veganarky

My friend Sherbs time came to an end today, after living with breast cancer for a few years. This has struck me in myriad ways, some quite unexpected and at times a little overwhelming —irrespective that it was expected any day, after her move into hospice care a week or so ago. I am struggling a little with words, and some feel just wrong. For example, in trying to describe Sherbs’ wonderful smile — which light up rooms, what comes to mind is ‘infectious’… In part, an awareness of how I need to work on processing aspects of life (and death) has come to the fore again. These words here are an …

My title here conflates two things, whereas my thoughts are about these as quite distinct — coming out of attending a well funded and institutionally supported conference (following on from a more grass roots one without any funding or institutional support beyond the participants themselves). I am reflecting on two different people speaking early on. One being an organiser of the event, another a keynote speaker. The former felt a need to talk about themselves, how many of these conferences they have attended, how they had been involved, what they had done in being so involved, what they had …

I recently went to/participated in two (activist/academic and academic) conferences, and had some interesting conversations early on at the first of these reflecting on the state of activism around the animal question. There was a pre-conference public lecture/pre-book launch for the former which had a recurring theme that a focus on the ‘production’ of animals as commodities was far more important-interesting than on consumption practices. This theme came up in a conversation I had the today (during the first day of the activist/academic conference), with someone I respect who does quite a bi…

I recently watched the ABC (Australia) produced two-part TV series The Secret River, based on Kate Genville’s 2005 ‘historical novel about an early 19th-century Englishman transported to Australia for theft. The story explores what may have happened when Europeans colonised land already inhabited by Aboriginal people’ [Wikipedia]. However I wanted the outcome to be different — be it white guilt, romanticising less atrocious and brutal settler-colonial attitudes (even just hoping form a different portrayal, however inaccurate) — what it portrays is pretty accurate. In short, aside form the ove…