“he has something special to show me he’s holding a paper card in his hands shyly he shows me his scribbling it’s English on paper cards”
Browsing: ACAR Honi 2023
Malaysia: negaraku, ‘my country,’ merdeka, ‘independence’? Contrary. My post-colonialism? Postured: my decolonisation, postponed; my stamp, postage (RM0.60, apiece); my restante, poste; my rest, in peace; my ante, increased; my gender, policed …
It is important to note that individuals in this part of the world do not consider themselves ‘Middle Eastern’. It is through the eyes of the West, its operations and its framing of ‘the Other’ that the world has come to see the region in such an essentialised way.
By supporting local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanderand Pasifika queens we are amplifying their voices and the issues they raise.
Pathologising these systemic issues means that the burden is placed wholly on the individual to dismantle the effects of an entire power structure working against them.
I know so little of the place I was born. Recently, the reminders of my not-knowing have become more frequent. An epidemic of half-familiar this-that-those.
