“I Cut Fruit for You is not only an act of love to her culture but also to herself. While Pey Chi pays homage to her predecessors, she has also established a footprint of understanding for who she is.”

To celebrate the publication of Don’t Buy Fruit & Veg Without Me! we’re sharing Thanh Truong’s notes on how to pick the perfect Nashi, and a recipe for Nashi Herbal Soup.

To celebrate the publication of Tenderheart, we’re sharing Hetty McKinnon’s Garlicky Chilli Oil recipe.

‘Without family support, other income, or a lucky break in the form of Powerball, a good horse, or a night at the casino, writers are left out of the Australian promise.’

‘I wish I had more of Palestine to pass on, but your stories are our only heirlooms.’

‘The challenges for decolonisation here are structured by global forces, but the focus of resistance has to be local. It must be grounded in a bodily sovereignty that draws its power from Country and people allowing one to sit inside oneself with a custodial autonomy.’

‘If we define the subaltern as those that cannot speak, then we know it is not an essential position that does not change over time.’

‘A very basic paradox matters. On the one hand, we know we were never colonised. Malayalis have always and will always be Malayalis. We never were and never will be British subjects.’

‘Translation matters because it doubles our audience. It can connect us to countries that are new to us. It can enable us to reflect more deeply on our mother tongues.’

‘What does sovereignty mean nowadays, here, on this continent, in this place with its many laws, many countries, many names, many people, many languages?’

‘After all, decolonising white settlers is not beyond the realm of possibility, but it is currently beyond the realm of practical imagination. All of the right gestures, all of the well meant rhetoric, all of the good feeling, can dissipate in an instant.’

‘Writing as diverse people allows us to make a start even if reaching the end takes more time than forever itself and is littered with barbed wire and glass.’

‘And so, if diversity is about letting us speak our own stories, it is not enough to assume that the shape, tone, style, metre, length, language, of those stories will be in a manner that makes sense to critical good taste.’

‘Diversity’ is everywhere and it is exhausting, not only to keep talking about it but to experience it, to keep educating people, to refuse the weight of whiteness as it interrupts and silences our work in the community.

Together, we speak of Perth in its wondrous complexity, in the shifting sands of time, and in partnership with the other communities that also belong here.