Even as coal mining expands across regional Australia, harming most aspects of Country, moments of possibility continue to emerge through reflecting on, and being with, water places. This reflection recounts a walk along the Goulburn River, a waterway now partly shaped by extractive practices, to The Drip, an important water place. The walk formed part of the process of developing an exhibition on Ngayirr Ngurambang (sacred Country), curated by co-author Aleshia Lonsdale, a local Wiradjuri woman, and featuring artworks by Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists. By sharing this account, we aim to foreground relational connections grounded in Ngayirr Ngurambang. We argue that centring Indigenous understandings of water places, and deepening non-Indigenous understandings of what Country means, can help open up alternative futures. We also suggest that walking with Country and engaging with artworks that convey what Country means-by First Nations and non-First Nations artists-offers practical ways to decentre settler-colonial power, practices, and knowledges.
Roffey's 2012 novel, Archipelago, provides a fruitful context for readers to consider the possibility of an archipelagic ontology and its potential as an alternative model to understand and address the climate crisis. This essay begins with a reflection on modern society's control-oriented approach to the environments and relates it to a terracentric way of life and worldview. It then uses the idea of 'wet ontologies' to examine how water in its various forms frustrates humanity's tendency to control the environments and, in doing so, attunes humanity to a less controlling way of life and relationship with the environments. Thinking with Glissant and new materialism, the essay further shows that an archipelagic ontology can lead to two affective-ethical components: 'oceanic care' and 'non-controlling responsibility.' Both are instrumental in facilitating a global transition to a less individualistic and less anthropocentric way of life in the Anthropocene.
This article examines the dynamics of social stratification and mobility among fishing communities in Tegal, Central Java, focusing on how patron-client relations structure access to capital, labour, and markets. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in 2024 in Muarareja (involving small-scale fishing operations) and in Tegalsari (with larger vessels), the study employs a qualitative approach combining in-depth interviews, participant observation, and documentation. The analysis identifies three major strata: boat owners, skippers, and crew whose positions are determined by access to financial resources and fishing assets. Evidence shows upward mobility when crews or skippers accumulate savings or secure bank loans using land or house certificates, while downward mobility occurs when boat owners lose assets due to debt, poor catches, or mismanagement. Patron-client networks with banks and middlemen regulate capital flows and fish trade but also entrench dependency. Beyond economics, cultural meanings, boat ownership as prestige, auction halls as arenas of negotiation, and beliefs in mystical practices shape mobility trajectories. By integrating structural and cultural perspectives, the article contributes to understanding stratification and mobility in Indonesian fisheries and underscores the need for safer credit systems and transparent market mechanisms.
This article examines how islands are represented as post-violence spaces in contemporary literary scholarship. Drawing on Critical Island Studies and employing a Narrative Literature Review (NLR), the study synthesises interdisciplinary literary research analysing island narratives in relation to violence, trauma, fear, and resistance. Rather than treating islands as neutral or isolated settings, the article conceptualises them as relational landscapes shaped by colonial structures, mobility, and global violence. Using relationality, structural and cultural violence, and trauma belatedness as analytical lenses, the synthesis identifies recurring patterns across literary contexts. The findings show that island narratives position insularity at the intersection of isolation and connectivity, where colonial domination, displacement, and repression shape spatial relations and social life. Within these conditions, fear, trauma, resistance, and healing emerge as co-present and non-linear processes embedded in memory and everyday relations. By synthesising diverse literary scholarship, the study demonstrates how archipelagic literature illuminates the persistence of violence and relational practices through which communities sustain meaning and continuity. The study highlights the value of interdisciplinary literary approaches bridging island, violence, and trauma studies.
