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Ubud Writers and Readers Festival #2

Sophie Cunningham October 15

5074121995_cb7d9fba3b On Thursday evening we (some of those ‘we’ are pictured below – comments about how weird I look will be automatically deleted) had dinner at the house of festival patron and Australian/Indonesian businessman, Warwick Purser. WP_shouse

To get there we had to walk through a flash hotel (owned by Purser) and down a very dark lane. This meant, by the time we arrived, there was a certain sense of achievement. Marie Munkara actually fell in the ditch, but saved herself before she hit the water. Patrick Allington (published by Meanjin in edition 68:4), who’d fallen somewhere else, into a different ditch, didn’t make the dinner at all – he had to have stitches.

It was a drunken evening as the Cosmopolitan’s seemed to be 100% alcohol. That, combined with the humidity, was dangerous and meant I didn’t leave when Sian did – she was singing at the Jazz night at Casa Luna accompanied by the terrific band Saharadja . The other event alot of people headed off to was the Hip Hop night. It was, apparently a blast. Hip Hop and Slam Poetry were both performative styles that had a high profile at the festival and it was terrific to see a festival combine more traditional panels with so many high energy events.

Friday morning was a real highlight for Meanjin (and me). We hosted a session on politics and writing which asked what happens when writers broach subjects that break taboos or upset cultural norms? When they court controversial issues in their works? Where does the storyteller stop and the advocate begin? meanjinsession I chaired the session and the speakers were Omar Musa, Antony Loewenstein, Christos Tsiolkas and Sian Prior. To summarise (and therefore do the performers a disservice), Antony talked about writing on the Israel/ Palestine issue and consequent harassment, Sian talked about East Timor and cultural sensitivity, Christos talked about activism vs writing, and Omar talked about hip hop as a political form – and then performed a fantastic rap on the way in which we treat our refugees.

Several issues were raised that I want Meanjin to keep talking about. In response to Christos’s statement that activism demands 24/7 commitment, Sian talked about a more sustainable form of activism ‘perhaps 24/2’, something she’s written on in the past. We touched on, but didn’t explore fully, the possibilities for collaborative writing. One of the issues Antony raised, which I found interesting (and hope he’ll write on for us), was on cultural boycotts, and, in particular, the Galle Writers Festival. The session went off – so much so that it will be screened on ABC2 as part of their Big Ideas series and also available on iview. I’ll let you know when that happens. Many people said the panel was one of the highlights of the festival.

After that I intended to go to a few more sessions myself, but ended up, instead, talking at length to Kirsty Murray about her fascinating new book, India Dark, and the true story behind it. In July 1909, twenty-nine young Australian performers, members of Pollard’s Liliputian Opera Company and aged between seven and eighteen years of age, boarded a steam ship at Port Melbourne. They were meant to be setting out on a two-year world tour but eight months later, the tour ended when the children went on strike in Madras, South India. I’m hoping to get Kirsty to write more on that story for Meanjin.

That evening I read from my novel Bird at Bar Luna. It is possible that I misjudged this somewhat – the traumatic death scene in the cold I read didn’t quite gel with the refreshing sound of Mojitos being made, the heat, or the barking dogs. Anyway, this is what I looked like afterwards when I was slightly traumatised by self consciousness, and feeling very hot. sccut

After that we headed off to hear some Slam Poetry. The highlight (in the hour we were there) was hearing Emilie Zoe Baker’s poem on Aussie Legends. That one went straight to the pool room.

More next week …


 

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