Shapeshifting (ed by Jeanine Leane & Ellen van Neerven, UQP)

In UQP’s new First Nations anthology, Shapeshifting, Daniel Browning meditates on the significance of the fact that there is no Bundjalung word for queer; Alison Whittaker intimately dissects the shifting cultural ideologies of fatness; and Charmaine Papertalk Green reaches through fragmented archival history to uncover her family’s silenced past and heal trauma. Shapeshifting focuses on form in this boundary-pushing anthology, featuring some of the most accomplished First Nations writers. Co-editors Ellen van Neerven (Personal Score) and Jeanine Leane (Gawimarra) propose that by rejecting the colonial framework of nonfiction writing, First Nations writers may practice their traditional methods of storytelling through ‘fluid forms of telling’. This fluidity emerges through melding poetry with archival documents, non-linear and meandering essay structures, and writing pieced together over years. The contributors find the freedom to express and investigate their experiences of cultural shapeshifting within this new genre with incredible diversity and range. Each author has a unique approach to the subject, and the collection covers a wide scope of themes, including art, queerness, body image and identity, ancestral wounds and healing, recovering lost stories, gentrification, activism and reclamation in its many forms. The result is a must-read addition to the First Nations literary canon. Shapeshifting will appeal to readers of creative nonfiction and experimental writing, and fans of First Nations anthologies such as Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia. Due to some sexually explicit content, this anthology is best suited to an adult audience.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Kate Dunphy is an emerging writer and bookseller based in Meanjin. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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