Kaleidoscope of the world

Editorial#13

When we started Portside Review three years ago, the first piece we published was a series of activist student voices from Myanmar. It was March 2021, and the coup there was fresh in everyone’s minds. We put that into the world even before an editorial because we knew how important the role of language is in shaping what happens to people. We knew that art is the greatest tool for peace in our world. 

Since then, we have always coupled great writing with attentive ethics, thinking most especially of where we stand at the edge of the Indian Ocean, right here on Noongar Country. It was with this in mind that we inaugurated our Human Rights Essay Prize, made possible by a bequest from activists themselves - Baden Offord, Christopher MacFarlane and John Ryan. 

2024 is our first edition of this prize, and we were overwhelmed to receive more than 150 entries. We read them in three stages, first reducing them to 80, then to 40, and then handing the most fitting 30 to our three judges. They were then assessed by those judges - benefactor John Ryan, inaugural Editorial Member Sampurna Chattarji, and PEN Perth Member Frances An. Together, over a series of meetings, they selected our winner, Kirsten Han, and runner up, Dani Netherclift. 

When read as a whole, the essays were a raucous mix of literary styles and human rights perspectives. In memoir, peer review, poetic ways they presented views on sexuality, war, suffering, neurodivergence, indigeneity, and so many other topics. Reading them together felt like a beautiful kaleidoscope upon our world as a whole and often with joy, celebration and uplifting answers no matter the trauma. They were insightful, resilient, and often enlightening. Our winner certainly fits that bill, as do the final published others. I encourage you to read them all and to share them with your friends (and enemies) too. They have a lot to teach us and we hope that their presence here encourages others to make change in the world. For those of us who are empowered by the written word, we say thank you to the writers and readers among us. We look forward to bringing you another Human Rights Essay Prize in 2025, and until then, we simply say - thank you. 

Robert Wood