Table of Contents | Article doi: 10.17742/IMAGE.MM.12.2.6 | PDF
Making Sense of Noise – A Symphony for Voices
This paper uses original and found poetry to shape the soundscape of 2020 into meaning. A critical auto-ethnographic study, it uses poetic strategies of arts-based methodology to weave stories, experiences and impressions together, to create a literary fabric of the year. So doing, it creates a choral piece for the spoken voice, which explores ideas of conspiracy, community, racism, oppression and justice, drawing on the author’s experience in Australia, and connection with the wider world via the internet. Its focus on listening as meaning is formed from competing and contesting voices.
Cet article utilise une poésie originale et trouvée pour façonner le paysage sonore de 2020. Une étude auto-ethnographique critique, il utilise des stratégies poétiques de méthodologie basée sur les arts pour tisser des histoires, des expériences et des impressions ensemble, pour créer un tissu littéraire de l’année. Ce faisant, il crée une pièce de chorale pour la voix parlée, qui explore les idées de complot, de communauté, de racisme, d’oppression et de justice, en s’appuyant sur l’expérience de l’auteur en Australie et sur la connexion avec le monde entier via Internet. Son accent est mis sur l’écoute car le sens se forme à partir de voix concurrentes et contestataires.
Introduction1
The year 2020 began in Australia (where I live) with what Professor John Shine, President of the Australian Academy of Science, called “unprecedented” bush fires.2 From fires, Australia lurched into pandemic (not quite unprecedented, because humanity had experienced the Spanish flu of 1918-20). From there, many Australians protested in support of Black Lives Matter—precipitated by the murder of George Floyd, but in response to generations of racism, oppression, and brutality the world over. Severe economic downturn, the emboldening of white supremacy, and more “unprecedented” wild fires in California (this time identified as such by Frank Lake, a U.S. Forest Service research ecologist3), bring me to September 2020, when this paper is written. This year taught me to listen differently. Previously, I would have filtered out so much of this information and opinion; I would have dismissed it as the noise of daily life. But in 2020 this ‘noise’ connected me across the ether with family and friends around the world through a shared sense of trauma and anxiety, and shared fixations on numbers and daily reports. In amongst the bombardment of news, when listening differently, I heard things I had previously ignored. The slowing and stilling of my daily life was counter-balanced by my increasing engagement with the world via the internet. The following is my attempt to make sense of the cacophony of sound, the competing voices and ideas that are the noisescape of 2020. This critical autoethnographic study uses poetic strategies of arts-based methodology to weave stories, experiences, and impressions together to create a literary fabric of the year. Poetry as research method, and as qualitative analysis and representation, is explored by Sandra L Faulkner (2017). She observes that poetry “shows, rather than tells, our human mysteries, triumphs, and foibles” (209). In choosing this form, I have sought to give the reader an embodied experience, taking them inside the moment of expression through the physical formation of sounds, the articulating of the words of others. This is consistent with William Faulkner’s understanding that:
“Poetry can help us see a relationship bleeding out, haemorrhaging from the inside, spilling outside the neat axioms of theory. Poetry can have us experience the social structures and ruptures in situ as we read, as we listen, as we hold our breath waiting for the next line.” (222)
Consequently, poetry as inquiry and research can offer transformative experiences to the reader (and writer), “by providing new insight, giving perspective, and/or advocating for social change” (227). Consistent with this viewpoint, Hodge (2017) suggests that the nature of the critical reflection made possible through poetry offers “space to voice-silenced traumas” (11), that through poetry, one might enter vicariously into the lived experience of another person.
The following poetry is constructed in two different forms. The first is free verse, in my own words, appearing in the left-hand column. The second is found poetry, appearing in the right-hand column. Found poetry is constructed by selecting words and phrases from longer, often prose texts, such as interview transcripts or narrative accounts. Lisa D. Patrick (2016) distinguishes between these two forms of poetry in her own research poem about poetry as methodology:
“Research poets
refashion and reorder data,
presenting it as a poem …
crafting original poetry
in the voice of the researcher,
crafting found poetry
in the voice of the participant.” (Patrick 386)
The found poetry in the work below is drawn from transcripts of interviews, newspaper articles, opinion pieces, speeches by public figures and by activists at rallies, websites, songs, banners, and advertising material. The references for these, and where necessary the explanations, can be found in the endnotes. Although at times these words have been repeated or constructed into poetic form, they have not been altered from the original. Patrick goes on to discuss the “transaction” (387) between reader and text, and the ways in which found poetry facilitates this. One of the significant impacts of using found poetry in a project such as this one is the explicit way it identifies my interpretative role in the process of inquiry. By placing my own poetry alongside found poetry, each reflects on, and informs, the other. At times these two forms intersect and become interwoven. In order to keep the distinction between my own words and the found poetry clear, my own words always appear in italics. Occasionally there are italicised words in amongst the found poetry in the right-hand column. These are my words, added in order to move the found poetry along, make connections, or develop the aesthetics.
A significant challenge in writing this piece has been identifying my own standpoint. My aim in the found poetry has been to amplify voices, not to take them or control them. I am a white, middle-aged woman. While I can feel shocked, diminished, and enraged by the stories of marginalised, silenced, and oppressed people, I can never know their lived experiences. I hope this work honours those voices and adds to the calls for justice in our world. Amongst the found poetry you will also find the competing voices of the privileged. I place them there to contextualise the voices they silence, and to implicitly offer critique of them. Doing so creates contested space on the page, and is a reminder of the clash of values being played out in the choices people make. You may wonder how I selected the voices I did. I used the open architecture of the internet to guide me: I started with word searches on Google and You Tube and simply followed links. I found myself delving further and further into sites I would never normally have accessed, and hearing the ideas and opinions of people whose world perceptions are very different from my own. Following links on YouTube takes the viewer to varied places, where words shift meaning according to context. At the time this poem was written, “flattening the curve” took me from coronavirus to body image, which reminded me, in turn, of Donald Trump’s perceptions of, and desire to control, the female body. Some months later, as I review this paper, “flattening the curve” takes the viewer straight to conspiracy theories. I also followed links through newspaper sites; sometimes I saw images or heard or read words that resonated, and which I then specifically sought out. George Floyd’s last words—“I can’t breathe”—are an example of this. I knew they were also the last words of Aboriginal Australian David Dungay Jr, who died in police custody in 2015. The intersection of breath across the experience of COVID-19, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the experience of Indigenous peoples in Australia, was one route through my 2020.
One last point about the writing: the success of any work lies in its reader or listener being able to move in, out, and through it; to engage in emotional intensity and pull back and view objectively. For this reason, not all elements of the work are deeply serious. However, all reflect on the bombardment by social and political noise that has occurred during lockdown and pandemic; and on my personal growing awareness of the pain that some of us inflict, wittingly or not, on others. The Melbourne lockdown was one of the strictest and longest in the world.4 Initial restrictions were introduced on March 16. Stage four restrictions, which included an 8:00 pm curfew, masks, and limiting time outside the house to one hour a day, commenced on August 2 and continued into late October. During this time the noise of aeroplanes overhead, and cars on the road, almost disappeared. But the noise of the internet, the main communication outside the home, became louder and louder. I have tried to capture that sense of loud, competing, noise outside of my own experience. In this work it is my intention to amplify the voices of oppressed people, never to trivialise them. I sincerely hope this work is read in that way.
The creation of this piece has been an exercise in embodied writing. I selected words because they generated a visceral response. I have sought to communicate this viscerality in the use of rhythms and repetition. Because music is meaning made from noise, I have taken a musical motif—the symphony—and redesigned it for the spoken word. It is designed to be read aloud by numerous voices—sometimes in unison, sometimes overlapping or echoing each other, at other times challenging each other. There are several ways you can read this work: down one column and then the other; across the page; or moving between columns by stanza or movement. Each of these ways will give a different sense to the work. I encourage you to read it aloud and to experiment with the process of reading that speaks best to you. My own preference is to read across the page.
First Movement
Sonata: Exposition
I am making sense
Made sense sense made
Sense in the Making
I am trying
To make Sense.
To Sense:
To feel, touch, hold, smell
to breathe in the rancid
and the scented
to taste in the air
and on the tongue
to know the passage of Time
to hear the cries of abandonment
to listen for Hope
to be deaf.
To see
to envisage, imagine, dream,
to make art
to find
the current that tumbles tidelike
into and out of the Mind.
To use senses to make Sense.
My sense
Our sense
Common sense
And yet….
The fire the smoke
the blast of taser
the car horns
the missiles, rocks
the calling of names
the hiding in bunkers
the blaming and cursing
the crying out
the penting up
the years of sin that lie on the land
the blood seeping into soil
and bitumen
lying in red coagulating puddles
under our feet
Breaking things, breaking down
Cracking crashing crushing
But
Is this breaking or building?
Breaking capitalism?
Building fairness?
Breaking wealth?
Building Justice?
Breaking privilege?
Building solidarity?
Who controls the paradigm of
understanding?
This is how people are actually feeling.
This is temporary shit.
This is our future we stand up for
We will cause a scene7
Donald Trump spent
only a “tiny” amount of time
only a tiny amount
tiny, tiny amount
in a reinforced bunker -
while protesters rage
Donald inspects
(but not for his safety)
just
to inspect8
We tried peaceful protesting
and this was our last resort
actions speak louder than words
actions speak louder
It sucks to see our city
burning burning burning
but they’re finally listening to us.
We will be heard.
Fuck those media outlets
They’re going to
portray us in a bad light
Only showing what’s going
on over here
at the end of the day9A bad light
Bad
the failure to listen
the failure to hear
the failure to see
the failure to touch lives
the failure to taste the bitterness
the failure to smell dissent
the failure.
The nonSense
the SenseLess
Sonata: Development
When no cents doesn’t mean
No Sense
You are on mute
muted
neutered
powerless
we’re all on mute
silenced by Capitalism
by politicians with agendas
that don’t include me
or you
or us
but someone else.
It is the great silence
and the great silencing
put on a mask,
muffle the voice
set the incomers to mute
who has the controls?
We want the person with no cents to their
name to have enough word
in this world
to change it14
We’re out here
living through hundreds of years
of discrimination and a bunch of stigma
that we face every single day.
This is the only way we are heard15
It really doesn’t make sense to me, to be
honest16
It begins
with an act of recognition17Australia is not innocent.18 De-colonise this place.19There’s a right way to protest
and that’s peacefully
We saw that many times with Martin Luther King20
They still assassinated him….21
They tell us to flatten the curve
they’ve been telling women that for years:
have you ever been cat-called
fat-called
body shamed
body framed
body blamed?
lose weight
girdle the rolls of fat
make the curves that men want
flatten the natural curve
through denial and sacrifice.
This is no different then
women know how to do this
young teenage girls
who bind their breasts in the hope of
controlling menstruation
of never becoming women
because who would want to be?
Who would actively choose to
be oppressed simply by being who they are
to be muted, flattened
held on the ground by the knee of
oppression
Who would choose to be black
to be yellow
to be anything other than male and white
with a private school education
And an inheritance as big as a mountain?
Who would choose anything else?
You’re so fat
Boys call me fat all the time24The thigh gap
Slimthick
slim and thick
thick and slim
everything has to be
proportional25Put a gap here
put a lump there
a plump
little lump
right there
where I can grab it26I wear black leggings
because they make me look
small27I just
don’t look in the mirror28Honestly - I just
really
I just
don’t feel comfortable
in my own skin29
I like my skin colour because
it’s different30I am pretty
I am empowered
I am who I am31
Sonata: Recapitulation
Is stupidity a choice?
or a curse?
Perhaps a blessing to live
the unexamined life32when everything is conspiracy because
that is easier
than responsibility.
And when stupid and nasty stand
hand in hand
stupid and racist
stupid and misogynistic
how much power do the stupid have?
How is there sense in that?
The power to think.
You have given away that power
to people who will use it
to manipulate you,
to control how you live,
whether it be in poverty
or subjugation.
When you fail to consider
the messages your world sends to you,
you have made a choice,
conscious or not,
to be
stupid.33
Stop 5G; Look up event 201;
Newsom Gates Soros Global Psychopaths
The W.H.O. is Poo!
Impeach Bill Gates34Every conspiracy you ever heard
was pretty much true35We’re looking at a seasonal flu
and a bunch of fake death numbers36 Fake death
fake news fake bombs37 Lockdown is slavery38
You can be stupid in any number of ways:
You can be blinded by your religion.
You can be blinded by your dependence
on social media.
You can be stupidly partisan
and unable to listen
to people who don’t share
your ways of life.
You can be stupidly biased
against minorities or
against a social group or
culture you haven’t made an effort
to understand.39
What if I had my knee in their neck.
Is it the fear of fear
that propels us
like circus clowns from the cannon?
The fear of looking weak,
feeling weak, being weakened?
Weak to accept difference
Weak to take precautions
Weak to be female
or black
Weak to wear a mask
Weak to seek justice
Weak to share power
Weak to share wealth
Weak to be Human
We are all Less
all without Sense
when we fail to sense
the fall of Humanity.
The fall
The first sin
the absence of Love
Make sense of this then
Make sense of change
Make sense.
Sense.
We are teaching fear, not courage42
Strength is
hatred of weakness.43Fear strengthens tribalistic instincts,
tribalistic instincts amplify fear.
Nothing bonds a group more tightly
than a common enemy
a mortal threat44a mortal threat:
It’s nothing more than a common cold45Sadistic
passionate
hatred,
and that’s what proves they’re strong,
their passionate hatred for weakness.46
If you can talk you can breathe
A Fair Australia47Make America Great Again48
Failed in their duty of care49
We took the traditional lands and
smashed the traditional way of life.
We brought the diseases. The alcohol.
We committed the murders.
We took the children from their mothers.
We practised discrimination and exclusion
It was our ignorance and our prejudice.
And our failure
to imagine these things being done to us.50
I can’t do anything to help.51
Second Movement
The whole only exists as the replication
trillions and zillions of times,
of the microscopic.
Made as we are of billions of cells;
each cell made of atoms.
There is stardust in each of us
– and dinosaur wee.
The replication of the world
over and over and over again:
walnuts that look like brains;
flowers that look like vaginas;
birds that mimic human industry
(or human industry that mimics birds)
leaves that show in their tracings
the shape of the tree.
All around us
microscopic images of the massive,
and each of them,
built one on another,
shapes the whole.
Pieces topple, people crumble, systems fail,
voices call into the chaos, despair dwells,
destruction ensues.
We are all intimately interwoven.
And yet there are those who would tear
the fabric to make cloths of gold
For themselves.
The problem starts with us – the non
Aboriginal Australians53
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice
everywhere54
White silence
Equals white violence55
Rest in peace George Floyd.56Justice Now for David Dungay Jr.57
If you can talk you can breathe
I don’t support the looting
and the fires. I’m just
supporting the cause58I just
think what people are doing here
is just
ruining the whole point of this59
It is Just
our mere existence
bothering them60Stolen lives on stolen land61
The centre cannot hold62
What next?
We struggle on.
Can change happen?
Is this the
beginning
of the end?
Is this the end we need in order to have a
beginning?
Is it a pandemic that brings us to our knees,
cursing and wielding knives?
Or does it open our eyes
to the flaws,
the crevasses,
the failings?
Is COVID the critical friend we have longed
for?
It is always hard to embrace the devil’s
advocate. And yet….
what next?
what next?
what next?
Third Movement
Stay home
shut the doors
close the curtains
turn on Netflix
sit it out.
28 weeks in lockdown
196 days
4,704 hours
282,240 seconds
and counting….
The Spanish flu was
36,500 days ago.
876,000 hours
52 million 560,000 seconds
and counting….
Time immemorial
unimaginable
before my time
your time
our time.
before
No Zoom
no Netflix
no washing machine
no dishwasher
no phone
no television
no laptop
no iTunes
no podcast
When one falls
We all fall
It is hard to breathe when you’re hanging
it is hard to breathe with a knee in your neck
Burning burning burning
it is hard to breath with liquified lungs
Hard to speak
When the powerful and ignorant
have their knees on the necks
of all the Lost
And Losing
Did they even have ventilators then?
Stay home
Keep our Hospitals safe
1.5 metres
Wash your hands
Don’t touch your face
Wear a mask
Stay home.
Staying apart
staying apart
staying apart
keeps us together72
34.1 million COVID 19 cases worldwide
1,015,815 deaths
7,245,228 cases in the US
6,312,584 in India
4,810,935 in Brazil
1,179,634 in Russia73In Colombia, Iran, the Philippines,
Indonesia
In Romania, Morocco,
Ghana and Nigeria,
In Iceland, Yemen, West Bank and Gaza,
In China, in Japan,
In Ethiopia, Madagascar, Myanmar and
Korea
In Fiji, Cambodia, Oman, and Sweden74.
500 million people infected
50 million deaths
worldwide75
How long?
Not long,
because the arc of the moral universe is
long,
but it bends toward justice.76
The tools to deal
with the global emergency
were limited77Despite improvements since 1918,
governments and health care systems
remain inadequately prepared for
the impact of a 1918-like
severe influenza
pandemic.78
27 July, 1919.
Homes and buildings
burned to the ground.
White mobs lynched
forty-three African Americans,
sixteen hanged, others shot,
eight men burned at the stake.79
Silences
stillnesses
walking the footpaths
of a fantasy land
chalked rainbows
teddy bears in windows
cities of spoons80Every day the same:
walk the dog, pad, pad, pad,
sniff, meander, wee,
whoosh whoosh goes the tail,
pant, pant;
home again
computer on,
ding, ding, ding,
zoooooooom innnn zooooom innnnn
Sit…..
long slow notes of movement as the day progresses.
the long sonorous sounds of silent disruption.
Sleepless nights
are dark tunnels to the future
Listen:
bat in the tree
cars intermittently……
night fades to day……..
zzzzzzz
dingalingalingaling.
WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP.
He’s a real nowhere man
making all his nowhere plans
for nobody81
We’ve had people
trying to groom their own dogs
cutting and gashes -
It’s just
Going on and on82
Going on and on
Going on and on
Going on and on
I’ll give ya a dose
but it’ll never come close
to the rage built up inside of me
fist in the air, in the land of hypocrisy83
Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!84
We all just
Need to wake up
Fourth Movement
The body is the site of our being.
Despite the intellectual pursuit
the existential desire,
we live and die in the body.
We are the body
destroyed by virus or violence.
Say it aloud, and slowly:
Virus
Violence.
These lead to destruction,
the entanglements, of virus and violence.
their intricate inter-relations.
Does virus make us more
violent?
Does violence make us more prone to
virus?
How do we measure decay –
can we distinguish between the decay of the body
and the decay of the soul,
of the moral core?
My body is a temple.
That’s what They say,
those who would control my use of it,
my life within it,
my agency to act.
My body is more a tent or a decaying
warehouse
That’s what I say,
where illnesses come to rave.
It is the site of virus and is vulnerable to
violence.
Let us ‘fight’ an illness
let us ‘kick cancer’s butt’;
let vaccinations be our ‘weapon’
let us internalise the violence
normalise the violence
make the violence part of us
Kick cancer’s butt
Etsy, Pinterest, Zazzle, facebook
Kick
Fight
Kick
We use the body
to shape the world.
There is a sickness in our minds that takes us to violence,
infects us with Violence.
Racism is a pandemic too87
Virus and violence:
one feeds the other;
one informs the other. We are
Please make it right88
victims
We failed to ask –
to both.
How would I feel
if this
were done to
Me?89
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McCauley, Dana. “Aged Care COVID-19 Deaths Could Have Been Curtailed, Brendan Murphy says.” The Age, Sept. 29 2020, www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/aged-care-covid-19-deaths-could-have-been-curtailed-brendan-murphy-says-20200928-p56006.html. Accessed 28 Nov 2021.
Murray-Atfield, Yara. “Chalk Messages and Drawings on Streets are Bringing Hope During the Coronavirus Pandemic.” ABC News, Apr. 2 2020, www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-02/coronavirus-covid-19-chalk-messages-on-streets-around-australia/12102778. Accessed 28 Nov 2021.
Patrick, Lisa D. “Found Poetry: Creating Space for Imaginative Arts-based Literacy Research Writing.” Literary Research: Theory, Method and Practice, vol. 65, 2016, pp. 384-403, DOI: 10.1177/2381336916661530.
Parris, Michael. ““Australia is a f---king Crime Scene”: Black Lives Matter Protest Draws 1000 in Newcastle.” The Canberra Times, July 6 2020, www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6819966/australia-is-a-f-ing-crime-scene-law-student-tells-blm-rally/. Accessed 28 Nov 2021.
Plato. “Apology.” Plato in Twelve Volumes, section 38a, vol. 1 translated by Harold North Fowler, introduction by W.R.M. Lamb, London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1966, www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0170%3Atext%3DApol.%3Asection%3D38a .
Rage Against the Machine. “Wake Up.” Rage Against the Machine, Epic Records, 1992, genius.com/Rage-against-the-machine-wake-up-lyrics. Accessed 28 Nov 2021.
Riga, Rachel. “'Without Warning or Negotiation': Protesters Arrested at Rally over Indigenous Death in Custody.” ABC News, ABC News, 11 Sept. 2020, www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-11/protests-indigenous-death-in-custody-brisbane-watch-house/12654860. Accessed 28 Nov 2021.
Rudin, Mike. “Why is Billionaire George Soros a Bogeyman for the Hard Right?” BBC News, Sept. 6 2019, www.bbc.com/news/stories-49584157. Accessed 28 Nov 2021.
Sacramento Bee. “See Black Lives Matter Protestors Clash with Trump supporters at defund police rally.” YouTube, Sept. 7, 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS0mMZ-oekw. Accessed 28 Nov 2021.
Singh, Maanvi. “George Floyd told Officers ‘I can’t breathe’ more than 20 times Transcripts Show.” The Guardian, July 10 2020, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/08/george-floyd-police-killing-transcript-i-cant-breathe. Accessed 28 Nov 2021.
---. “Unprecedented: The US West’s Wildfire Catastrophe Explained.” The Guardian, Sept. 12 2020, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/12/california-oregon-washington-fires-explained-climate-change. Accessed 28 Nov 2021.
Smith, Nicola. “Pandemic Behind Explosion of Poverty Across Asia and Pacific.” The Age, Sept. 30 2020, www.theage.com.au/world/asia/pandemic-behind-explosion-of-poverty-across-asia-and-pacific-20200930-p560jh.html. Accessed 28 Nov 2021.
Sommers, Suzette. facebook page, www.facebook.com/suzette.sommer.9?__tn__=%2CdCH-R-R&eid=ARCcltatEGFrgYPQVbFcyARWK56-TlGK1QMPW_-rjR0ZYKgtOkfE2y3R1PxuIdwMca6SmXU4drYAzLte&hc_ref=ARQ7w8DQBL11BbHYarwWWg7woz-Kh1y_xvCNy51GJYlIXlc9SyrmGsO40-0IS9EAE70&fref=nf. Accessed 15 Oct 2020.
Stafford, Indigo. “The Red Summer of 1919 and How Race Riots Broke Out During a Global Flu Pandemic.” Edinburghlive, June 8, 2020, Accessed 28 Nov 2021. www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/red-summer-1919-how-race-18383339.
Schwartz, Stephen L. “Dancing Through Life.” Wicked, 2003, www.allmusicals.com/lyrics/wicked/dancingthroughlife.htm. Accessed 28 Nov 2021.
“The Australian Bushfires—Why They Are Unprecedented.” Australian Academy of Science, 3 Feb. 2020, www.science.org.au/news-and-events/news-and-media-releases/australian-bushfires-why-they-are-unprecedented#:~:text=In%20a%20statement%20on%20the,unprecedented%20anywhere%20in%20the%20world'. Accessed 26 Nov 2021.
The Guardian. “Deaths Inside. Indigenous Australian Deaths in Custody 2020.” The Guardian, Aug. 28 2018, www.theguardian.com/australia-news/ng-interactive/2018/aug/28/deaths-inside-indigenous-australian-deaths-in-custody. Accessed 26 Nov 2021.
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The Project. “Indigenous Speeches from History | Black Lives Matter | The Project.” YouTube, June 2 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc4bVGVhv9Y. Accessed 28 Nov 2021.
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“Thousands Attend Black Lives Matter Rally in Melbourne.” Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo!, ca.finance.yahoo.com/video/australia-not-innocent-thousands-attend-110122138.html. Accessed 26 Nov 2021.
Victorian State Government. “Staying Apart Keeps Us Together Video.” July 29 2021, www.vic.gov.au/media/14574. Accessed 28 Nov 2021.
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Yeats, William Butler. “The Second Coming.” The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats, 1989, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43290/the-second-coming. Accessed 28 Nov 2021.
Zaks, Jack. “Vet Makes Urgent Plea for Pet Grooming to Be Allowed Under Stage 4 Lockdown.” Radio 3AW (Melbourne), Aug. 19 2020, www.3aw.com.au/vet-make-urgent-plea-for-pet-grooming-to-be-allowed-under-stage-4-lockdown/#:~:text=A%20vet%20has%20made%20an,to%20groom%20them%20at%20home. Accessed 28 Nov 2021.
Notes
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I wish the thank the following people who read this work in draft, and offered valuable feedback: Prof. James McLaren, Dr. Scott Welsh, Ms. Shiona Long, Mr. Anthony Balla, Dr. Rebecca Carlson, Ms. Georgina McLaren.↲
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https://www.science.org.au/news-and-events/news-and-media-releases/australian-bushfires-why-they-are-unprecedented#:~:text=In%20a%20statement%20on%20the,unprecedented%20anywhere%20in%20the%20world’.↲
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/12/california-oregon-washington-fires-explained-climate-change↲
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Details of the Melbourne lockdown and how it compared to lockdowns in other countries can be found here: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/is-melbourne-s-coronavirus-lockdown-really-the-longest-in-the-world-here-s-how-other-countries-stack-up↲
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Thaddeus Howze, 2017, The Four Ds – Surviving the Social Media Apocalypse https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/four-ds-surviving-social-media-apocalypse-thaddeus-howze/↲
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L.S.Pig, as a comment on All Gas No Brakes (independent media) video reporting of anti-lockdown demonstrations, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kkBseVTUow↲
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The preceding four lines are quotes from black men present at the Minneapolis riots following the death of George Floyd (May, 2020). They are recorded by All Gas No Brakes and can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZPeD2miyF8↲
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/03/trump-bunker-george-floyd-protests↲
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Quotes from Black men present at the Minneapolis riots following the death of George Floyd (May, 2020). They are recorded by All Gas No Brakes and can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZPeD2miyF8↲
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Quote from Black man present at the Minneapolis riots following the death of George Floyd (May, 2020). It is recorded by All Gas No Brakes and can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZPeD2miyF8↲
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Quote from Black man present at the Minneapolis riots following the death of George Floyd (May, 2020). It is recorded by All Gas No Brakes and can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZPeD2miyF8↲
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Makan, Vidya, September 24, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99WPIneNxG0&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR2GLG3i9XtjMkVx5QCqnWegVxOn9EHvkXjB0sfcWKUi-YrHmH8w50dD2Ec In this original song, a number of BIPoC people come together to challenge the idea of colour blindness, demanding that their identities be acknowledged as other than white.↲
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Brady Bussman, white man, interviewed during protests in Minneapolis, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99WPIneNxG0&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR2GLG3i9XtjMkVx5QCqnWegVxOn9EHvkXjB0sfcWKUi-YrHmH8w50dD2Ec↲
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Man during Minneapolis riots, recorded by All Gas No Brakes and found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZPeD2miyF8↲
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Black man during Minneapolis riots, recorded by All Gas No Brakes and found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZPeD2miyF8↲
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White woman during Minneapolis riots, recorded by All Gas No Brakes and found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZPeD2miyF8↲
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Paul Keating, then Prime Minister of Australia, Redfern Speech (Year for the World’s Indigenous People) delivered December 10, 1992. The transcript can be found here: https://antar.org.au/sites/default/files/paul_keating_speech_transcript.pdf The authorship of the speech is disputed. Keating’s speech writer, Don Watson, and Keating both lay claim to its core ideas. See Tom Clark’s article for The Conversation here: https://theconversation.com/keatings-redfern-speech-is-still-worth-fighting-over-21118↲
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Banner at Black Lives Matter rally in Melbourne. https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/video/australia-not-innocent-thousands-attend-110122138.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANZX1fxYYueVEwHISoVX46K0wXxLDTtPdh64rW6eX_TtBXO593pje9Tjm-WyxjrNaTPSNKUfvA8Dpuv88SqzCo6rpmzwS9-YHeN-1QENnARwzSK7P_ij8z9T_hxrMgRH4Hnf8hVCbmplzMIyhpSLhzMchgJInAnbCocM59hbu3FB↲
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Banner at Black Lives Matter rally, Melbourne, June 2 2020, as reported by The Project on Channel 10 Melbourne, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi-rDPh6I88 . The call to ‘decolonise this place’ as a catchphrase to open conversations and actions about the oppression of colonization originates in the USA (https://decolonizethisplace.org).↲
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White man at Minneapolis riots, recorded by All Gas No Brakes and found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZPeD2miyF8↲
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Black man, interviewed separately from the white man quoted above, at the Minneapolis riots, recorded by All Gas No Brakes and found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZPeD2miyF8 Both the white man in the previous quote, and this Black man, referenced Martin Luther King, though with different understandings of his impact and the consequences of his actions. Martin Luther King was also referenced by Australia’s Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, when he commented on the Black Lives Matter rallies in Australia and the rioting in the USA, recorded by the Australian Broadcasting Commission https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXmREhYbiSk↲
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Tameeka Tighe at the Black Lives Matter ally in Newcastle, Australia, on July 5, 2020. Tighe contextualized her assertion by stating, “In 1831 Lachlan Macquarie declared martial law on our people and we became prisoners of war in our own country.” https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6819966/australia-is-a-f-ing-crime-scene-law-student-tells-blm-rally/↲
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In 2014 Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz published An Indigenous People’s History of the United States (Boston: Beacon Press) in which she states, “North America is a crime scene.” An extract can be found at: https://www.salon.com/2014/10/13/north_america_is_a_crime_scene_the_untold_history_of_america/↲
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Ella, aged 13, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mP5RveA_tk This video was made by Allure. Allure describe their YouTube channel as “focused on bringing beauty to life with unparalleled expertise, smart storytelling, and racial inclusivity.” (https://www.youtube.com/c/Allure/about)↲
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Claudia, aged 15 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mP5RveA_tk↲
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This is a purposeful allusion to Donald Trump’s “Grab ’em by the pussy” comment, made in 2005 and published by the New York Times on October 8, 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/08/us/donald-trump-tape-transcript.html↲
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Izzi, aged 10, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mP5RveA_tk↲
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Mia, aged 11, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mP5RveA_tk↲
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Mia, aged 11, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mP5RveA_tk↲
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Megan, aged 11, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mP5RveA_tk↲
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Mia, aged 11, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mP5RveA_tk↲
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Plato attributes these words to Socrates in Apology, set in the year 339BCE (the date of writing is unknown), section 38a. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0170%3Atext%3DApol.%3Asection%3D38a The idea is critiqued in “Dancing Through Life”, a song from Wicked by Stephen Lawrence Schwartz, 2003.↲
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Thaddeus Howze, 2017, The Four Ds – Surviving the Social Media Apocalypse https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/four-ds-surviving-social-media-apocalypse-thaddeus-howze/.↲
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Banners at the anti-lockdown rally, California, 26 April, 2020. Recorded by All Gas No Brakes, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kkBseVTUow. Event 201 was a table top exercise undertaken on October 18, 2019, by the Centre for Health Security. It simulated global responses to a zoonotic novel coronavirus pandemic in order to build readiness for such an event. As conspiracy theories link Event 201 with COVID-19, the Centre for Health Security made the following statement: “Although our tabletop exercise included a mock novel coronavirus, the inputs we used for modeling the potential impact of that fictional virus are not similar to nCoV-2019.” More information can be found here: https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/news/center-news/2020-01-24-Statement-of-Clarification-Event201.html.↲
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White male protester, at the anti-lockdown rally, California,26 April, 2020. Recorded by All Gas No Brakes, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kkBseVTUow↲
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White male protestor at the anti-lockdown rally, California, 26 April, 2020. Recorded by All Gas No Brakes, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kkBseVTUow↲
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Banner at anti-lockdown rally, California,26 April, 2020. Recorded by All Gas No Brakes, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kkBseVTUow↲
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White female protestor at the anti-lockdown rally, California, 26 April, 2020. Recorded by All Gas No Brakes, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kkBseVTUow↲
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Thaddeus Howze, 2017, The Four Ds – Surviving the Social Media Apocalypse https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/four-ds-surviving-social-media-apocalypse-thaddeus-howze/↲
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Black man in Minneapolis, recorded by all Gas No Brakes, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZPeD2miyF8 His reference to George Floyd’s death (“my knee in his neck. For 11 minutes”) is powerful but inaccurate. According the Coroner’s report, cited by Graeme Wood, it was “five minutes and 53 seconds of kneeling before officers declared that Floyd was unresponsive, followed by two minutes and 53 seconds of continued pressure. That totals just less than nine minutes.” https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/george-floyd-kneeling/612409/↲
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Police officer to David Dungay Jr, prior to his death in police custody. Video footage can be seen on The Project, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi-rDPh6I88 A similar thing was said to George Floyd prior to his death: “It takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/08/george-floyd-police-killing-transcript-i-cant-breathe↲
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White man at anti -lockdown rally, California, 26 April, 2020. Recorded by All Gas No Brakes, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kkBseVTUow↲
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Bev, cited on Suzette Sommers’s facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/suzette.sommer.9?__tn__=%2CdCH-R-R&eid=ARCcltatEGFrgYPQVbFcyARWK56-TlGK1QMPW_-rjR0ZYKgtOkfE2y3R1PxuIdwMca6SmXU4drYAzLte&hc_ref=ARQ7w8DQBL11BbHYarwWWg7woz-Kh1y_xvCNy51GJYlIXlc9SyrmGsO40-0IS9EAE70&fref=nf↲
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Peter Wehner, “Why Trump Supporters Can’t Admit Who He Really Is.” The Atlantic, Sept. 4, 2020: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/predicate-fear/616009/↲
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Anti-lockdown protestor, California, 26 April, 2020. Recorded by All Gas No Brakes, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kkBseVTUow↲
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Bev, cited on Suzette Sommers’s facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/suzette.sommer.9?__tn__=%2CdCH-R-R&eid=ARCcltatEGFrgYPQVbFcyARWK56-TlGK1QMPW_-rjR0ZYKgtOkfE2y3R1PxuIdwMca6SmXU4drYAzLte&hc_ref=ARQ7w8DQBL11BbHYarwWWg7woz-Kh1y_xvCNy51GJYlIXlc9SyrmGsO40-0IS9EAE70&fref=nf↲
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Prime Minister Scott Morrison claims Australia is “fair” and “wonderful”. A critique of the language he uses when talking about the Black Live Matter rallies, and the deaths of Indigenous Australians in custody, can be found here: https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-way-scott-morrison-talks-about-indigenous-pain-is-a-problem-20200605-p54zrv.html↲
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President Trump’s campaign slogan, currently in use: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFR-inbzIaI↲
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This coroner’s comment appears over and over again in investigations into Indigenous deaths in custody in Australia. See The Guardian database: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/ng-interactive/2018/aug/28/deaths-inside-indigenous-australian-deaths-in-custody↲
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Paul Keating, the Prime Minister of Australia, in the Redfern speech, December 10, 1992. https://antar.org.au/sites/default/files/paul_keating_speech_transcript.pdf↲
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White woman at Minneapolis riots, recorded by All Gas No Brakes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZPeD2miyF8↲
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“I can’t breathe.” The last words of George Floyd, who died in police custody, Minneapolis, 2020; and of David Dungay Jr, who died in police custody, Long Bay jail, November 2015; and the dying thought of 986,000 people worldwide… and counting.↲
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Paul Keating in 1993, cited by The Project, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc4bVGVhv9Y↲
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Banner at Minneapolis protests, in video, “We’re sick and tired”. The New York Times, 31 May 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/politics/trump-protests-george-floyd.html↲
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Banner at Black Lives Matter rally, Perth, Australia, 13 June 2020: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-13/thousands-join-perth-black-lives-matter-protest-at-langley-park/12352118↲
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ABC7 eyewitness news, tweet, “Rest in Peace George Floyd.” May 28 2020: https://twitter.com/abc7/status/1265681218017701888↲
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Slogan on Tee shirts worn by Christine Dungay and Raymond Quinlan: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jul/13/david-dungay-jr-dies-in-custody-and-his-family-are-changed-forever-photo-essay↲
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White woman, Minneapolis riots, June 8 2020, interviewed by All Gas No Brakes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZPeD2miyF8↲
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White man, Minneapolis riots, June 8 2020, interviewed by All Gas No Brakes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZPeD2miyF8↲
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Leia Schenk, Black activist, posted by Sacramento Bee, “See Black Lives Matter Protestors Clash with Trump Supporters at Defund Police Rally.” Sept. 7 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS0mMZ-oekw↲
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Protestors’ banner outside the Queensland Police headquarters, after the death of an Indigenous women in custody, 11 September 2020: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-11/protests-indigenous-death-in-custody-brisbane-watch-house/12654860↲
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William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming, 1919: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43290/the-second-coming↲
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The Guardian has established a database of Indigenous Australians who have died in custody since the Royal Commission into Deaths in Custody in 1991. It can be found at: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/ng-interactive/2018/aug/28/deaths-inside-indigenous-australian-deaths-in-custody↲
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Almost none of the recommendations from the Royal Commission have been enacted. See The Project at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi-rDPh6I88↲
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The names and stories of some of these people can be found here: https://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2020/know-their-names/index.html↲
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Apryl Day asks us to “Remember her name: Tanya Louise Day”: https://www.facebook.com/Justicefortanyaday/↲
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Black man, during Minneapolis riots, interviewed by All Gas No Brakes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZPeD2miyF8↲
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Gough Whitlam, then Prime Minister of Australia, in 1975, from Channel 10’s The Project, June 2 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc4bVGVhv9Y↲
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Dionne Smith-Downs, a Black activist, when at a Black Lives Matter de-fund the police rally on September 5 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS0mMZ-oekw The video shows the BLM protesters being confronted and challenged by Trump supporters.↲
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Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Black Lives Matter Protests, reported by Daniel Hurst, June 4 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/04/morrison-says-australia-should-not-import-black-lives-matter-protests-after-deaths-in-custody-rally↲
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Tanis Beiris, Minneapolis, interviewed by The New York Times, May 31 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/politics/trump-protests-george-floyd.html↲
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Advice given on posters, traffic signs, in shops, and in the print and digital media by the Victorian State Government, Australia. An example of the “staying apart keeps us together” campaign by the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, Victoria, can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvtsA-EReOQ↲
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These are the figures for infections and deaths, according to John Hopkins University, on 2 October 2020 at 3.23am EST Australia : https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html↲
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A selection of countries for which figures of infections and deaths are available on the John Hopkins University website: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html↲
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Figures for the Spanish flu of 1918 are from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-pandemic-h1n1.html↲
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Martin Luther King, “How Long; Not Long” speech, delivered March 25 1965. The transcript can be found here: http://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/dr-martin-luther-king-jr-long-not-long-speech-text/↲
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Barbara Jester, Timothy Uyek, and Daniel Jernigan, 2018, in the abstract for “Readiness for Responding to a Severe Pandemic 100 Years After 1918.” American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 187, No. 12, Dec. 2018, pp.2596-2602, https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwy165 Online at: https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/187/12/2596/5068408?guestAccessKey=2b05a8ed-3663-45c1-9fb2-96bff3b45f62↲
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Barbara Jester, Timothy Uyek, and Daniel Jernigan, 2018, in the conclusion of “Readiness for Responding to a Severe Pandemic 100 Years After 1918.” American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 187, No. 12, Dec. 2018, pp.2596-2602, https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwy165 Online at: https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/187/12/2596/5068408?guestAccessKey=2b05a8ed-3663-45c1-9fb2-96bff3b45f62↲
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This story of race riots during the 1919 pandemic is told here: https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/red-summer-1919-how-race-18383339↲
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Looking for teddy bears in gardens and windows, chalk rainbows on pavements, and the creation of mini towns of spoons, called Spoonville, were all community-initiated actions to brighten the lives children (and their parents) in lockdown. Rachel Clayton, “Socially distant bear hunts”, 25 March 2020: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-25/coronavirus-bear-hunts-around-the-world-including-melbourne/12085168; Yara Murray-Atfield, “Chalk Messages and Drawings on the Street”, 2 Apr. 2020: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-02/coronavirus-covid-19-chalk-messages-on-streets-around-australia/12102778; Spoonville International website: https://spoonvilleinternational.com/↲
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John Lennon, “Nowhere Man,” 1965. Performed by the The Beatles. Lyrics at: https://www.google.com/search?q=nowhere+man+lyrics&rlz=1C5CHFA_enAU781AU781&oq=nowhere+man+lyrics&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j0l7.5505j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8↲
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Jack Zaks on Radio 3AW (Melbourne), pleading for pet grooming to be allowed under stage 4 restrictions. The recording of the interview and the transcript can be found here: https://www.3aw.com.au/vet-make-urgent-plea-for-pet-grooming-to-be-allowed-under-stage-4-lockdown/#:~:text=A%20vet%20has%20made%20an,to%20groom%20them%20at%20home↲
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Rage Against the Machine, “Wake Up,” 1992. Lyrics at: https://genius.com/Rage-against-the-machine-wake-up-↲
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Rage Against the Machine, “Wake Up,” 1992. Lyrics at: https://genius.com/Rage-against-the-machine-wake-up-↲
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Apryl Day, Tanya Day’s daughter, on Channel 10’s The Project. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi-rDPh6I88↲
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The Black Lives Matter statement is quoted and expanded upon by the University of Newcastle: https://www.newcastle.edu.au/newsroom/featured/black-lives-matter-position-statement↲
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Banner at Black Lives Matter protest, Queensland, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-11/black-lives-matter-rally-in-brisbane/12655040?nw=0↲
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Galarrwuy Yunupingu, indigenous activist, 1988, from Channel 10’s The Project, June 2 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc4bVGVhv9Y↲
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Paul Keating, then Prime minister of Australia, in the Redfern speech, Dec. 10 1992: https://antar.org.au/sites/default/files/paul_keating_speech_transcript.pdf↲
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Black man, Minneapolis riots, to independent media interviewer from All Gas No Brakes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZPeD2miyF8↲
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Black Lives Matter website: https://blacklivesmatter.com/↲