MWF ‘11 Coverage: Tasmania’s Call

Nadiah Abdulrahim September 05

As a former Hobart resident, the Melbourne Writers Festival Tasmania’s Call session, immediately triggered my interest. Anna Krien, author of Into the Woods: The Battle for Tasmania’s Forests, hosted a panel of three: Natasha Cica, author of Pedder Dreaming, Michael Veitch, host of ABC Hobart’s Afternoon Show and author of The Forgotten Islands and Sarah Kanowski, the new editor of Island magazine. The members of the panel each possessed varying degrees of residency in Tasmania, which added a nice range of opinions and experience.

Artists seem to find Tasmania to be an easy place to create and write. There is a strong artistic culture present on the island, and it is a nurturing and tightly knit one. Having studied fine arts at university in Hobart, I can attest to this. The artistic community, though small, is encouraging and burgeoning. There is a strong sense of pride for local artists and writers, and this is most evident when an artist makes it big locally, or elsewhere.

That said, local artists also tend to move interstate or abroad. It seems to be a rite of passage, one that occurs with each new crop of artists. There is a definite need and desire to experience and explore new climes. And while they are away, they talk about Tasmania. A lot. But often these artists eventually return, with new ideas and an increased passion for the island state.

Natasha Cica is one such example. Former Sydney resident, she now lives on Bruny Island, an island off the southeastern coast of Tasmania. Cica claims that ‘Tasmania is one of the most interesting places to live in at the moment’.

And it definitely is. I sometimes feel I moved away too hastily, too fast, and feel a bit envious of friends who currently live in Tasmania. The state has gone through a lot of changes in the recent past. Once seen as a backwards, conservative state, Tasmania has embraced political, environmental and cultural change.

The Internet and cheap flights have allowed greater access into and out of the state, decreasing the ‘feeling of being on the edge’, Cica says. But what will happen to the state’s identity in the future if the real and perceived isolation that is central to Tasmania’s identity ceases to exist?

No discussion about Tasmania is complete without mentioning the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), and rightfully so. David Walsh’s contribution to the state has directed a lot of unprecedented attention to the state. It truly is a remarkable thing, unlike any other museum in the world. I have met so many people who had never thought of visiting Tasmania before, but now desperately want to, even if it is just to take a look at David Walsh’s playground.

Despite all this change, the intense sense of pride and identity remains. Cica says there is a ‘growing intensity of discussion about the culture of my place’ in the state. I definitely hear of, and have been part of, these discussions with former Tasmanians (would saying expatriate Tasmanians be over the top?). They are often romantic and sentimental affairs. There is a sense of nostalgia, a wistful longing that is definitely more palpable and pronounced away from the island state.

Sarah Kanowski, editor of Island magazine and newest Tasmanian resident on the panel, acknowledges this, but also mentioned that Tasmania needs to find a different ‘uniqueness’, as it is not the only place in the world that has nurtured writers and artists. (For example, Dublin and London of yore.)

Kanowski makes a valid point, but I don’t think that is Tasmania’s only unique draw card. Its landscape, with a ‘grandness on a different scale: not deserts or barren land, but mountains and the sea’, as Michael Veitch put it, must count for something. There was even a mention of the landscape being ‘exotic’. In comparison with the usual landscape imagery of Australia, it certainly is something special.

But the uniqueness of the Tasmanian landscape is not a new revelation. What I would have liked to hear the panel speak more about is how exactly Tasmania influences them and others of their ilk. I would have liked to hear about personal accounts of the island’s allure. What is it about the island that attracts creativity?

Though I left the session with some questions unanswered, I know what Tasmania means to me, and how it influenced my creativity when I lived in Tasmania. Although I didn’t get any specifics from the panel themselves, I left with a wistful sense of pride for the state, and delighted that the session attracted a roomful of people. (Although I am fairly certain that it was a roomful of former Tasmanians!)

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