Australia’s current moment of racial reckoning has led many established literary and arts institutions to begin engaging robustly with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, many for the first time across the past five years. While many literary and arts institutions have sought to work with Black writers and artists in the past, as a way to redress historical exclusion, often these engagements have been piecemeal, short term and still do not see First Peoples in positions of power.

Being asked to guest edit one of Australia’s oldest and most esteemed literary journals is one way to address these issues, with two Black women given the power to curate and edit Black stories, truths and words. Not unsurprising, yet still notable in 2023, this kind of action by Meanjin is still a rare occurrence. Of course, we do not claim that this one edition will solve everything, as there is still considerable room for improvement. What of issues of sovereignty? How can one edition in a long history of 80 years carry long lasting change? How can Australian literature reckon with its very core, built on the denial of First Peoples’ sovereign words and sovereign storytelling?