Not Quite Australian

Download or read book Not Quite Australian written by Peter Mares and published by Text Publishing. This book was released on 2016-08-01 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Permanent migration has long been vital to the story of Australia. From the arrival of early settlers to waves of post-war immigration, the symbolic moment of disembarking onto Australian soil is an image deeply embedded in our nation’s consciousness. Today, there are more than million temporary migrants living in Australia. They work, pay tax and abide by our laws, yet they remain unrecognised as citizens. All the while, this rise in temporary migration is redefining Australian society, from wage wars and healthcare benefits, to broader ideas of national identity and cultural diversity. In Not Quite Australian, award-winning journalist Peter Mares draws on case studies, interviews and personal stories to investigate the complex realities of this new era of temporary migration. Mares considers such issues as the expansion of the 457 work visa, the unique experience of New Zealand migrants, the internationalisation of Australia's education system and our highly politicised asylum-seeker policies to draw conclusions about our nation's changing landscape. Not Quite Australian is packed with fresh insight and challenging new ideas for understanding Australia’s growing culture of temporary migration. Peter Mares is an independent writer and researcher. He is a contributing editor with the online magazine Inside Story and a senior moderator with The Cranlana Programme. Peter was a broadcaster with the ABC for twenty-five years, serving as a foreign correspondent based in Hanoi and presenting national radio programs. He is the author of the award-winning book Borderline: Australia's Response to Refugees and Asylum Seekers in the Wake of the Tampa and has written about migration for many media outlets including the Age, Australian Financial Review and Griffith Review. Peter lives in Melbourne with his wife and son. ‘Mares is indefatigable in his data gathering and scrupulously even-handed in weighing the evidence. He strikes an exquisite balance between the personal and scholarly, the humane and tough-mindedness. Not Quite Australian is big-picture storytelling with a pulse, always keeping ideals, blunt realities and people—the exposed who want a place and the lucky ones entrenched here—in the frame.’ Australian ‘An important and timely contribution to the debate about how Australia should handle the migration of people to its territory, and I highly recommend it.’ Australian Book Review ‘Compellingly readable...[Mares’] research is comprehensive, intellectually deft, ethically and philosophically grounded—but digestible, and personally attested...This is on-the-ground, people-focused journalism of the highest kind.’ Sydney Morning Herald ‘Mares has once again presented a controversial and complicated topic with clarity and humanity. At a time when a national conversation about what it means to be Australian (or unAustralian) seems daily social media fodder, Not Quite Australian is an important contribution. And a reminder of the importance of thorough, slow-burn journalism in the hot-takes age.’ Big Issue ‘This detailed, careful and topical book is illuminated by the personal stories of individuals and families caught up in a complex and bureaucratic system, and it leaves a lasting impression of an Australia that is becoming a two-tiered country...Powerful and persuasive.’ Overland ‘This book is one which should be read by policymakers and concerned citizens alike.’ Spectator ‘One of the most important books published in Australia in 2016. An impressive account of one of the biggest scandals in contemporary Australia; how we’ve sleepwalked into a policy environment that encourages the systemic exploitation of an underclass of millions of temporary migrants in our country.’ Tim Watts

Download or read book Not Quite Straight written by Jeffrey Smart and published by Random House Australia. This book was released on 2011-09-28 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Australian artist Jeffrey Smart's wicked and utterly engaging memoir. Born in respectable (read: dull) Adelaide in 1921, Jeffrey Smart made his first Grand Tour of Europe at age 4. By 5 he had discovered Sex (with a female classmate) and Crime. By 18 he’d decided he was the only person in Australia who was ‘not quite straight’. The subsequent decades brought further enlightenment, more travel, study with Fernand Leger, artistic development, adventures high and low, international acclaim, friends famous and infamous and - fittingly for someone who refers to himself as ‘a European who carries an Australian passport’ - a permanent return to the ancient, sun-soaked landscape of Tuscany. This is Jeffrey Smart's account of that very full life. He writes with a wicked wit of his family, friends and lovers, and of his jobs, including being the much-loved Phidias in ABC Radio’s ‘The Argonauts’ and the more lowly position of sink-scrubber on a slow boat to London, before finding fame as an artist. Throughout he is candid, funny and engaging. Like Smart’s paintings, Not Quite Straight offers a singular perspective shaped by a unique life.

Download or read book Sicily, It's Not Quite Tuscany written by Shamus Sillar and published by Allen & Unwin. This book was released on 2012 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Packed with history, culture, misadventure, and a little Mafioso action, the story of a newly married couple and the year they spent in Sicily Gill and I had dreamt of living in Italy for as long as we'd been together. This is the story of an Aussie couple who sought a Mediterranean Sea change only to find themselves in the sprawling Sicilian city of Catania—the "anti-Tuscany" of Italy. There, any romantic visions they'd had of restoring a villa or stamping their entwined feet in vats of Chianti grapes disappeared faster than the chief witness in a Cosa Nostra trial. Shamus and Gill's tiny apartment in Catania was located in a grim neighborhood opposite a triple-X cinema and a shop selling coffins, nearby Mount Etna erupted soon after their arrival, a mystery ailment left Shamus in a neck brace, they crashed a Vespa, and they had regular dealings with at least one Mafioso. This, then, is an Italian sea change with grit. But it's also a story of optimism, endurance, and acceptance; an exploration of the minutiae of Sicilian culture, history, food, and religion; and an example of how to find beauty—and humor—in the most unexpected of places.

Download or read book We Were Wolves written by Jason Cockcroft and published by Andersen Press Limited. This book was released on 2021-05-06 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal Nominated for the Kate Greenaway Medal Boy lives in a caravan on his own in the woods. His dad, John, is in prison and promises to get out soon. All the boy needs to do is survive alone for a little while longer. But dark forces are circling – like the dangerous man in the Range Rover, who is looking for his stolen money. And then there are the ancient forces that have lain asleep in the woods for an age...

Download or read book Not Quite Nigella written by Lorraine Elliott and published by Penguin Group Australia. This book was released on 2013-04-24 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From passionate home cook to Australia's most popular food blogger, Lorraine Elliott has her cake and eats it too – and she's never been happier. Lorraine Elliott has long been a food enthusiast who believes cakes belong in an art gallery. Not so long ago she decided to ditch her day job as a highly paid media strategist to cook, eat and write – even though she's not quite Nigella. Now her fabulous food blog Not Quite Nigella is the go-to internet destination for hundreds of thousands of foodies from around the world. This is the story behind that journey. With her irresistible humour and optimism, Lorraine reveals the pitfalls, triumphs and challenges of becoming a full-time food blogger, and shares the best of her new-found wisdom: the secret to winning a man's heart through food, the key to baking perfect macarons, tips on hosting unforgettable dinner parties, and how to create a successful blog. More than a celebration of food, Not Quite Nigella is the inspiring and delightful story of how one woman set about turning a dream into a reality.

Download or read book Sand Talk written by Tyson Yunkaporta and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2020-05-12 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A paradigm-shifting book in the vein of Sapiens that brings a crucial Indigenous perspective to historical and cultural issues of history, education, money, power, and sustainability—and offers a new template for living. As an indigenous person, Tyson Yunkaporta looks at global systems from a unique perspective, one tied to the natural and spiritual world. In considering how contemporary life diverges from the pattern of creation, he raises important questions. How does this affect us? How can we do things differently? In this thoughtful, culturally rich, mind-expanding book, he provides answers. Yunkaporta’s writing process begins with images. Honoring indigenous traditions, he makes carvings of what he wants to say, channeling his thoughts through symbols and diagrams rather than words. He yarns with people, looking for ways to connect images and stories with place and relationship to create a coherent world view, and he uses sand talk, the Aboriginal custom of drawing images on the ground to convey knowledge. In Sand Talk, he provides a new model for our everyday lives. Rich in ideas and inspiration, it explains how lines and symbols and shapes can help us make sense of the world. It’s about how we learn and how we remember. It’s about talking to everyone and listening carefully. It’s about finding different ways to look at things. Most of all it’s about a very special way of thinking, of learning to see from a native perspective, one that is spiritually and physically tied to the earth around us, and how it can save our world. Sand Talk include 22 black-and-white illustrations that add depth to the text.

Download or read book Australian National Cinema written by Tom O'Regan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005-08-10 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tom O'Regan's book is the first of its kind on Australian post-war cinema. It takes as its starting point Bazin's question 'What is cinema?'and asks what the construct of a 'national' cinema means. It looks at the broader concept from a different angle, taking film beyond the confines of 'art' into the broader cultural world. O'Regan's analysis situates Australian cinema in its historical and cultural perspective producing a valuable insight into the issues that have been raised by film policy, the cinema market place and public discourse on film production strategies. Since 1970 Australian film has enjoyed a revival. This book contains detailed critiques of the key films of this period and uses them to illustrate the recent theories on the international and Australian cinema industries. Its conclusions on the nature of the nation's cinema and the discourses within it are relevant within a far wider context; film as a global phenomenon.