Kid Frost’s enunciated Spanglish vocals and self-assured lyricism reject negative, white-American constructions of Chicanx identity by smoothly re-asserting the warriorlike, enduring strength of Chicanx people – particularly in light of historical conflicts such as the Mexican-American War and the Zoot Suit Riots:

Vatos, cholos, you call us what you will You say we are assassins and that we are sent to kill It’s in my blood to be an Aztec Warrior Go to any extreme and hold no barriers Chicano and I’m Brown and I’m proud.

That’s why I’m talking, one day I was walking down the block I had my cutoff shorts on right cause it was crazy hot I walked past these dudes when they passed me One of ‘em felt my booty, he was nasty I turned around red, somebody was catching the wrath Then the little one said, “Yeah me, bitch,” and laughed Since he was with his boys, he tried to break fly Huh, I punched him dead in his eye And said, “Who you calling a bitch?” […]

But I don’t want my kids to see me getting beat down By daddy smacking mommy all around You say I’m nothing without ya, but I’m nothing with ya A man don’t really love you if he hits ya Accompanied by a mesmerising saxophone sample from The Crusaders’ 1972 track ‘A Message From the Inner City’, Latifah’s vocals alternate from a breezy chant for “U.N.I.T.Y.” to an earnest poetic conversation on the vernacular and attitudes of hip hop culture:

Instinct leads me to another flow Every time I hear a brother call a girl a bitch or a hoe Trying to make a sister feel low You know all of that gots to go The finished product can only be described as a feminist manifesto woven into a rhythmic mosaic.

Standing the test of time, ‘La Raza’ is an essential tune for demonstrating solidarity with Mexican and Chicanx people in this daunting age of Trump - and is also perfect for cruising around Southern California in a ‘63 Impala!

‘U.N.I.T.Y.’ – QUEEN LATIFAH, BLACK REIGN, 1993 “Who you callin’ a bitch?” the first lady of hip hop, Queen Latifah, authoritatively questions her audience. In the same vein as her legendary collaborative tune ‘Ladies First’ with Monie Love, another fellow female emcee in the Golden age of hip hop, ‘U.N.I.T.Y.’ demands that women have a seat at the table of the hip hop nation.

After all, it is no secret that hip hop has traditionally been dominated by stereotyped notions of masculinity - especially at the time of ‘U.N.I.T.Y.’s release. However, largely owing to the lyrical and representational foundations being laid by Queen Latifah in the late 1980s and early 1990s, hip hop has undergone a steady shift towards giving female and queer identities a voice and platform within the discourse. Concurrent to hip hop lyrics that labelled women as decorative pieces, inherently beneath men and within the Madonna/ whore complex, or that teased/overtly referenced violence against women (Ahem, ‘disregard females, acquire currency’), Latifah was spitting truths about sexual harassment and domestic violence whilst also advocating for self-defence and self-preservation:

Art by Pauline Wong // @pauline.wong.10

When I say hip-hoppers, I mean black, white, Asian, Latino, Chicano, everybody. Everybody. Hip-hop has united all races. Hip-hop has formed a platform for all people, religions, and occupations to meet on something. We all have a platform to meet on now, due to hip-hop. That, to me, is beyond music. That is just a brilliant, brilliant thing. ~ KRS-One

FACT: Certified BNOCS get an extra 10% off at the Guild outlets

17

POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY Isabelle Yuen

THE SCIENCE BEHIND HOW HOPE CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE

You’re having a bad day. Big deal, right? The semester’s results have just been released and your immediate thoughts are consumed by the shockingly horrendous grades on your report card. Surely that can’t be possible.

How could one person have done so badly in that many units? Your mind drifts back to that meme you saw about University feeling like you are failing eight units even though you are only enrolled in two. Are you just dumb? Maybe you should drop out of university and mope at home for as long as your parents allow you to mooch off them, before spending the rest of your life as a farmer tending to your sheep.

Let’s calm down a little. It is never that bad.

18

FACT: Breaking News: Your ATAR doesn’t really matter

Ever heard of the saying “Ignorance is bliss?” I’m not saying to ignore all the bad things that happen to you and go around like an ostrich with your head in the sand, but there certainly is some wisdom in that proverb.

Bad things happen all the time. If you let them dictate your mood and energy, then you would constantly be at the mercy of external factors that are out of your control.

Instead, focus on the things that are within your control.

I could tell you to focus on how you should have studied harder on that one test that you failed, or how you should have had a shot with that girl you had a crush on who now has a steady boyfriend, but these are all things you already know. You scold yourself over and over saying, “I’ll do better next time.”

But how will you do that? There’s no one thing I can tell you that will magically make all your problems go away.

But what if I told you I had a secret, sure-fire way to improve your overall experience in your journey through life? Are you ready?

It’s your attitude.

Go ahead, boo at me. It is a known secret. You have heard it everywhere: your attitude is what makes you different from the next person. Motivational speakers say it all the time. You hear it constantly and it’s getting old.

THE ART OF ‘PSYCHING’ YOURSELF INTO ADOPTING A CERTAIN ATTITUDE IS NOT NECESSARILY THE SAME AS FAKING A MOOD. IT’S A MATTER OF CHOICE: HOW DO YOU CHOOSE TO LET YOURSELF FEEL? Of course, if you have just failed your final exams, you would feel devastated. What this method is suggesting is not for you to feign happiness, plaster a fake smile on your face as tears stream down your cheeks and yell out to the world that you are happy when you feel broken inside. It is never like that. What this is, is carving a little nook in your heart to make room for an essential ingredient to leading a happy, satisfying life: hope.

Hope changes us. It gives us a reason to fight. Yes, it’s cheesy, but it works. You might feel as though the whole world is ending but hope is what grounds us to reality when we find ourselves sinking. But don’t take my word for it; this concept is being explored through the study of positive psychology.

The concept of positive psychology was first created by psychologist Abraham Maslow in the 1950s. If this name sounds familiar to some of you, this is because he is the creator of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, with its five-tier pyramid model of human needs. Maslow’s study and the nature of positive psychology are both fuelled by the idea that traditional psychology is overly focused on the mental illness aspect of mental health, and in doing so ignores the all-encompassing nature of what it means to be human. It was subsequently popularised and further developed by Martin Seligman in 2002, who concluded through his study that happiness has three dimensions that can be cultivated: the ‘Pleasant life’, the ‘Good Life’, and the ‘Meaningful Life’. The ‘Pleasant Life’ is achieved through the fulfilment and appreciation of basic pleasures such as companionship, the natural environment and our fundamental bodily needs. The next level is the ‘Good Life’, which is attained by uncovering our individual gifts and strengths and honing them to enhance our lives through innovative ways. Often, we succeed at this by using our strengths to help our fellow humans. Finally, the ‘Meaningful Life’ is the stage in which we discover a genuine sense of satisfaction through the employment of our skills and gifts for a higher purpose beyond our own direct needs.

In short, positive psychology is the study of happiness, satisfaction and the strengths that empower individuals and communities alike to thrive. It is built upon the belief that all humans want to lead happy and fulfilling lives, to contribute something meaningful to the world.

In a way, positive psychology utilises the idea of hope and turns it into an engine of productivity. At the highest level, we can see beyond our own personal grievances and focus on the larger picture.

ADDING A DASH OF HOPE TO OUR DAILY LIVES PROVES MORE THAN BENEFICIAL, AND IN THE LONG TERM CAN HAVE A PROFOUND IMPACT ON OUR HEALTH AND WELLBEING. It is okay to fall, but don’t stay down too long, because that is not where you belong.

Let me end with a quote from a wise man: “Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light” – Albus Dumbledore. A healthy attitude of optimism, gratitude and hope can go a long way (even science says so).

FACT: Breaking News: Well, it does only if you want to be known as an asshole

19

ART AS RESISTANCE It is easy to feel hopeless right now. As painfully nonexistent as real action feels on the dire crises of climate change and mass human-displacement (among other issues), people are uniting across the world to ignite change. Art has always been central to this process; imagery becomes shorthand for political resistance as it is able to be broadly disseminated and easily recognised.

Here is a list of some of the most powerful artworks that have fuelled political change in our time: Guerilla Girls - Do Women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum? (1989, 2005, 2012) The Guerilla Girls, an anonymous activist-art group keeping art institutions in check since 1985, are best known for their posters calling out sexism and objectification of women. In 1989, they released the first poster in their series Do Women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum? This poster revealed the uneven representation of women in esteemed art institutions at the time: only 5 per cent of the artists in the modern art sections were women, but 85 per cent of the nudes were depictions of women. The Guerilla Girls remade this poster in 2005 and 2011; the updated versions show even less inclusion of female artists - dropping to as low as 3 per cent - but also a (small) drop in the percentage of female nudes.

Ai Weiwei – photos from Tiananmen Square Ai Weiwei is known for frequently putting his body on the line for his practice; a notable instance of which includes the time sunburnt the word “FUCK” onto his bare chest and photographed himself in front of the forbidden city in Tiananmen Square. The aftershock of the massacre at Tiananmen Square resonates through his oeuvre, and such works have become increasingly relevant amidst the recent protests in Hong Kong. Ai’s art attacks censorship and government control in China, which has resulted in the government destroying his studio, arresting and torturing him. Yet, his criticism is also directed outward, frequently calling out the West on its treatment of asylum seekers, as well as its complicity in covering up Tiananmen.

Aninya Marzohl

Barbara Kruger – Untitled (Questions) (1990-1992, reprised 2018-) Barbara Kruger’s aesthetic is recognisable in contemporary culture through its appropriation by Supreme, a brand that is not at all aligned with Kruger’s practice. More recently, her work has infiltrated society through the repainting of a powerful mural from the early 1990s. The mural has the following questions form an American flag, and was repainted just before the 2018 midterm elections: “Who is beyond the law? Who is bought and sold? Who is free to choose? Who does the time? Who follows orders?

Who salutes the longest? Who prays the loudest? Who dies first? Who laughs last?”

Kruger’s questions have become increasingly pertinent for America under the Trump administration; they also hold relevance in Australian society, whereby they encourage us to constantly keep our government in check and ensure our freedoms are respected equally.

Isaac Cordal – Follow the Leaders (2011) The Follow the Leaders series is an installation project of Cordal’s, a Spanish artist, that comprises tiny sculptures across major cities in Europe, including Milan, Brussels and London. The artist describes this series as “a metaphor for the collapse of capitalism and the side effects of progress”. Cordal’s piece in Berlin stands out as a poignant depiction of political action on climate change: the statue is a group of old white men in suits engaging in discussion, that Cordal has installed in a puddle. As such, this particular piece in the series has been dubbed “Politicians discussing global warming” on social media, calling out political inaction on climate change and rising sea levels.

Of course, there are many other artists and artworks working to the theme of resistance that could comprise this list, and deserve recognition as successes in their fields; a notable inclusion is Rosemary Laing’s welcome to Australia (2004), a work that comprises a photograph of the refugee detention centre in Woomera, which has become more painfully relevant with time. The power of such works lies in their visceral depiction of injustice; burning themselves onto our consciousness and refusing to be ignored. They are presented here not as an exhaustive or encompassing list, but opportunities to learn, to interrogate prejudice, to speak up for the oppressed. Share them.

Barbara Kruger – Donald Trump (2016) 20

FACT: UWA to be renamed uWu

Shamina Rozario

CLIMATE CHANGE IS THE GREATEST THING THAT HAPPENED TO MANKIND

Sometimes when everything appears to go wrong in life, this can be a blessing in disguise. This is not to trivialise the suffering occurring around us, but it can help one to assess their situation in life and actually create change in order to rectify bad outcomes and create much better circumstances for yourself, in the future. Perhaps a bad breakup does not mean you have sit in a corner and cry for hours on end, wondering why the person you were with could not love you anymore. Maybe if the breakup did not happen, you would not be given the opportunity to self-reflect and realise that perhaps this person was not the best person for you to be with, and there are in fact, many more fish in the sea. Maybe if you had not experienced a health issue this semester, you would not be taking the steps necessary to create a better lifestyle for yourself that would ultimately lead you to enjoy a more successful, happy life. Maybe if you lost that job you so aptly clung to, you would not have applied for a better one with a nicer manager. It is precisely the times in life when things go wrong, when other (potentially better) avenues begin to open up and offer us much needed time for introspection and reflection, which can ultimately allow you to experience a better life. Seeing the glass half full, instead of half empty, is exactly what is needed in society at the moment, given all the things that are currently going wrong in either your life or in the lives of others, especially during the winter blues months. unfortunately, when people are pessimistic, the hope within them is quashed, and this actually fosters a downward spiral of disarray and misery.

The truth is, pessimistic people never solved any problems in society, in an adequate manner. It was the optimistic, sometimes even delusional thinkers, which actually managed to rectify problems. Most inventions occurred because things were going wrong, and problems needed solving - but instead of crying about them, inventors were optimistic enough to seek out solutions to these issues which ultimately lead to greater innovation and a positive outcome. The dictum, ‘good things can come out of bad situations,’ appears to be applicable now more than ever, when society is facing the most catastrophic problem in the history of our species; our potential extinction.

FACT: Modelling predictions show that every student will be wearing Doc Martens in the next five years

21

As an environmental activist with a small presence on social media, I am constantly bombarded by miserable news, having liked the pages of several news sources and activism pages, which show up on my newsfeed non-stop. Whether it be trafficking, drugs, animal cruelty or terrorism, the news is hardly ever good.

People view a lot of negative information when they watch the news, and what makes one depressed is feeling helpless in the face of it. What actually causes the most drive and optimism in the face of these issues, is the prospect of utilising your own autonomy, in order to act in a way that mitigates the issues creating a depressive culture. Sometimes viewing all this heartwrenching, bitter and dark content lulls one into a state of sombreness and insanity. How can you go on? How do you go forward in life with a seemingly menial job in front of a retail counter, when nine-year-old children are committing suicide in Nauru? And then an even more incessant question can be contemplated; what exactly can you do about it? We are all but grains of sand, in this huge universe we live in - what might we be able to do to combat all of this hopelessness? The answer is not actually that complicated, or even difficult.

THE SOLUTION DOES NOT HAVE TO BE TO QUIT YOUR ENTIRE JOB, AND MOVE TO AFRICA TO HELP THE STARVING KIDS. It doesn’t mean you have to avoid showers to mitigate the water crisis. It doesn’t even mean you need to donate directly to charity to stop these abysmal issues on the news from occurring. It simply means you can switch your mindset, from a pessimistic ‘I can’t do anything’ mentality to a mentality of empowerment.

When your mentality shifts from a negative one into a positive one, things in your life will automatically fall into place and you will end up benefiting society without even realising it. It is recognising your own power as an individual in a collective society that can actually mitigate a great deal of issues that might cause other members in society to lose hope. As a result of this mentality switch, you begin to see the world as a platform to create unimaginable innovation and discover all the promise life has to offer you, instead of succumbing to the dismal view that this world is first and foremost, a place of suffering and dementor-like vibes. It does not have to be this way at all. It can be whatever you want it to be so long as you are willing to perceive it the way you wish to see it.

Whenever I read too many environmental articles, whether it be about dying bee populations, or the fact that one and a half football fields of Amazon forest is being destroyed every minute, or that coral bleaching is on the rise or we have until 2040 to live - it can seem as though everything in the world is falling apart. But when you hear news about Iceland banning the whaling industry, Fremantle prohibiting helium balloons and plastic confetti pollution, coral reefs regenerating in an unforeseeable way in the Great Barrier Reef, or Germany banning fracking - suddenly 22

it appears as though not all has yet gone to rubbish, and not all hope has been lost. In the face of all these collective issues, people are beginning to make positive changes that can actually alleviate or prevent some of these catastrophic calamities we are facing.

WHEN WE EACH ALL DO A LITTLE BIT TO MAKE POSITIVE CHANGES, BIG CHANGES REALLY CAN OCCUR. We have to realise that we are a society that is interdependent on each other member. We live symbiotically with each other, and with the nature surrounding us to the extent that when a problem another member in society is facing, occurs, this may actually be beneficial for the whole. Perhaps students’ failing grades will impel ministers to implement better and more successful education programs. Perhaps your illness will spearhead the research into health avenues not previously explored, which can lead to greater medical innovation. Perhaps climate change can teach us all what matters in life in the end times, and offer us a situation where governments can begin to work more symbiotically with each other, rather than parasitically through psychopathic warfare. Perhaps if one million species were not facing extinction, people would not be readily acting on, or taking our environmental collapse seriously to the extent where they create beneficial changes to their lives, and others. The reality is, we are lucky to be alive in the society we are currently in, and this is because of the suffering that occurred to humanity in the past, which led to better technology, innovation and wiser ways of thinking about economics, social stability, the environment and culture.

Sometimes the glass really is half full, and problems can give rise to beneficial outcomes, in the long term, ‘big picture’ scheme of things. With so many things going wrong in society, it appears that now is the time to be driven and passionate about the things that really matter in life, and the things you care deeply about.

Despite all the issues the world is currently facing - it is an exciting time to be alive, because we are literally on the cusp of breaking point. Things could either go very badly, or be rectified in order to create an unbelievably brighter future. Hope is never lost - it is a mentality that is sprung from the deepest suffering. Sometimes without things going terribly wrong, we would never be able to locate the very feeling that can impel the future toward it’s greatest potential.

FACT: The cut off for an HD is to be lowered to 79

‘The young person perspective on climate change’// Images by Tegan Gibson// @tegangibson These are a series of photos taken at the School Strike for Climate Change.

My hope is that politicians and big companies bother to take notice of the next generation and start listening to what we have to say.

23

Shannon Grey we are warned to not cast shadows to stretch our minds too far steady our cursing tongues careful choices to be carved

this leaves us wondering if instead of spilling words they wish for flowers to grow from our mouths so at least then we would be pretty

we are trees made to grow in glass boxes with vines that bind our voices we are not here to be an outline we are here to fill the frame with roots that only sink deeper into our maternal earth

this womanhood will not be stained the fire burns as it should there is purpose to this being the fear lies not in what we will say or in how many will listen the fear is how

“The World is calling and I must go� // Art by Kamyla Nelson // @kamilya.nelson 24

far we will go.

FLORENCE AND THE WHALE Shamina Rozario

In my dream I saw a whale.

It was a blue whale, with quite a tail, And it flew about in the soft grey air, Tagging right behind me.

I knew it was watching, Whenever I turned, Crossed the hills, amongst the birds.

I darted left, I darted right, But no matter what, it was still in sight.

So I turned around, as the sun was setting And told him to go away - it was nearly morning.

But he only spluttered and wailed for me to stay.

‘Florence, don’t leave me,’ he seemed to say.

So I finally gave in and decided to lay, On the lime green grass by the daffodil cleft, And I watched him glide across the sky Until it was time, To say goodbye.

‘Whale Dream’ // Art by Shamina Rozario // Minny’s Charity Art 25

WE HOPE. Kasey Garratt

We hope that something good may happen.

We hope that we can live in a world where we are not marginalised for being who we are.

We hope that we can express our love for whomever we want, and not be bullied because of it.

We hope that our children can grow up in a world where boys, girls and those in between are treated exactly the same.

We hope that the Earth is not destroyed by the selfish and the ignorant.

We hope that women are no longer afraid to freely go outside without fear of violence or abuse.

We hope that the colour of our skin does not define our place in the world and how we are treated.

We hope that those in power lead with us to make this world a better place We hope that there is a brighter future.

I hope that one day I can say I am completely and blissfully happy.

26

‘Afterlight’ // Art by Shenade Teves // @feliciathebroke

27

SPACE: THE FINAL FRONTIER Lachlan MacRae

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Fifty years ago, humanity left the cosy confines of our atmosphere and stepped foot on an alien world. An estimated 650 million people around the globe watched in awe as Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins made history. It had taken four billion years of evolution for life to finally leave our atmosphere, the atmosphere that had nurtured us for so long. We had broken free from its grasp, shrugged off the impossible with reckless abandon and pursued the statistically unlikely. We had earned our humble place on the list of space-faring civilisations. The future looked bright.

Since then, our curiosity has known no bounds. We have sent over 190 probes to explore the planets of our solar system. We have sent orbiters to study the chemical composition of Saturn’s rings. We have landed robots on Mars in search of life itself. We have deployed deep space telescopes to watch the formation of the universe.

We have sent spacecraft to touch the Sun, and to plunge into the depths of our solar system. On August 25th 2012, a spacecraft named Voyager 1 became the first ever spacecraft to enter interstellar space. In just fortythree years since we first left our atmosphere, we had left our solar system. Voyager 1 was, and still is, the most distant man-made object from Earth.

Voyager 1 is perhaps my favourite spacecraft. Not only for its visually astounding collection of photographs, but because it is an ambassador for all life on Earth. Aboard Voyager 1 are two golden records. These contain sounds and sights from our lonely planet, from Bach to Chuck Berry, from the roar of crashing waves to images of DNA and human anatomy. If intelligent life were to discover Voyager 1 drifting aimlessly through the cosmos, the information on those records would provide them with a fleeting glimpse into life on Earth. It is a time capsule of sorts, a medium to tell the story of Earth. And what a story we have to tell.

On the 14th February 1990, NASA ordered Voyager 1 to turn around and take one last photograph – of Earth.

What resulted is perhaps the most striking image of our time. Aptly named “Pale Blue Dot”, it is the most distant photograph of Earth, taken from a staggering 6.4 billion kilometres away. As astronomer Carl Sagan remarked at the time, “To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world”. Sagan’s full reflection on that photograph is as emotive today as it was in 1994 and is well worth a listen.

28

It seems obvious that the future of humanity lies beyond our planet. Indeed, we have maintained a constant presence in Earth’s orbit since 2001, and exciting advances in rocket technology provide hope for safe and affordable space travel. Entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are pioneering the use of reusable space vehicles, reducing wastage and cutting costs. One such vehicle is SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy. In February 2018, SpaceX conducted their first test flight of the Falcon Heavy rocket, successfully launching the rocket and delivering its payload – Musk’s personal Tesla Roadster – into space. Although the payload was unconventional, this launch was fairly standard.

Right up until they landed the two side-boosters back at Kennedy Space Centre.

In that moment, as 2.3 million people watched on, history had been made. For those who were not alive to witness the Moon landing, it gave a sense of what it must have felt like. To see both Falcon 9 side-boosters dance their way down to the landing pads with such elegance and grace was simply awe-inspiring. The future was here, and it was brighter than we could have ever imagined.

Mankind’s innate curiosity with the cosmos will undoubtedly fuel the dreams of generations to come.

For hundreds of thousands of years, early humans gazed upon the night sky in wonderment, begging to know her secrets. If only they knew what secrets she still holds.

Astronomy is one of our oldest sciences, and perhaps the most enlightening.

IT IS THROUGH ASTRONOMY THAT WE CAN TRULY APPRECIATE OUR PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE, OUR UTTER INSIGNIFICANCE, AND HOW WE SHOULD LIVE OUR LIVES. We are but great apes hurtling through the void on a living spaceship. As terrifying as that sounds, there is comfort to be gained from this harsh reality; nothing that you do will matter. There is no challenge, problem or mistake you can possibly make that will irrevocably alter the course of the universe. You have the spotlight for only a fleeting moment in the Great Cosmic Play. Say everything you want to say while you can, because the show stops for no-one.

‘Jupiter’s Great Red Spot’, taken by Voyager 1, 1979 // Courtesy NASA/JPL -Caltech.

‘Pale Blue Dot’, taken by Voyager 1, 1990. Earth is the blue speck in the farright band // Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.

29

30

Images by Duncan Wright // @duncanwright__

PHOTOGRAPHY DONE WRIGHT: WORDS WITH PERTH PHOTOGRAPHER,

DUNCAN WRIGHT Interview by Stirling Kain

Having photographed material for The Blue Room Theatre, and been a Collective Artist at the Perth Centre for Photography, Duncan Wright is synonymous with local arts and culture – giving us all HOPE that Perth does indeed have a vibrant arts community, and one that we can be proud of on a global stage.

Arts Editor Stirling Kain discussed with Duncan – or ‘Duncs’, as he has referred to himself throughout his correspondence – his journey with, and gravitation towards, photography.

Stirling Kain: Tell me about your first camera – who gave it to you, and what kind of photographs did you take?

Duncan Wright: My parents always had their old cameras lying around in a little hidden cabinet underneath the bookshelf. I remember prying it open as a kid and checking out all of the stuff they had: dad’s old light-meters, lenses and so forth. Eventually, I guess I was old enough to take one out and started shooting on mum’s Nikon FM with a 50 mm lens. I pretty much just took photos of my friends skating, eating, hanging out… that kind of stuff. When I was growing up, I was really obsessed with a book showing train journeys through India, with photos by Steve McCurry and written by Paul Theroux, so that was probably a fairly big influence on me.

S.K: You are currently undertaking a residency with MosArts Camelot. How are you finding that? How do you like artist residencies in general?

D.W: I’ve really enjoyed my residency at MosArts Camelot, it’s the first time I’ve undertaken a residency and also the first time I’ve been able to put a serious amount of time into thinking about a singular project. It’s been a wonderful experience as it has actually allowed me to develop a body of work from concept to execution, and be able to subjectively look at the work and think “no, that’s crap” or “yes, that’s the direction I should be taking.”

I’ve effectively ended up with four projects along the same theme: one that is currently on show at Plastic Sandwich in Jolimont until July 5; another which is total crap; and two others, one of which is conceptually what I’m trying to observe and one which has an aesthetic I want to develop more. I’m planning to apply for another residency over summer to develop the ideas from this residency into a decent body of work, which I aim to exhibit sometime next year.

S.K: What appeals to you about photography over other artistic mediums?

D.W: I grew up looking at my grandfather’s paintings of vast Welsh and Australian landscapes and always loved the idea of painting or drawing, but just can’t do it to save myself. I don’t think I necessarily chose photography as an artistic medium - it’s just something I started doing and can’t stop doing - and for whatever reason, I’ve developed more of an artistic sensibility towards photography than a commercial practice. That being said, I’ve still got bills to pay, so I take on a fair bit of pretty dry but sometimes fun commercial and editorial work, too. So perhaps that’s an answer - photography is very flexible.

S.K: How did you become involved shooting for The Blue Room Theatre?

D.W: One of my great friends, Ryan Sandilands, became the big marketing boss, and it kind of just happened.

We’d always wanted to work together on creative projects, and this collaboration just turned out really well.

I’m so proud of the work we have done for The Blue Room Theatre, and it’s such a wonderful community.

Hours and hours of planning, well before the shooting days, go into the production of the images. The Blue Room Theatre have such an incredible team to work with. I think I love working with them so much because we have such creative freedom and interesting people to work with, who really get what we want to do, plus it’s such a pleasure shooting images of dancers and actors.

I often feel like I’m not doing anything because the actors are always so good. Special shout-out to Julian Hobba, Harriet Roberts and Samantha Nerida! Also, if you’re reading this - GO SEE THE BLUE ROOM THEATRE SHOWS! THEATRE IS COOOOOL!

FACT: Downloadable lectures, IGA on campus, a 950 bus to business school. The University discourages all forms of exercise.

31

S.K: What are your thoughts on Instagram as a platform for photography? Do you think galleries still serve a valid and necessary place for photographers?

D.W: I don’t think photographers should feel validated just for putting their photos on Instagram. It’s a great tool and there is a wonderful photographic community online, but for me it’s more of a portfolio and a way to interact with potential clients and supporters of your work and much easier to keep current when compared to updating a website. I’ve had quite a bit of commercial work come my way because of people seeing the work I post on Instagram and then being directed to my website.

Galleries will always be a valid and necessary place for photography. They play a really important role in building sustainable careers for photographers and artists alike. In WA we are lucky to have the Perth Centre for Photography, which gives so, so many opportunities to young and emerging photographers.

PCP is based around some really solid awards, an open and welcoming community, and an extensive exhibition program showing not only established artists from Australia and the world, but emerging local talents.

All this being said, I think photobooks are the ultimate place for photographs to end up. Coffee stained and heavily thumbed.

S.K: Based on your Instagram feed, you seem drawn to shooting people’s portraits.

Would you say this is the case? Why do you think this is?

D.W: I just obsessively document and photograph everything. I think travel and photography goes hand in hand, but recently I’ve discovered that going away and not taking photos too seriously is a really wonderful thing.

S.K: In your opinion, how do you take a good photograph?

D.W: Huge question. I think it’s too subjective. For me, a good photograph should do something more than just look nice. I often find myself extensively thinking about certain photographs, perhaps it’s because I can’t quite put my finger on what it is about. Perhaps it is saying something I’ve been trying to say for a while. Perhaps it’s just rubbish and I don’t want to admit it. A good photograph is far more than just snapping something which is in focus and well-exposed. A good photograph should be emotional. I think that’s what a good photograph is for me, anyway.

S.K: Describe your most experimental art project thus far.

D.W: I don’t think I’ve done anything too experimental, really. I’m pretty straight down the line in that regard, but I have been thinking a lot about the relationship between objects and photographs, and therefore sculpture and photography, and even making photographs sculptural. I think the two practices (sculpture and photography) have a similar emotive language and therefore can really play well off one another. I’m going to experiment with this dynamic more.

D.W: I’ve never considered myself a portrait photographer, but I guess it’s kind of becoming the case.

My dad is an Anthropologist, and I think I’ve taken on a lot of his world views and interest in people (he’ll hate me saying that), and how different social and cultural groups fit into society. I’ve been reflecting on this a lot during my residency, and the only conclusion I have vaguely come to is that I use photography to understand and empathise with people.

S.K: What’s your advice to young photographers?

D.W: Try not to get too influenced by Instagram trends.

Instead, look back on photographic history and reference those influences. Diane Arbus, Paul Strand, Sally Mann, Walker Evans, Nan Goldin, Martin Parr, Paul Outerbridge, Dorothea Lange, Brassai, Helen Levitt, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Max Pam, Kevin Ballantine, Susan Mieselas, and ahhhhh… millions of others.

Don’t only study photography. Read lots, look at the old masters of painting, find interesting books, watch weird cinema, listen to strange music and just shoot lots and lots and lots and know that 95 per cent of the work you make will be rubbish, 4 per cent will be good and every now and then you’ll shoot something really beautiful.

Oh, and be self-critical.

S.K: Your posts feature photographs you have taken in the Southwest of WA, to Thailand and India. What is the appeal of shooting all around the country, and the world?

32

Dead Fish in December’ // Image by Duncan Wright // @duncanwright__

You can find Duncan on Instagram, at @duncanwright_, and on his website, www.duncanwright.com.au/.

A GUIDE FOR HOPE VIA

FAILURE?

REVIEW: GEORGES PEREC’S LIFE: A USER’S MANUAL Eamonn Kelly

What better way to celebrate hope than a book (primarily) about failure. George Perec was a French polymath famous for being a member of the Oulipo movement in the 1970s, a movement that focused on authors constraining themselves formalistically. One of Georges Perec’s signature works, the 300 page La Disparition (eng: A Void) was written without the use of the most common letter in the French Language ‘e’. Remarkably the work was translated into English in 1994, also not using the most common letter of the English language (e). This kind of work is known as a ‘lipogram’, and George Perec and his contemporaries delighted in creating them in poetry, prose, and other mediums.

His best-known work, however, is Life: A User’s Manual (1978). This book is one of those mind-expanding, once-in-a-lifetime reads, a truly remarkable, sui generis achievement in literature, and one of the crown jewels of French postmodern literature (right up there with Samuel Beckett).

To heap such praise upon the book doesn’t really explain what the book does or is, in any satisfactory way.

In short, the book is a literary jigsaw puzzle, comprised of several interwoven vignettes that take place within a single apartment building frozen in time. But it is also not so simple, the novel frequently digresses backwards in history to explain the character’s relations, how they got that cool snow globe on the mantle, what the scrawlings in a child’s notebook mean, and how and why each inhabitant got to live in the apartment building. These vignettes are compiled, and happen all at once, the book itself is this garbled, beautiful transmission burst, reading it is to slowly peel back layer upon layer of detail until it is comprehensible.

The vignettes are all singular works, eminently readable, Life: A User’s Manual is not an incomprehensible or ‘difficult’ work. That the book combines and hybridises social realism, mystery, travel novel, crime caper, family drama, art-world espionage, and psychological thriller makes the work an exciting thing to parse. I promise you that this is not a book you will look at it, read the words, think you do, then get distracted, or not quite take it in, and have to go back, forcing you

to question your ability to read. This is a book that I could wholeheartedly recommend to anyone, even to somebody who hasn’t read a work of fiction in a decade or more. You will find the time, it is that good.

At the core of these vignettes is the story of the tremendously wealthy Englishman Bartlebooth resident at 11 rue Simon-Crubellier, who takes up watercolours, and between World War 1 and World War 2 paints a series of 500 watercolours of ports in locations all around the world. Once a watercolour is finished, he sends it back to Paris to be cut into a jigsaw puzzle by a master puzzle maker named Gaspard Winkler, which upon his return will be re-assembled into a whole. Once the work is re-assembled, the work will be transported back to the place it depicts, whereupon the colours will be destroyed through the application of a solvent. In short, Bartlebooth has resolved to leave nothing of his artistic project extant after his death. This is a complex undertaking, and Bartlebooth employs many of the residents of his apartment complex to assist him to complete his life’s work (or un-work).

From there, through the complex network of human relations, the work balloons and mushrooms outwards.

I don’t want to spoil anything, reading Life: A User’s Manual is a delight, and I would wish that anybody who takes this glowing recommendation and seeks the book out discover the intricacies and intrigues of the work for themselves. Know, though, that the book is deeply melancholic, above all the figures depicted in this book are deeply human, their concerns human concerns. This is not to say that Life: A User’s Manual is a bummer of a book, not at all. In the first sentence, in proclaiming the book is about “failure” I have in a way given away much of the book’s thematic concerns, but to relegate this book to one facet of itself is a mistake.

Failure it may be about, but of what nature and of what content. Despite itself, despite the melancholy, Life: A User’s Manual manages to be one of the most hopeful and creatively inspirational books that I have ever read.

In breaking and fragmenting his work as such, Perec achieves an unprecedented realism which is far more than social.

FACT: If you write for Pelican you are granted a guaranteed graduate position of your choice

33

MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCACY FATIGUE Mike Anderson

I’m a mental health advocate, I’m someone who lives with mental health conditions, I’m living with anxiety, I’m living with depression. These are facts of my everyday life. I experience my conditions in some form or another every day. It’s tiring, it’s really tiring, and there are some days that I just want to curl up in my bed, cry and sleep all day. There are days where I feel able to tackle absolutely anything, but even those days can be tiring. I love being an advocate, I love being able to wear my mental health openly and talk about it. I love that I can help make a difference and that people can see what mental ill-health really looks like and that there are people out there that will support them - but it is tiring.

One of the things I do as an advocate is talking publicly about my mental health, this means discussing very openly my conditions, the way they impact my day to day life and how I experience things. This could mean telling people how parties make me so anxious that I need to mentally prepare myself for at least a week, have action plans for if I have a panic attack, or maybe about how hard it is for me to make phone calls. When I talk about my mental health it makes my condition visible. I both like and dislike this. I like that it means that people are hearing about mental ill-health, and how talking about it contributes to reducing the stigma. I don’t like that it might be the only thing some people know about me… but honestly that doesn’t bother me too much. I know they know that there’s more to me, and that when they meet and chat to me the conversation is probably going to jump to something like elections - and that they’ll quickly realise I’m just a big nerd.

Something that does worry me sometimes is that I might be the only person they know who talks publicly about these things. But that’s more a reason for me to keep going. I want others to feel confident in talking about their mental health, and to be real with topics such as mental ill-health. If doing what I do can help a single person in reaching out for support, then I’m satisfied. A bigger hope though, is that by doing what I do, others are able to talk about mental health in order to create a healthier conversation around it.

The fact is though, sometimes I’m tired. Sometimes I’m having a really bad day. Those days are the days that I’m not able to do what I love doing. Sometimes, having talked so much about it all I feel a little raw emotionally exhausted. As much practice as I have, it’s still something that takes energy to do, and I only have so many spoons. Sometimes I’m just having a bad mental health day, maybe something has happened that has made me feel more anxious than usual, maybe I’m just having a low day. Having these days is absolutely valid, and anyone who experiences them should always make sure that they’re looking after themselves and practicing self-care.

Those days can be rough. As I’m so visible with my mental health, it often means my bad days are also visible. It’s not always a bad thing because it’s not all sunshine and roses, but it is something that I have to be mindful of. Some days I have to be able to say, “Hey, I’m not doing too well today. Can I talk to you about it tomorrow?” That’s a completely reasonable request, I need to look after myself to make sure I’m doing the best for others too. It is something that I’ll struggle with sometimes though. I want to be able to talk about it all, and I don’t like seeing it as a barrier, because it’s not.

But I have to look out for my own health as well.

This isn’t meant to dissuade people talking about their mental health, or talking to me about the topic, quite the opposite. It’s about making sure that you’re looking after yourself when you do. Because we do need to talk about it, but we also need to be talking about it in a healthy way. There’s no shame in not being ready to talk about it. You can always have a private word with a friend, or with someone else you trust. There are different ways of being brave about your mental health, and there are different ways of being an advocate for better mental health.

I love what I do, and I don’t plan to stop any time soon. I hope to encourage more people to talk about mental ill health and to be advocates in their community. I hope to break down any barriers that we face and to remove the stigma attached to mental ill-health. To keep doing that, I have to make sure I’m looking after myself and being mentally healthy when I do so.

I WANT OTHERS TO FEEL CONFIDENT IN TALKING ABOUT THEIR MENTAL HEALTH, AND TO BE REAL WITH TOPICS SUCH AS MENTAL ILL-HEALTH. 34 FACT: Students say the National Anthem “doesn’t slap” and ask for it to be replaced with My Neck, My Back

IT’S TIME FOR AUSTRALIA TO TAKE ACTION ON GENOCIDE RECOGNITION Jacob Mitchell Every year on the 25th of April Australians and New Zealanders gather to honour the sacrifice made by the young men of the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps. ANZAC Day holds a sacred place in the consciousness of our two countries who came of age on the shores of Gallipoli.

The crimes against the Armenian, Assyrian, and Pontic Greek peoples together with those committed against the Jewish populations of Europe during the Second World War would form the basis for the development of 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

However, on the 24th of April the Australian Armenian community remember a moment of deep trauma. On that night in 1915, as ANZAC forces steamed towards that fatal shore, the Ottoman regime arrested hundreds of Armenian intellectuals and community leaders. Many of those arrested on ‘Red Sunday’ would be among the earliest victims of a deliberate and systemic attempt to exterminate the Armenian, Assyrian, and Pontic Greek peoples by the Ottoman Empire.

To date, the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, the Republic of Turkey, denies these crimes as genocide.

Instead it insists that claimed Armenian, Assyrian, and Pontic Greek casualties during the period between 1915 and 1923 are dramatically overestimated. The Turkish government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denies that actions committed by the Ottoman regime constitute genocide and has belligerently lobbied to discourage its recognition.

Following on from Red Sunday the Ottoman regime enacted a campaign of ethnic cleansing across its Anatolian heartland. The process began with the passage of the Temporary Law of Deportation or Tehcir Law which empowered the military to deport any individual suspected as a threat to national security.

Under the Tehcir Law 1.5 million Armenians, 800,000 Assyrians, and 400,000 Pontic Greeks were deported from Anatolia. Those forced from their homes faced a horrific fate, with a majority of the Armenian population enduring forced marches to disease-ridden concentration camps deep in the Syrian desert. Many would perish being burned alive in barns or churches.

In his book, An Inconvenient Genocide human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson describes the fate of those Armenians living in the coastal city of Trebizond who were forced aboard crowded ships and capsized in the Black Sea. Hundreds of thousands would die of starvation and abuse in concentration camps outside the city of Aleppo where women and children were left at the mercy of Ottoman soldiers.

Australia has lagged behind other advanced democracies, such as Canada and France, when it comes to recognising the Ottoman genocides. This is in no small part due to its close relationship with Turkey, a relationship inexorably linked to our shared history at starting in the darkened hours of April 25th, 1915. But so too is Australia’s connection to genocides, which were in part justified as preventing an Armenian rebellion in support of the Allied campaign at Gallipoli.

While the Australian Armenian community has had some success in its campaign for genocide recognition of New South Wales and South Australia passing a motion condemning the genocide.

It’s time for all Australian governments, state and federal, to recognise the crime of genocide as committed against the Armenian, Assyrian, and Pontic Greek peoples.

It’s time.

Following the war, an attempt was by the victorious allied powers to try the architects of the massacres on the island of Malta. However, due to lack, the international legal structure for the prosecution of war crimes in the inter-war period justice remained elusive.

35 FACT: Julian Assange to be granted asylum in the Arts Common Room. Sex Couch has been requested to be moved

THE LOVE WE ACCEPT Laura Bullock Content warning: toxic relationships, emotional abuse Hope. That’s a big word coming out of a nine month emotionally abusive and manipulative relationship.

When my friends lovingly and gently told me how unhealthy and toxic they perceived my relationship to be, and after I opened up to them about everything my ex did and said, the light bulb over our heads turned on. We realised that my relationship was more than just toxic – it was highly emotionally abusive. However, when they proposed the necessity of escaping, I was terrified. How could I leave this person I loved so dearly, who loved me – no, there’s no way!

My inner monologue consisted of me telling myself that she’ll get better, she’s just stressed and going through a lot, and that I just need to learn how to communicate my needs better. But my friends were right. I was also stressed and going through a tough time, but she never held space for my pain like I did for hers, every time.

She didn’t respect me enough to listen or to change when I expressed a grievance. Leaving her was the hardest thing I’ve done in my life. It was excruciating.

But after the initial pain subsided, I was flooded with relief – no more carefully treading on eggshells, no more having to calculate five, ten steps ahead and pre-empt how she’d react to anything I said. No more abuse.

Looking back on what happened to me, I refuse to adapt a victim mentality. I have always liked to believe in breakups and bad experiences teaching us a lesson.

IT’S NOT THAT WE DESERVE BAD THINGS. OF COURSE, NONE OF US DO. BUT WE CAN GROW FROM THEM. After a handful of abusive relationships peppered with regular shitty relationships, I realise that there is hope. There is hope now that I’ve found a pattern and I am investing time and energy into warmth, endless optimism, and hope in people’s intentions with me. Some people may have taken advantage of my emotional vulnerability and my loving, caring, and generous nature, but now I can explore my vulnerability.

I can take pride in it and not berate myself for it because I do not deserve abuse for being vulnerable.

Having said that, I’m learning how to protect myself with boundaries, as well as learning the red flags to spot early in my future relationships. I’m vulnerable and that’s not a bad thing.

My abusive ex over nine months liked to co-opt social justice language and psychological buzzwords during conflict to befuddle me and to wear down my sanity.

36

After several months of living in almost constant fear and anxiety, and stepping on eggshells around them, my closest friends began cottoning on to what was really going on behind closed doors. It would have been so much easier for me to realise if there was physical abuse involved – who’s not going to question bruises and marks? It would even have been easier if the abuse was 24/7. “When it was bad it was horrible, but when it was good it was amazing” is textbook survivor talk for a reason – it’s how the abuser keeps you hooked in and hoping for positive change.

The psychological warfare I was subjected to over the better part of a year was insidious and so much harder to understand. My ex made me truly believe I was incapable of understanding emotions, that I was a terrible person who could not possibly communicate the same way as others (read: I just couldn’t read her mind). She planted those seeds in my head and in my heart, and made herself out to be the ultimate sensitive, big-hearted, victim. I always ended up digging my own grave trying to appease her and to make up for my seemingly constant and endless barrage of errors. On the rare occasions I felt brave enough to stand up for myself, she threw my words right back at me and demonised me yet again for finding offence at something SHE had said or done.

I would tell my friends constantly, “I fucked up, I said the wrong thing.” And I’d feel confused when they’d be bewildered at my supposed lack of empathy. In their point of view, when they’d all been through challenging experiences ranging from illnesses to bad break ups, I was always there for them, coming through with care and love, driving over to sit with them, going on long hikes where we worked out our problems. They asked me, “Are you saying the wrong thing, or is she hearing the wrong thing?’

I am not letting my abusers win. I’m free and I’m gonna be fine! I’m working my dream job, including engaging in support work on the front lines with people with disabilities, advocating for Deaf people, and public speaking. I’m going to Paris in a few weeks to the World Federation of the Deaf Congress, representing WA as an emerging Deaf leader. I’ll be presenting publicly everything I learn to the board of Access Plus WA Deaf (our peak body of advocacy for the Deaf community in WA), schools, elderly Deaf groups, LGBTQI+ Deaf groups, and my wonderful clients. It will be my first international trip and I couldn’t be more excited! I’m getting back into my art, writing and poetry, sharing my truths and my light. I’m also planning to start my own basic Auslan classes for LGBTQI+ people in Perth - we’ll come together for wine and laughs, and learn

FACT: CMX will only track you if you say bad things about the peacocks

sign language in a super casual, warm, and friendly environment. I’ve already had over 60 people say they’re interested! I have hope and faith in my endless potential.

It’s not just my career that’s thriving right now, though.

I’ve developed a godly level of resilience, strength, and wisdom after everything I have experienced. I know what I’ve been through and I have always come out the other side no matter how difficult it was. It’s sometimes hard to have trust in my own abilities and potential but I always remind myself to have faith in me.

I’m also more self-aware than I ever was, after piecing everything together. Abuse isn’t about how badly a person was treated in their past – it’s about their inherent attitudes and values about how people should be treated. An abuser doesn’t abuse because they’ve been hurt in the past – they abuse because they, subconsciously or not, believe you are not worthy of respect. An abuser keeps their victim in the dark and constantly confused in the flux of their rapidly changing, and horrible behavior because they know that mystery keeps you hooked. That mystery keeps you in an endless cycle of, “Well she was so kind and loving last week! I just need to figure out what made her snap and it’ll be okay again.” And they know that! When they’re kind and loving towards you, it acts as positive reinforcement to keep you in the relationship and even causes trauma bonding – something akin to Stockholm Syndrome.

Knowing and understanding what I have been through has helped me realise that none of what happened was my fault. I feel confident that I can break the pattern, because I know what they’re targeting. My ‘weaknesses’ are really my strengths. I know the red flags. I have daily affirmations I tell myself to remind myself of my strength. I have a support group filled with healing people who support and uplift me. I’m still healing and I might be for a long time still. But I’m making a pact with myself, to speak up when I notice those early signs of disrespect that would have bloomed later into abusive behavior.

But you know, my friends lit the way for me and reminded me of the wonderful person I am and the sheer fucking strength and resilience I have for getting through this. Those who know me, know this wasn’t my first abusive relationship. I escaped another one early in 2018 too.

I can honour the good parts of my relationship, and my ex too. I can lament for the love we had for each other and remember us fondly but I can still hold anger for my abuse. And most importantly, I can heal and grow and love again.

How’s that for hope?

‘Art by Laura Bullock // @deafgirlclub’

FACT: Campus Culture just a long-winded marketing campaign for a new line of yogurt coming in Semester 2 37

VOICE

Seyyed Morteza Hosseini

The very first image of my childhood that I remember is an afternoon in the middle of the summer. I sat in the back yard, eating yogurt when my cousin entered.

That was the first time I saw Muhammed Amin. He had just arrived from Afghanistan. He is now working as a journalist in press TV in Afghanistan. Press TV is an Iranian based broadcast in English. He can speak several languages, and he gets his salary in dollars, touch wood.

We start to play with dirt in our sunflower garden in the backyard. Mohammed Amin is three or four years older than me. He was always brave and naughty.

One day he told me, do you see the sun? If you can stare at the sun long enough, your eyes become fiery.

Then if you look at a rock it will melt, if you look at trees they will turn to ash, and so on.

I was a light-hearted child, so I believed him. I went outside and stared at the sun. Like he said, my vision became yellow. I said to myself, he is right. My eyes have become fiery. It didn’t take much time before my mother came and twisted my ears; I did not complain or cry. I just closed my eyes, so my eyes did not burn my mother. *** I am going to the library. It is raining. I want to work on the natural roots of natural numbers. I always loved analysis.

I sit behind the desk, open the foundation of mathematical analysis and get started.

I pick up my pen and write rational, circle it, and I draw a smile with rabbit teeth underneath. Then I write irrational and circle this as well and put a question mark above. I always enjoy analysis and exploration.

I don’t know how old I was; I don’t remember which year it was or which season it was, I only remember a rainy day in the early years of life. After the rain, I went out. There were some sparrows, not too far. I ran towards them, while I was following them, I suddenly saw a rainbow. It was the first time I have seen such a beautiful picture. I thought it is magical. I saw it first, it was mine. Look how beautiful it is. Now everyone was looking at my rainbow. From that day forward, I promised if I experience beauty that others could not see, I would show them. ***

38

FACT: The Medieval Society are going to renovate the Tav to Ye’ Ole Tav and only sell mead

Once when I was a little kid, I remember I went to a picnic with my father. As soon as we got there, I started to play with the American ants. These particular ants were four times as big as regular ants. Then I realised something important about myself, I realised I was stronger than the whole of planet earth because I was playing with a plant. I tried to pull the plant alone by myself, but the planet earth resists against me with all its power. At last, I succeeded to pull out the plant, and I defeated planet earth.

My Grandpa once said he used to have a friend. A friend in Afghanistan in early 1900. He made a knife with a special alloy. The government captured him and cut his hand off. This dictatorship in Afghanistan did not tolerant any change for ages. But I believe I will see an Afghanistan that will be most unsafe place on the planet earth, not for Afghan civilians, but for terrorists and criminals.

Once I saw a great animation, it showed Nazis preparing a missile to launch. All of a sudden, a little bird came and sat on the peak of the rocket and started to peck. Soon alarms turned on and everyone escaped. I then realised how fragile power is. I remembered Nimrud and the fly that killed him.

Nobody liked him. Everyone looked at him like a stranger he finally lost patience. He wanted to drop himself from the top of a cliff. Between the earth and sky fear of death overcame him. He opened his wings and flapped them. A little bit further down he landed safely on water. The ugly duckling knew he was different from the others but now he realised for the first time he has two wings to fly and two feet to swim on the water. In that moment, in the twilight, he left for ever to find his destiny.

*** I have seen a caricature that showed a competition between Russia, the United States, and Great Britain.

Each of them had a pool for themselves. With a fish for each competitor. They were asked to catch the fish.

Every one of them had a different method to catch the fish. The Russian entered the pool, and he tried to catch the fish with his bare hands. Whereas the American had a fish rod in his hand waiting but the English competitor had a bowl, and he emptied the pool.

***

*** I was preparing for my university entrance exam about seventeen years ago. For eleven months I was going to the library at 7 am in the morning and finish study at 9 pm. As an Afghan refugee in Iran, the only hope for me was to go to the University. University as a matter of fact was my only hope. It was a do or die for me.

*** I want to explain the true meaning of Justice by telling a story. Suppose a father that has two sons and buys a sandwich for both of them. Then he first asks his older son to chop the sandwich off into two slices. Then he tells his younger son to choose one of the slices. In this allegory, the father is the constitution the first son is the government and the second son is the nation or people. The moral of the story is if the government tries to cheat, people should have an opportunity to choose and have the upper hand over the government. But how can we establish Justice all over the world?

The first condition is to overlook our priorities. Money is essential, but it shouldn’t be a vital thing for life.

Instead, our priority should be morality, and moral sense. Money should be less critical. As long as war brings wealth, and it is profitable for capitalism, peace will not be occurring. Power is sweet and joyful. But power is like a whip; it is hard to control this whip so it does not lash the innocent.

My story began one month after the University entrance exam. I did well. The very first time that I have heard my name on a speaker, in the middle of summer, the announcer clearly said Seyyed Morteza Hosseini has been accepted to University. It was the starting point of an evolution in my life.

Originally from Afghanistan, Seyyed Morteza Hosseini came to Australia as a refugee. He now studies Economics at the University of Western Australia and has a passion for creative writing. “Voice� is a series of excerpts from his incomplete novel entitled, Autobiography.

***

FACT: Arts degrees funding has increased! There will have an additional 8-unit options per semester.

39

HELP ME CARRIE FISHER, YOU’RE MY ONLY HOPE Alyssa Tang

I DON’T WANT MY LIFE TO IMITATE ART, I WANT MY LIFE TO BE ART. Carrie Fisher was an icon of many talents. Whether you know her as an actress, a writer or as a comedian, she tended to capture hearts with her dry wit and her honest personality. Her death in 2016 had taken place two days after Christmas and became possibly the worst Christmas present my brother and I had ever received, and our dad gave us electric toothbrushes once.

It’s hard for people not to mention Fisher without mentioning Star Wars, and her portrayal of Princess Leia Organa. The classic trilogy had been a milestone in Fisher’s life as her most popular acting role. She has also starred in the recent Star Wars trilogy (2015 - ), The Blues Brothers (1980) and When Harry Met Sally (1989). So, what separates Fisher from other actresses?

Besides her authorial debut in 1987 with her book Postcards From the Edge, she was also incredibly open with dealing with drug and alcohol addiction, as well as bipolar disorder. “I used to think I was a drug addict, pure and simple — just someone who could not stop taking drugs willfully. And I was that. But it turns out that I am severely manic depressive” said Fisher in an interview with ABC. Fisher had a huge impact on removing the stigma behind mental illness, acknowledged by multiple celebrities at the time of her death. People like Halsey, who struggles with bipolar disorder herself, tweeted “Carrie Fisher dedicated her platform to mental health awareness & female empowerment. She is a reason + reminder to keep up your fight. RIP.” Writer Matt Haig, most known for his book Reasons to Stay Alive, struggled with major depression. “Carrie Fisher, as well as being a screen legend, did as much to end mental health stigma as anyone. Her candid bravery comforted millions” Haig tweeted.

She was continuously outspoken about her bipolar disorder, saying once that “People make fun of it, or don’t want anyone to know - man, I don’t care. It’s like a war story.” Fisher had stated that she was diagnosed at the age of 24, but hadn’t believed until she was 28, overdosed, and finally became sober.

In her semi-autobiographical book, Postcards From the Edge, the character of Suzanne goes through rehab for her drug addiction and the story follows her career path as an actress afterwards. It delves into the more unacknowledged parts of Hollywood, including the 40

very hushed misogyny back in 1987 that still continues now. Fisher’s blatant exposure of Hollywood’s flaws had made her not only an icon of dry wit, but one of adoration from anyone who had experienced the rougher side of fame.

Fisher, as well as Leia, served as a feminist icon to many.

She was well aware of the gender divide when raising her daughter Billie Lourd, “[Carrie] raised me without gender. It’s kind of the reason she named me Billie. It’s not about being a strong woman — it’s about being a strong person.”

Leia Organa is a continuing feminist icon ever since her appearance in the first Star Wars film. The stereotypical role for women of the 70s was to serve as a side character to a man’s story - and while Star Wars isn’t flawless, Leia Organa was my first personal experience with a woman who did not care for men, but the people of her planet. Leia is a no-shits-given character that still resonates with me today. Her characterisation has had a leading role in the diversity of female characters we have currently, showing women are more than just pawns in a man’s plotline. The downfall of Leia’s proper characterisation was in Return of the Jedi (1983) where Leia was put into a slave bikini - Fisher has said later that the very clear sexualisation of Leia was a “boy’s fantasy” and gave Daisy Ridley the advice to “fight against that slave outfit.”

So why is Carrie Fisher a symbol of hope for many?

Personally, Carrie was the reason I could keep getting through day to day life. Her exposure of her own mental health and how open she was about it made me feel more secure in my own. I was also pressured by people in my life to be ‘ladylike’ but instead I looked to Leia Organa to fight for what’s right first - gender roles are overrated, and I’m pretty sure Carrie would’ve said that sometime in her life. Two of my greatest friends bought me a little Leia badge that says “self-rescuing princess” and it’s one of my most prized possessions today. So yeah, Carrie Fisher went from being a star in Star Wars to being a guiding light in my life as she lovingly gives society the middle finger.

And for the rest of my life, I will say to the sky, “Help me Carrie Fisher, you’re my only hope.”

Carrie Fisher: Oct 21st 1956 - Dec 27th 2016

FACT: The sex couch in the Pelican office has a Twitter account

WHAT TOM GLEESON’S GOLD LOGIE WIN TELLS US ABOUT AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Jess Cunnold Within the span of six weeks, Australians have delivered shock results in ballots of very different kinds. On May 18, against the odds, Scott Morrison and the Liberals were elected to their third term of government. On June 30, against strong competition, Australia elected Tom Gleeson as its Gold Logie Winner.

On May 18, tears ran down the faces of many Labor supporters across the country. Bill Shorten stepped down from the leadership shortly after, and on Friday, Noah Carroll resigned from his role as ALP National Secretary.

Shortly after the Logies, Nadia Elshawarby of Who Magazine reported Amanda Keller was furious that Tom Gleeson won the Gold, and News Corp reported The Project viewers thought fellow nominee Waleed Aly grilled Gleeson about his unorthodox campaign style passive-aggressively in an interview post-Logies.

While seemingly poles apart, the similarities between the election and the race for the Gold Logie are remarkable.

Tom Gleeson was arguably the underdog. He was up against Amanda Keller, a fixture of the Australian entertainment business for the 30 years; Waleed Aly, an esteemed Walkey-nominated journalist, lawyer and lecturer; and Sam Mac, former radio personality and Sunrise weather presenter.

The Coalition were in a similar position. After years of consecutive poor polling, three different PMs and vast internal rifts, it looked like the Liberals and Nationals were moving to the opposition benches come the opening of the 46th Parliament.

What changed this? The power of media.

Gleeson ran a saturation campaign little different to the massive media campaign Labor had to combat at the hands of the Liberals and Clive Palmer. Like his campaign to win Grant Denyer the Gold Logie, Gleeson consistently posted on social media after his nomination soliciting votes; went on major commercial TV programs such as Today and The Project, and even featured on the cover of Vogue.

Gleeson moved further into political-style campaigning by promising to widen the road into Romsey, where he lives; employing fear tactics by threatening to discontinue his top-rating show Hard Quiz and leave his

crew employed, and creating negative ads attacking (in jest) his fellow nominees.

The Federal Election was no different. With an estimated spend of 70 million dollars, advertising for Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party was inescapable for a good year leading up to the election. Ads would run twice an ad break, there were unsolicited texts and mailouts, and billboards everywhere, with anti-Labor messaging was prominent throughout.

The Liberals used resources effectively and had strong messaging, conveniently simplifying Labor policy positions into scare campaigns across print, digital, TV and radio.

Other Logie nominees lacked a coordinated campaign on the scale of Gleeson, limiting themselves to sharing links on Facebook asking fans to vote for them and mentions during their TV shows.

Labor didn’t have a media campaign with effective messaging to; one, let people know about their policy platform; two, discourage a Liberal vote by pointing out negatives; and three, combat negative messaging against them. This meant Labor’s message was drowned out in a sea of negative advertising.

Media and messaging is far from the only reason Labor lost. The political institution has been shedding legitimacy in the eyes of the public, as people become fed up with broken promises and political infighting.

This saw minor parties receive a greater proportion of the primary vote, of which a significant portion flowed to the Liberals.

Similarly, Gleeson’s campaign demonstrated the Logies’ own legitimacy issues. Gleeson outwardly demonstrated that the Logies can be wielded like any other campaign to elect anyone a winner.

Gleeson’s Gold Logie win should be an allegory for Labor moving forward. Policies do not sell themselves and need effective, layered campaigning to be successful. It would be a mistake to underestimate how effective media is at achieving this. It also needs to help solve the legitimacy issues within the Australian political institution as it is disproportionately affected.

Perhaps Labor need someone who knows this only too well… #GleesonForNatSec?

FACT: TLG came door knocking to my house once

41

Parsa Amid

ONE PORT TO RULE THEM ALL

For the past few years, I feel like every new device, laptop, thumb drive, phone, or even headphone chargers has the wrong connectors. In this day and age, I really expect a seamless connectivity between all my devices, but all I feel like is a growing need for dongles in places where we didn’t need one before.

So here is a relatively common example of this growing disconnectivity. Imagine someone deep in the Apple ecosystem who owns an iPhone with a single lightning port, a MacBook with a bunch of USB-C ports and a headphone jack and maybe even an iPad Pro which also uses a USB-C. What happens if they are listening to music on their laptop and now they want to switch to their iPhone? They better own a 3.5mm-audio-jack-tolightning dongle, otherwise you are out of luck. I know a lot of people who carry two pairs of earphones, one for laptop and one for their phone, and this should not be a problem. It is not just about listening to music either, it is about all the cables everyone needs to carry around just to be able to charge their device. And let us not forget the insane number of dongles you need to connect everything to each other.

The bigger problem arises when you try to connect external devices to your laptop or mobile. It used to be easy with one specialised port for every purpose. I remember my old laptop, it had two USB ports, HDMI, headphone jack and so much more. If I wanted to connect it to a TV, I could just connect the cord to the HDMI port, or if I wanted to connect a hard drive, I would just plug it in, no need to even think about it. Now it is much harder, for almost all new devices you would need an HDMI to USB-C dongle or even a USB-A to USB-C dongle (USB-A is the big rectangular connector that you have probably used all your life), a dongle for everything.

I remember a few years ago when the new MacBook was introduced, it was the first mainstream device rocking a single audio-jack and a USB-C port, and it introduced me to the wonders of USB-C. A new attempt to have a universal port for everything, and it was even reversible as well, no more trying a bazillion times to plug in a USB. Everything seemed great, up until I realised we have been trapped in the transition period before the glory of USB-C arrives.

Being stuck in this transition period really sucks because I still have a lot of stuff with older connectors. I have a hard drive with a USB-A, wireless headphones with a micro-USB charger, and lastly a phone with a USB-C. That is three different ‘standards’ I need to carry around every day. While this period is dreadful there is one silver lining, which is that it is temporary.

If you look at most new product announcements, almost all of them have USB-C, and it is just a matter of time until everything will have the same port. Whilst every day more and more devices come out containing a USB-C connector, it will be a while until I can gradually invest thousands of dollars in upgrades to get those devices.

All that keeps me going is the hope that this period will be finished in the near future. It won’t be fast, it will be a few more years, but I know at some point I will not need to carry around dongles or 3-4 different cables just to charge my different devices. Just one cable for everything. One USB-C cable to rule them all.

42FACT: There’s a glitch on the new StudentConnect. Hack3rbo1 found a loophole enabling you to edit unit results.

DEAR MINECRAFT:

I HOPED FOR BETTER. George Samios

It was only a matter of time, wasn’t it?

Minecraft, the extensively popular sandbox game has been picking up traction recently as many consider it to be having a resurgence. You have got YouTubers playing it unironically, nostalgic memes up the wazzoo, and that one friend who keeps pestering you about how that LAN party is so “totally on”.

Putting the infinite fun you can have poking at the stereotypes of the screaming fanboys aside, Minecraft is, for the most part, a good game. Its simplicity is charming, its gameplay is straightforward, and its influence of creativity will be responsible for a large portion of future adults having an affinity for architecture and colour coordination. But the issue I have always had with Minecraft is that after a week you have done just about everything you need or can do within the game.

I am sure a lot of us have been there. A school friend says they are going to launch a new server, so you gather a group of the savviest builders and explorers and go ham in a brand-new world of your own design, building castles, bases and because we were fourteen, phallic objects. But once the Ender Dragon was defeated or your castle griefed beyond repair, your fellow teammates go their separate ways. And then you are the only active player on the server for an extra week until you realise your chest organising skills will be going unnoticed. That was just me? Eh, you get the point.

The excitement for starting the game burns bright but the boredom ignites just as fast if not faster. What Minecraft has always needed was a reason to bring you back. Bosses are nifty, exploration is fun, but after a while it all becomes one and the same.

So when I heard about this supposed renaissance my dreams had come true, albeit six or eight years late. But that did not matter! Mojang had got off their billion dollar asses and finally added enough stuff to do to

make your worlds evergreen with new activity. Or at least that is what I hoped for.

It seems the nostalgia clock has been ticking faster than usual. Now it seems that playing a game that is barely ten years old is considered to be a blast from the roaring past (ugh, just take me back already). But with internet culture scraping the bottom of the barrel for content that millennials can fawn over, Minecraft has come full circle. It was a game which became a cultural phenomenon, which turned into a joke, which turned into a meme, which finally has become the beloved game it was at the start. You could probably slip “comfort for when I get lonely” somewhere in between joke and meme, I know I would.

Should we be surprised? Probably not. I could go into detail about the connection between gaming and nostalgia, but I do not really want to, and my reasoning should be obvious. We crave the return to the simpler times of our lives, and games such as Minecraft are the embodiment of the innocence and serenity of our youth.

Particularly as you spend your time playing in a world of your own literal creation.

But I am getting off track. This does not change the fact that Minecraft- which is still one of the biggest games in the world- is only slightly different than its first launch.

Could they at least try to add something that is not some randomly generated castle with another useless loot box? Or a mob that has not already existed in far better mods? Or maybe, just maybe, some more items to collect so you can spend more focus on the actual mining and crafting?

Maybe that is why we keep coming back. The world may change around us, but Minecraft will always be the same old cracked version you picked up from your friend’s USB in the middle of biology class all those years ago.

God speed, gamers. It’s time to rise and mine.

FACT: The son of Perthonality, Tony Galatti studies at UWA and can be spotted at the Tav on Tuesdays.

43

STILL STANDING: WORDS WITH HILLTOP HOODS Interview by Cate Tweedie

Recently, Pelican contributor Cate Tweedie sat down with MC Pressure of the famed Aussie Hip Hop group, Hiltop Hoods, an act that by this point hopefully needs no introduction.

44

FACT: CMX monitors your location on campus 24/7. Better not skip tute time for Tav time.

Cate Tweedie: How would you say this upcoming tour compares to your last one, the Restrung Tour?

CT: Yeah, I guess it also comes down to what your voices sound like, and kind of like your style of rap as well?

MC Pressure: Uh, bigger! A lot bigger. That was five shows, this is fifty. The shows in Australia are of a similar capacity, I think we’re playing most of the same venues.

We’re doing another forty shows across the world with it.

Pressure: I guess as far as that goes, I’ve noticed this more overseas when we get reviewed or interviewed than I do back home in Australia, I’ve noticed that they refer to us as an‘old school boom-bap’ sound which is generally the term that it gets labelled under. As I guess a lot of your more modern hip hop would be electronic or trap sounding.

CT: Are you guys with an orchestra this time, or just with you guys?

Pressure: No, no no, that was a one off project that we did, five shows across Australia we sort of called it the restrung tour and there were a bunch of our songs reworked and remade specifically with an orchestra. This is a standard Hilltop Hoods affair.

CT: You said you’re going all across the world, what is it like bringing your music to the world - does it have a unique Australian sound?

Pressure: I think inherently our music has an Australian sound, mostly because we rap in the same accent that we talk in, it’s, you know, it’s Australian hip hop. But it does stand out to hip hop from a lot of other places in the world. I guess in a way that you when you go to England and listen to their hip hop, or their grime which is very big there now, it’s got a very distinct sort of british accent, so it definitely colours the music. I still feel very privileged to be able to travel the world, we’ve got fifty one shows in this tour across fourteen countries, and they’re selling crazy, better than they ever have which is mind blowing to me.

CT: So on that, what would you classify as the Hilltop sound? You mentioned previously that your intent is to sound like yourselves but never repeat yourselves, so what would you say is the consistent element in all your music?

Pressure: That’s actually a really hard question, our music has changed so much in... I think I’ve been making records for twenty years now, and I’ve changed so much as a person in twenty years, I think our music has evolved with that. I don’t know if there’s a discrete thing... I think people can probably hear our music and discern instantly, if they’re familiar with it, that it’s us. But I couldn’t tell you what that sound sounds like, you know what I mean, it’s hard to put into words.

CT: You guys have been doing a lot of work over your careers on developing and nurturing local acts, so what do you think the importance is of developing those?

Pressure: We’ve always been pretty hands on with that sort of thing, and we did a lot of mentoring, we used to own a label, we started our own label called Golden Era a long time ago, gave that away, we were mentoring a lot of young heads through that. We had good mentors when we came up, sort of passed the music on, that’s something that we wanted to be able to do for other people - You know, Just to sort of give young heads a hand in the platform, it’s just also good for the scene and the industry as well to have more experienced songwriters or heads just mentoring the people coming up.

CT: Are there any local acts that you guys have mentored the most and are doing well at the moment?

Pressure: We stepped away from the mentorship role, the last guy that we were hands on with, is doing big things of his own, that would be Briggs, like I said we gave away Golden Era Records, we don’t know about that any more, in that as well, we sort of weighed it up a bit in that role, because it was becoming a full time job.

We got so heavily embroiled in it that it was taking over and we had to make a decision at one point whether we want to be mentors slash record label execs, or whether we wanted to be musicians - we chose the latter. Since then, not as much, but we still keep our ear and eye on the scene. We have had a few conversations with a young kid called Shadow, who’s one of the people doing the support for the Australian leg of the tour, so we’re excited about the music he’s bringing out and it’s going to be good to see him in front of the crowd.

FACT: Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without words and never stops at45 all.

Emily Dickinson (i.e. Hope is Pelican!)

BLACK WATER Christina Vo

46

The human population is continuously living, increasingly conglomerating along the coastline, and standing on the front row of the extreme, unprecedented, plastic waste tide ever faced. Slow, silent, omnipresent, ever-increasing, more toxic than previously thought, plastic pollution really bears tremendous sobering consequences. From whales, sea lions and birds to the microscopic organisms such as zooplankton, plastic has been, and is massively impacting the marine life on and offshore. ‘Black Water’ is my elusive and subtle approach to this ongoing issue. My intention is not to forcefully provoke any thoughts but rather to encourage reflections on the decisions that we make daily.

47

WORDS WITH ALICE IVY Interview by Patrick Roso

In 2016, 23-year old artist/producer Annika Schmarsel, better known as Alice Ivy, released a pair of singles, the cinematic “Touch” and soul-soaked “Almost Here” which collectively amassed 900,000 plays on Spotify and saw the Melbourne-based beatmaker draw comparisons to fellow sample-fiends one of her greatest influences, The Avalanches.

Patrick Roso: How did it all start for you? What gave you that little spark to start making music?

Alice Ivy: There was a band that would play at my primary school and it was always a big deal. We would run up to them and get their autographs and I would watch the guitarist super closely, I always aspired to play the guitar! A few years later I was visiting my uncle and he let me play around in his home studio. He also taught me my first chords on guitar. We laid down some chords, recorded some bass and vocals and he burnt it to a CD, which I played on repeat. I just wanted to get better at playing guitar, so I practiced and practiced! I guess that’s where it all started!

48

PR: Recently, we invited contributors to tell us what their favourite record or album is and maybe share a little about what makes it so special to them. Is there a particular old love that you keep returning to over the years?

AI: One of my favourite albums of all time is ‘I Want That You Are Always Happy’ by The Middle East. It reminds me of when I was in my last year of high school still living at home and finally turning eighteen (an exciting but confusing time), it helped me through that year for sure.

It was also the first vinyl I owned so it’s been spun A LOT.

FACT: Pelican is running a Guild election ticket for an all you can eat sushi train in the Ref. Vote for Pelican!

PR: We read that it took two years for ‘I’m Dreaming’ to be released and in half the time you’re already teasing us with fresh singles. I was wondering if you could tell us what kind of shape and direction your new music is taking? We’re eager to hear about that second album and any collabs that might be in the works.

AI: The past year has been a whirlwind for me! I’m so proud of ‘I’m Dreaming’, it opened up so many doors for me! Not just shows, but people began to recognise me as a music producer. I gained so many writing opportunities out of it including trips to London, LA and Toronto where I worked with some incredible artists. ‘I’m Dreaming’ tells the story of the first two years of when I began to produce music. This next record is far more sophisticated; it’s definitely a sound that extends far beyond my home studio.

PR: If you could collaborate with any artist, who would it be?

PR: How does your music change during the transition from studio to stage?

AI: I’ve adjusted my live shows so they feel more energetic than the record. I’ve worked super hard on the transition to stage, I keep the show as live as possible by using instruments such as guitar to replace playing a lead synth part because I feel like the guitar offers you more freedom on stage!

PR: I see you’re playing the University of Wollongong’s UniBar. What do we have to do to get you out at UWA’s Tavern?

AI: A couple of bottles of champagne and you have yourself a deal.

PR: Do you have any advice for other young people looking to break into the industry?

AI: Frank Ocean, Rex Orange County, Empress Of, Xavier Omar, Kali Uchis, FKA Twigs, DD Dumbo, there are so many!

AI: Be patient (as hard as that is, trust me I know), but if you keep working hard at making the best music you possibly can and surround yourself with positive people good things will happen!

PR: What’s your composition process like? Where do you start when hammering out a new track?

PR: Lastly and most importantly: Does Lexie come on tour with you? We really need to know.

AI: I’ll usually dedicate a few days to sample hunting. So, I’ll record drum hits, field recordings, chord progressions, cool sounds that I like. Then I’ll usually start with a loop and build it as big as I can. Then I’ll begin to flesh it out into a song and approach lyrics and melody. Once I’m on a roll with the instrumentation the rest of the song writing process comes pretty quickly.

AI: Lexie is getting pretty old now (She’s almost twelve, that’s seventy seven in dog years!?) and she prefers the retired life at home. She still attends the occasional video and photo shoot though!

PR: Could you give us a run through your live set up?

What sort of hardware do you use to make your music?

AI: My live set up is pretty straight forward! I trigger loops on an Akai APC 40 midi controller off of Ableton Live in clip view. I play live guitar, trigger samples off of a Roland SPD-S and sing backing vocals. I’ll usually bring another guitarist or a rapper / singer on tour with me. It’s super adaptable, for more intimate shows I’ll just play solo and take care of all the guitar parts myself. In the studio I use a Korg Minilogue, Juno 06, Juno 106 and a Prophet 12 a lot.

FACT: 12.9% of your SSAF goes towards Conrad Hogg’s TikTok account

49

CHANGE THE WORLD IN A SMALL WAY EVERYDAY Changing the world doesn’t take one gigantic effort - the small, day-to-day choices we make can have an enormous impact. Pelican shares little things you can do today to spread hope and make the world just a teensy bit better for everyone.

1. Minimise your carbon footprint: bike ride, TransPerth or carpool to Uni (and save a pretty penny on parking tickets!)

2. Go ‘unshopping’: make a list of ten wasteful things you’ll never buy again.

3. Give up Group Think and speak up if you disagree.

4. Buy a reusable water bottle: and renounce buying the plastic ones.

5. Choose to buy Fairtrade: all Guild café coffee is, cocaine is not.

6. Send Styrofoam (polystyrene) packaging back to the manufacturer and ask them to think about its environmental impact.

7. Support the Perth music scene: get out to see some local bands and musos perform

20. Stop eating shrimps and prawns and save marine life and the ecosystem.

21. Learn sign language at Auslan and promote social inclusion.

22. Smile at a stranger (in a genuine not creepy way!)

23. Download a ‘Shop Ethical’ app and spend your consumer dollars wisely.

24. Say “thank you”: praise your lecturer, uber driver, cashier, barista etc. for their help.

25. Adopt or foster a shelter animal.

26. Say sorry and clear your conscience.

27. Sprinkle random acts of kindness like confetti (as simple as holding a door open.)

8. Give hugs (but ask first!)

9. Fight pollution: dispose of your lightbulbs, batteries, mobiles and ink cartridges at the Guild Village collection box.

10. Buy a copy of the Big Issue and have a chat with the vendor.

11. Commit to eating vegetarian once a week and save resources.

12. Lend a listening ear: Be a telephone helpline volunteer.

13. Join the Free and Open Source Software movement: start by downloading Open Office 14. Harass your local MP and help them do a better job. (check out Electronic Frontiers Australia for tips and tricks) 15. Eat Fairtrade chocolate and enjoy the taste of doing good.

16. Fight bio-piracy: Say no to Monsanto GMO, reject RiceTec and only buy Basmati rice from India.

17. Have a chat with an elderly person.

18. Use a menstrual cup: environmentally friendly and period-tax free!

50

19. Volunteer: donate your free time (checkout Guild Volunteering for different opportunities).

28. Sign a petition on change.org you care about.

29. Have fun and thrift shop: say no to child labour and sweatshops.

30. Tutor and share your knowledge with someone struggling in your course for free.

31. Don’t take yourself too seriously: tell jokes and laugh at yourself often.

32. Join the Billboard Liberation Front and edit billboards to spread positive messages.

33. Compliment someone and mean it.

34. Remember your green bags (and avoid the trolley walk of shame!)

35. Contribute to Wikipedia: share your expert knowledge on your obscure interest.

36. Swap, FreeCycle or Gumtree stuff you no longer use and avoid that gross #NewLandfillFeeling.

37. Recognise your hidden prejudices: take an implicit bias test at Project Implicit.

38. Spread hope with other students! Donate canned and unperishable food to Student Assist to support those struggling.

FACT: Hope stands for Hold On Pelican Exists

Comic by DAC

51

Pelican Editor(s) (usually a team of two) are appointed by the Guild each year prior to November 1st and tasked with putting out six to eight editions over the course of the academic year. You’ll also run the online production of content and get a swanky office to work out of.

WE WANT YOU

IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN BEING THE EDITOR FOR 2020

WHAT IT TAKES 1) You live and breathe the Pelican magazine.

Making the magazine the most wanted and needed magazine on the UWA campus.

2) You will work hard to ensure that Pelican actively represents, showcases, and develops the talents of the UWA student body.

3) You will be passionate about the printed and online magazine 4) You will have outstanding communication skills – with the student community, contributors, media agents, and with industry professionals - and use this to ensure different viewpoints are sought and represented 5) You will need to be highly organised and have strong time management skills adhering to deadlines 6) You will need to have a strong vision for the design, content, and overall look and feel of the mag – building on what has come before and taking Pelican in directions previously thought unimaginable 7) You MUST be an enrolled as a student for 2020 8) Having experience in writing, editing, coordinating, design/formatting software and art direction can never hurt If this is your JAM get amongst it.

52 66

Candidates must have been Guild members for the last two years (or as long as they’ve been at UWA) and not have run in Guild Elections over the same period of time. They must also be enrolled as students for 2020. Pelican can be edited solo or as a duo. If applying as the later, you’ll need to demonstrate how you’ll divide up the workload and handle differences that most definitely will arise.

Important things to consider when applying: - How will you get students to pick up, enjoy, relate to, and get involved with all aspects of Pelican?

- How you can ensure Pelican actively represents, showcases, and develops the talents of the UWA student body? What risks are you willing to take to innovate what Pelican looks like moving forward?

- How will you uphold the traditions of Pelican dating back to 1929?

- How will you maintain a politically unbiased approach to issues on and off campus?

Applications must consist of: - A resume including references – due Monday 23rd September 5pm in an email to marketing@guild. uwa.edu.au and pelican@guild.uwa.edu.au - A mock-up design based on articles we will provide to you which should be edited and designed in whichever way you see fit.

You must also note your availability to attend the interview panels due to take place on the week commencing 1st October.

If you are interested in applying contact Sophie & Susie at pelican@guild.uwa.edu.au to receive the necessary resources and you can be on your way!

If you have any questions about the position or would like more information, shoot a message to pelican@guld.uwa.edu.au, have a chat to our current Editors Sophie & Susie, email marketing@guild.uwa.edu.au, or stop by the Engagement Office.

GOOD LUCK!