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Editor's note
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Nobody really knows what to make of ‘Oumuamua - a comet? an alien spaceship? - which scientists found in our solar system last year. Whatever it is, we know it’s not from around here. But, as Steven Tingay wrote, it does tell us a lot about our obsession with finding alien life.
Elsewhere, we’ve been running a series on Australian cities in the Asian Century, which serves to complicate the standard (and often stereotypical) depiction of Asian peoples in Australia. Among other things, it gave us the shocking statistic that 84% of Australians born in Asia have experienced racism.
Also, contemplate Kevin Brophy’s review of David Malouf’s new poetry collection, and Julianne Schultz’s request for us to, please, "turn up the level of civilisation". And have a great Sunday.
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James Whitmore
Deputy Editor: Arts + Culture
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A real UFO
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An artist’s impression of `Oumuamua, the first interstellar object discovered in the Solar System.
ESA/Hubble, NASA, ESO, M. Kornmesser
Steven Tingay, Curtin University
We will never see 'Oumuamua again, and we may never know exactly what it is. But with the right kind of media coverage it could inspire some kids to take up a career in science.
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Cities in the Asian Century
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Alanna Kamp, Western Sydney University; Ana-Maria Bliuc, Western Sydney University; Kathleen Blair, Western Sydney University; Kevin Dunn, Western Sydney University
Asian Australians experience high levels of racism. Almost six in ten Asia-born Australians report having had experiences of discrimination when trying to rent or buy housing.
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Peter Newton, Swinburne University of Technology; Christina Ting, Swinburne University of Technology; Wendy Stone, Swinburne University of Technology
Australian cities are world-leading – in the worst sense – for resource use and greenhouse emissions. China-born residents have embraced these consumption patterns, which is bad news for the planet.
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Words to think on
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David Malouf’s poetry collection An Open Book spans “a Beurre Bosch pear/in a fruit bowl to the planet”.
Shutterstock
Kevin Brophy, University of Melbourne
Malouf's late return to poetry seems to bring him back in a new way to steadying poems that do justice to the open gaze, the sly wit, the swift imagination and the poise he has in spades.
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Music and theatre
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Paul Salmond, La Trobe University
Euripides’ dismissal by some as a misogynist sits uncomfortably alongside his complex and sympathetic female characters.
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Michael Webb, University of Sydney; Camellia Webb-Gannon, University of Wollongong
Indigenous New Caledonians, who will vote in an independence referendum next week, have been struggling since French colonisation in 1853. Through songs, they have chronicled past traumas and resistance heroes.
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Essays
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Stuart Kells, La Trobe University
Shakespeare’s first reputation was as a poet, and particularly as a sex poet. He would later incorporate his bawdy inclinations into his most famous plays.
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Julianne Schultz, Griffith University
US president Donald Trump's industrial scale deception has dangerous implications everywhere. What then, can we do to foster a more civilised society?
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Making the world
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The Tianshan mountains frame Sayram Lake in the Bortala Prefecture in Xinjiang, China.
Gilby Jepson
Gilby Jepson, University of Adelaide; Alan Collins, University of Adelaide; Jack Gillespie, University of Adelaide
Setting the scene for ancient Silk Road trading and now China's Belt and Road initiative, the Tianshan has changed humanity. Geological evidence shows us how this incredible mountain range formed.
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Remembrance
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Romain Fathi, Flinders University
This year marks 100 years since the fighting stopped in the first world war. The commemoration of the armistice, Remembrance Day, remains potent but is also changing with the times.
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Margaret Hutchison, Australian Catholic University
Australian authorities sent artists to the WW1 battlefields to interpret and commemorate war. But unlike similar schemes in Britain and Canada, ours neglected the war experience at home and the perspective of women artists.
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Featured jobs
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RMIT University — Bundoora, Victoria
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University of Western Australia — Karratha, Western Australia
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University of Melbourne — Melbourne, Victoria
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La Trobe University — Bundoora, Victoria
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Featured events
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St Lucia Campus, St Lucia, Brisbane, Queensland, 4072, Australia — The University of Queensland
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The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, 2006, Australia — University of Sydney
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Deakin Downtown, Level 12, Tower 2 Collins Square, 727 Collins Street, , Docklands, Victoria, 3008, Australia — Deakin University
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The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, 2006, Australia — University of Sydney
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