Brisbane River

'Reflect, listen and learn': Melissa Lucashenko busts colonial myths and highlights Indigenous heroes

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, October 18, 2023
People, Old age, UQP, First Nations, Native, Female, Black Lives Matter, Tobacco, Family, Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Community, Frontier war, Stolen Generations, Fruit, Story Bridge, Crying, Opium, Turtle, Aborigine, Heart, Law, Human voice, Man, Human, System, Haus, The Past, Brisbane River, Australia Day, Mental, Genocide, Essay, Heel, Melissa, Complex, Violence, Australian frontier wars, Life, Soil, Research, Melissa Lucashenko, Time, Reading, Franklin, Whaling, Book, Animal husbandry, Entertainment, Porcelain, Typesetting, Nursing, Drug, Country, Blak, Yagara, Didgeridoo

Melissa Lucashenko’s latest novel, Edenglassie, takes the reader on a journey through magnificent and heartbreaking dual narratives set five generations apart.

Key Points: 
  • Melissa Lucashenko’s latest novel, Edenglassie, takes the reader on a journey through magnificent and heartbreaking dual narratives set five generations apart.
  • Review: Edenglassie – Melissa Lucashenko (UQP) Lucashenko gifts us with characters impossible to not to invest in.
  • Read more:
    With wit and tenderness, Miles Franklin winner Melissa Lucashenko writes back to the 'whiteman's world'

It’s Granny Eddie’s world

    • The first character we meet is Granny Eddie, who has been hospitalised after a fall.
    • Winona laments not seeing her Granny Eddie enough, while also trying to find a job, disrupt the colony and make sure her granny is safe and cared for.
    • Respectful, kind and considerate, he is trying his best to care for Granny Eddie – and finds himself pushing professional boundaries as he falls head over heels for fiery Winona.
    • She and Dr Johnny have much to learn from each other as they bond over their care for Granny Eddie.

Shifting time

    • Lucashenko transports you, shifting through time.
    • In 1844, we meet Mulanyin, saltwater man, whose inner complexities are explored in depth as he learns the Law and lessons from Country and Ancestors.
    • With that thought, the boy had the electric realisation that all his life he had been eating the decisions of his Ancestors.
    • With that thought, the boy had the electric realisation that all his life he had been eating the decisions of his Ancestors.
    • I am reminded of the poem, The Past, by the late Oodgeroo Noonuccal:
      Let no one say the past is dead.
    • Haunted by tribal memories, I know
      This little now, this accidental present
      Is not the all of me, whose long making
      Is so much of the past.

‘Your body is not your own’

    • In the present, Winona and Granny Eddie interact and relate with Māori mob, through shared understandings of birthing practices and opposition to white cultural appropriation.
    • I found myself laughing, crying and fighting off goosebumps as I read.
    • There were moments when I had to put the book down, to sit with what I was reading.
    • It is clear Lucashenko has done extensive research to position this historical fiction through past and present Magandjin localities.
    • This is further evidenced by Lucashenko’s extensive acknowledgments and thanks to contributors and knowledge holders in the book’s author notes.

Many urban waterways were once waste dumps. Restoration efforts have made great strides – but there's more to do to bring nature back

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, June 15, 2023
GPS, Food, Travel, Environmental protection, Life, Environment Protection Act, 1986, Tree, River, Australia Day, Monash University, Sewage, Melbourne Water, Nutrient, State government, Cosmetics, Electron, Plant, Pesticide, Animal, Soil, Time, Water, Slaughterhouse, Parasitism, City, Government, Bacteria, Endangered species, Health, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Invertebrate, Death, Industrial waste, Farm, Wetland, Livestock, Road, Canal, Sewage treatment, Agriculture, Aquaculture, Willow, Darebin Creek, Wind, Oven, Brisbane River, NSW

Melbourne’s major river, the Maribyrnong, was full of waste from abattoirs, tanneries and factories.

Key Points: 
  • Melbourne’s major river, the Maribyrnong, was full of waste from abattoirs, tanneries and factories.
  • I live near Darebin Creek in Melbourne’s north, which was next to a tip and often polluted until cleanup efforts began in the 70s.
  • Here’s what the restoration of Darebin Creek shows us about the successes and challenges of bringing life back to our urban waterways.

Rivers or rubbish dumps?

    • European settlement had a big effect on creeks and rivers, we’ve often used them as convenient waste dumps.
    • Treating rivers as dumps can (unsurprisingly) damage or even wipe out the life in it.
    • Read more:
      A tale of 2 rivers: is it safer to swim in the Yarra in Victoria, or the Nepean in NSW?
    • The group spent decades removing weeds and rubbish and planting trees.
    • Rivers such as the Ovens and the Murray, and even the Yarra in places, are in poorer condition with low flows and high sediment and salt levels major issues.

How do we fully restore our city waterways?


    Native species reliant on our city waterways still face threats. These include:

How can we help bring life back?

    • If there’s a lesson in the restoration work done so far, it’s that we can’t expect life just to bounce back.
    • Join a local Waterwatch program to monitor river health, or join the national waterbug blitz to learn more about invertebrate life.