It's always nice when one of our better periodicals contains a review of another one of them. That is the case with Michael Piggott's review in Inside Story of Griffith Review 93. Piggott is a friend of Defending Country and its predecessor, Honest History, but, more importantly in this case, he is a distinguished archivist and the title of GR93 is 'Into the Archive'. The question at the head of his review is 'How much of the richness of archives does the latest Griffith Review reveal?'
Here are some of the 19 non-fiction contributions to GR93 (as reported by Piggott):
Yassmin Abdel-Magied tracks down some ancestors in archives in the Shetland Islands, Durham and South London;
Mary Parker writes about researching Louisa Lawson;
Anna Clark addresses just how many archives there are, including the ones you find on the beach;
Sisonke Msimang reminds us that monuments are archives;
Coby Edgar says one of his Indigenous Uncles is an archive: 'The stories of Country were told when we were on Country, inside the archive';
Sharlene Allsop listens to the River Somme and equates water with memory.
GR93 is edited by Carody Culver and Nathan mudyi Sentance.
What about the answer to Piggott's question? It comes right at the end of the review and is delphic. Check for yourself, Dear Reader.
Photo credit: detail of cover.
