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‘All they will call you will be… IMAs (Illegal Maritime Arrivals)’ – Woody Guthrie’s great song, Deportees, as relevant as ever

Posted on November 8, 2013 by Beth Spencer

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I was reminded this week of this beautiful song, written by Woody Guthrie — Plane Wreck at Los Gatos Canyon (The Deportees) — the heartfelt lyrics so relevant in Australia today.

For this is the new regime at the Australian Immigration Department: staff are now instructed to only refer to Asylum Seekers as ‘Illegals’ – ‘Illegal Maritime Arrivals’ – even though it is not illegal to seek asylum when you are fleeing danger.

The new ruling: don’t refer to them as people, with children, husbands, wives, parents. Don’t think of them as people to whom you have any obligation whatsoever. See them as things, an acronym, a problem to be controlled and removed.

Language matters. It is a powerful magic.

And, as we know, if you keep repeating a lie (that Asylum Seekers are ‘Illegals’) for long enough, most people start to believe it is fact.

There are several versions of this song, and this is my favourite.

Take a moment if you can to listen to Dolly Parton’s pure voice singing in honour of those who have died in Australian waters seeking a better life and escape from persecution, tyranny and crushing poverty.

Letter sent to all staff at The Department of Immigration by the new Minister, Scott Morrison last week.

For more information about the reality of Asylum Seekers in Australia – please see the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre’s website and check out and ‘like’ their facebook page.

Thanks for reading – please feel free to share this.

Posted in politics / current affairs / ecology | Tagged Asylum seekers, music, politics | Leave a comment

Pocket poetry series from Flying Islands Books – grab a bundle

Posted on September 21, 2013 by Beth Spencer

Check out these gorgeous books of poetry from Flying Islands/Cerebus books/ASM:

flying islands pocket books x 6

They are so delicious to look at and hold — and do indeed fit into a pocket. Although I like to keep mine on a shelf in my kitchen so I can dip in while waiting for the kettle to boil.

Beautiful production with silky covers, contrasting endpapers and satisfyingly creamy paper, with series design by Kit Kelen and Chris Song Zijiang.

And such a great selection of poets. Published so far are pocket books by Pam Brown, Anna Couani, Kit (Christopher) Kelen, Alan Jefferies, Rae Desmond Jones, Greg McLaren (pictured above) plus John Bennet and Phillip Hammial.

Some of these editions are bilingual – Chinese and English – and I am feeling very fortunate to have been invited to be a part of this series.

Last month I met with Kit Kelen, who is the publisher and series editor (and Professor at Macao University), together with my translator Ruby Chen, who flew out from China to meet and work with the poets she is translating. We spent a day workshopping the translations and choosing the final selection. Such a fascinating experience.

This ongoing project has so many cultural benefits and thoroughly deserves support if you know an organisation or benefactor that might be able to help with some funding.

Books in the pipeline for the Pocket series include a new collection by Richard James Allen (out later in the year), and bilingual collections by Dan Disney, Jean Kent and Judy Johnson (also out soon), Mark Treddinick, Jan Dean, Phillip Salom, Les Murray and myself.

There’s also a batch coming up by five West Australian poets, and one from Macao poet Papa Osmubal.

Contact Kit or Flying Islands if you have funding suggestions, or if you want to order the books — affordable enough to grab a bunch of them, and great for school or uni libraries.

And there’s also a paypal button at the site if you’d like to be a much-appreciated patron of these arts.

poetry books in kitchen
**Update: October 2015 — my pocket collection, The Party of Life, is now available and will be launched in Sydney, upstairs at The Friend in Hand pub corner of Cowper and Queen Streets Glebe, on Saturday 14th November at 2.30 for 3pm — all welcome.

Posted in books / writing / creativity, x | Tagged Arts funding, poetry, writers | Leave a comment

Vale Neil Armstrong: memories of the moon landing

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Beth Spencer

“When I was ten, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Kennedy landed on the moon and `the world’ watched with bated breath, fuzzy grainy pictures in which very little happened over what seemed hours and hours cramped five in a double desk in the grades five and six classroom at Yarra Glen State School.

That year in the schoolyard, boys were encouraged to make balsa wood rockets powered with bulbs from soda fountains. And then everyone, from the bubs right up to the sixth graders, would be herded out of the classrooms to watch them being launched.

The rockets flew along a piece of wire strung up from the top of the bell to the monkey bars at the end of the playground. Sometimes they fizzed and only went a few feet. Sometimes they were wildly successful and shot the whole length of the wire in a flash.

Either way, it was over fairly fast. The girls never got to make rockets. But we got to watch.”

— From the story ‘A Lover of Space’
in How to Conceive of a Girl