‘A hole the size of a pencil tip’: Reflections on Burma’s coup since February
Essay by Chris Lin
There’s a line in Burmese poet Min San Wai’s poem, ‘Hole’, that acutely captures what I have felt since February when the military seized power in Burma and unleashed its campaign of violence. The poem is an elegy to Pan Ei Phyu, a fourteen-year-old girl killed by a bullet that pierced the bamboo wall of her house in Meiktila, Burma. Its title is a reference to the bullet hole etched on the bamboo wall—the size of a pencil tip—a miniature image of the mass atrocities Burma’s regime has committed on its people.
Car Trouble
Short story by Melanie Hobbs
Audrey’s phone is dead. Her eyes adjust to the darkness. Above her, ghost gums brandish skeletal arms as a full moon casts long black shadows across the empty road. If she follows the road, she’ll make it back to town.
How the Gond art transformed from rock-mud-walls to canvas
Essay by Madhavi Uike
In central India’s Gondwana region, the Koitur or Gond people have been practicing rock art in caves and outside the walls of their houses for generations. After decades of transformation, these art practices have taken new forms in paintings and canvases, and become one of the most notable Indigenous art forms of India
Daga (Deceit)
Short story by GR Mandavi
Telani was sitting on the roadside in the shade of a tree selling wild fruits Tendu and Char kept on dona—cups made up of leaves. Behind her, a cloth-hammock was tied to the branches of two trees, on which her new born baby was sleeping.
Mugeboina Shabdam (Muted Sound)
Short story by Paddam Anasuya
I was taking a rest after coming back from school when I heard someone knocking on the door. I was surprised to see Peddaiah standing in front. He looked very tired. He had never looked like this before. His face was full of wrinkles. He told me he was devastated after his breadwinning son’s death.
The Journal of Silent Complaints
Short story by Faiza Bokhari
They were arranged together the way pieces of furniture are moved around a living room. Their union based on the compatibility of their skin tones, just as the couch and recliner appeared as they were cut from the same cloth.
How the Koitur Adivasi literature remains on the margins of Indian literature
Essay by Akash Poyam
In India, where various states were created after independence based on the “linguistic” criteria, languages carry power and produce hierarchies among the people and therefore also define the fate of these societies.
A Read Thread
Essay by Simeon Neo
I have only lived in only two homes in my life. Just as I have only lived in only two places in my life. My parents bought our first home in Perth within just five minutes of viewing it. They drooled at the open-spaced backyard…
The hidden violence of India’s Ashram residential schools on Adivasi Indigenous girls
Essay by Durga Masram
In June, the Indigenous communities in Canada and around the world were witness to another bitter and traumatizing memory of colonial violence…Back home, in India, it reminded the Adivasi Indigenous communities of the ongoing violence of various forms experienced by Adivasi children…
The Mountains
Essay by Laurie Steed
Her parents likely greeted my arrival at their family home the way one might greet a door-to-door salesman – with fear, trepidation, and the hope that they would not be ripped off. Over time, her parents and I warmed to each other as might a cat and a dog in the same home, but ultimately we have always been less strawberries and cream, and more sausage rolls and Kulfi.