Cover Art by Chloe Callow
I’m sitting in a room by myself in the early AM writing this editorial. I can hear my fellow editors laughing in the next room, and whispers of Elephant by Tame Impala are curling at my weary ears. It’s been a strange and chaotic night; the Wentworth Building, the basement of which we call home, was evacuated only hours ago to the shrieks of the fire alarm. After a chaotic relocation to the Royal Hotel, we ventured hesitantly back to the SRC. From the decidedly unsinged facade of the building, I can only assume that whatever hazard lurked on Level 3 had been dealt with by the prompt arrival of the firies. I guess we’ll never know.
I first got involved with Honi Soit in my second year of uni. My editor at the time (and now one of my very best friends) Liam Thorne came up to me at Welcome Week as I sat burrowed into a corner at the ACAR Stall and chased me up on my pitch. I can’t thank him enough for taking a chance on me as a green reporter. I also can’t believe that he passed me off to the inimitable Amelia Mertha in the second semester of that year (but ultimately, absolutely no complaints there).
This edition is filled with dreamers and dissenters. A few come to mind that I’d urge you to read and read again: Kowther Qashou interrogates the myth of settler pioneerism on page 9, and Amelia Koen touches on the colonial nature of museums on page 10. Claire Ollivain, whose relentless curiosity and sharp wit I admire greatly, digs into the history of Camperdown Memorial Rest Park (old burial ground turned popular Inner West haunt) on page 12. Outrageously tall (and handsome) Max Shanahan tells us that the weather up there is actually lovely, reminiscing on the comfort of wet weather on page 14. And at last, who could forget dear ‘Gamer Spread’ on page 17; while I pen a queer, anti-capitalist love letter to Stardew Valley, Marlow Hurst answers our questions about the feminisation of virtual healing.
A few last thanks to some old friends (really, they need to graduate): Liam Donohoe, of SRC Presidency fame and fortune, Pranay Jha who once thought to fill an otherwise comfortable silence by telling me about his leg workout that day, and Amanda Dheerasekara who was a beacon of reason and comfort in the last year: thank you, thank you, thank you for your love and support. Here’s my first EIC edition! Thank you for keeping me company in a year of isolation and hopelessness. I will buy you a new floor lamp.
Love always,
Vivienne