The Big Issue Australia #626 – Big Christmas Special

Ed.

626 11 DEC 2020

28.

JACKIE FRENCH

10.

VENDOR BIG WISH YOUS

and

40.

BILL GRANGER

NO CASH? NO WORRIES!

Some Big Issue vendors now offer digital payments.

NATIONAL OFFICE

ENQUIRIES

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Contents

EDITION

626 28 BOOKS

From the Flames As bushfires surrounded author Jackie French’s home, a wombat stumbled out of the smoke. Her new book The Fire Wombat is inspired by this story, and the extraordinary Australia-wide response to wildlife rescue.

TAKE A BOW, DAVE!

30 MUSIC

Interstellar Overdrive The Avalanches reach for the stars on We Will Always Love You – about the wonder of love and the power of an intergalactic romance that endures across space and time.

10.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas 40

by Big Issue vendors

Big Issue vendors and the Women’s Subscription Enterprise crew share their end-of-year thoughts, reflections, wishes and festive feelings – plus their hopes for a brighter year ahead.

Contents photo of Dave S from Sydney by George Fetting

THE REGULARS

04 Ed’s Letter & Your Say 05 Meet Your Vendor 06 Hearsay & 20 Questions 09 My Word 22 The Big Picture

26 Ricky 27 Fiona 34 Film Reviews 35 Small Screen Reviews 36 Music Reviews

37 Book Reviews 39 Public Service Announcement 43 Puzzles 45 Crossword 46 Click

TASTES LIKE HOME

Chopped Salad with Peanut and Lime Dressing “My favourite comfort food, which might sound bizarre, is a chopped salad,” says Bill Granger, who shares a salad recipe that doubles as a big beautiful centrepiece on your table this Christmas.

Ed’s Letter

by Amy Hetherington Editor @amyhetherington

E FO RT NI GH T LE TT ER OF TH

It’s a Cracker!

I

’m excited,” says Dave S, on finally making his cover debut after selling The Big Issue for almost 25 years.

“I started with Edition #4 – there was a green bottle on the cover.”

Well, Dave, your memory is definitely worth bottling. As are the festive messages from vendors all around the country in this edition. It’s our annual “Big Wish Yous”, an extended Streetsheet of sorts, and our own special Christmas tradition.

As always, there is a lot to gain from these reflections: hope, humour and heart; a reminder of the importance of friends and family in all their guises, and that a simple smile goes a long way.

“It’s amazing what a hello does for somebody’s day. It does make a big difference,” says Dave, who works in Rhodes and Parramatta in Sydney, but who may be familiar to many of you, having sold The Big Issue all around Australia since 1996.

“The Big Issue has built my self‑esteem something terrible,” he says. “Since I started selling the mag, it’s just brought me out as a person. I can go and talk to people now, and people enjoy talking to me. I think it’s made me a better person, that’s what I think.”

It’s the most wonderful time of the most difficult year for many of us. For Big Issue vendors, it means being able to work again after months of COVID lockdown. Being able to earn an income.

Being able to reconnect with their customers and community.

“I’m loving it, being back,” agrees Dave. “I was going crazy [stuck at home].

I’m going to say 2020 never happened…

It’s been a crap year. It was hard.

“But I think in the new year it’s going to come better. You know, new start, new year.”

From all of us, thank you, Merry Christmas and here’s to that better, brighter new year.

cover photo by George Fetting cover typography by Kate Pullen

Your Say

katepullendraws

I met Lesa on the tram last week.

She was so excited to be back on her Big Issue shift outside Myer, she had really missed seeing her locals. So lovely to meet her.

HELEN BELL COLLINGWOOD I VIC

On my daily walk past the corner of Market and York Streets in Sydney, I noticed one of your vendors, a man who was not too busy, yet smiling and pleased to be doing his work.

I purchased one of the magazines at a cost of $9. It was worth every cent, even though I initially thought it was expensive. After reading every page of The Big Issue, which I have not ever done with any other magazine, I decided to pass it on to a random person in the street to encourage them to in turn purchase. For each person who regularly purchases The Big Issue, I will ask you to do the same.

Let us have the converted preach.

Sincerely yours, a new purchaser.

HUGH TAGGART SYDNEY I NSW

04

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

The Big Issue Story The Big Issue is an independent, not-for-profit magazine sold on the streets around Australia. It was created as a social enterprise 24 years ago to provide both a voice and a work opportunity for people experiencing homelessness and disadvantage. Your purchase of this magazine has directly benefited the person who sold it to you. Big Issue vendors buy each copy for $4.50 and sell it to you for $9, keeping the profits. But The Big Issue is more than a magazine.

• Our Women’s Subscription Enterprise provides employment and training for women through the sale of magazine subscriptions as well as social procurement work.

• The Community Street Soccer Program promotes social inclusion and good health at weekly soccer games at 20 locations around the country.

• The Vendor Support Fund will offset the cost price of products for vendors, allowing them to earn a larger margin on their own street sales.

• The Big Issue Classroom educates school groups about homelessness.

CHECK OUT ALL THE DETAILS AT

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

Helen wins a signed copy of Australian Food, a new cookbook by Bill Granger.

You can whip up his Chopped Salad recipe this Christmas, on p40. We’d also love to hear your thoughts, feedback and suggestions: SUBMISSIONS@BIGISSUE.ORG.AU

YOUR SAY SUBMISSIONS MAY BE EDITED FOR CLARITY AND SPACE.

Meet Your Vendor

interview by Erica Rees photo by Nat Rogers

PROUD UNIFORM PARTNER OF THE BIG ISSUE VENDORS.

11 DEC 2020

SELLS THE BIG ISSUE AT BUPA DENTAL IN ADELAIDE CBD

05

Fred

I was four when I moved to Adelaide. I was born in Peterborough – my home town was just nearby. I have only been back a couple of times for Christmas, back when Dad was still alive. This was quite a few years back.

I have four brothers and three sisters. We live all over the place now. I am closest with my younger brother John, who lives in Mount Gambier. When John comes to Adelaide, we go out for a meal together.

I have another brother in Victoria and two sisters here in Adelaide and the other sister in Kangaroo Island. I also have lots of nephews and nieces – too many to count! I even have a great-niece.

My childhood wasn’t all nice. We had some bad times growing up.

Family violence – some stuff I wouldn’t like to repeat or talk about. But we made it out, all on our own. That’s how we’ve ended up scattered everywhere across so many places.

I went to primary school here in Goodwood, then high school up near Kilburn. I didn’t like school too much. I hated it! It was the teachers I was not too happy with. One teacher, in particular.

I had friends at school, but I lost contact with them. I think some of them went off to do similar things as I did probably. When I left school, I first started work down on Henley Beach Road. I would have been 15 or 16 – it’s hard to remember. It’s too far back.

I used to work in carpentry, in a furniture warehouse, making bed frames and tables and things like that. I used to work on the twin saw – which was dangerous! They had to have protection gear of course. I used to cut the timber pieces down to the size they wanted. I was a leading hand back then – the person who helps and shows other people what to do. I worked for them for about nine years.

I started working for The Big Issue in 2014. I heard about it from a friend of a friend who was a vendor years ago. I get along well with most of the other vendors, and I have missed not being able to have our vendor breakfasts due to COVID. I look forward to being able to have those breakfast meetings again – they’re a lot of fun.

I save most of my Big Issue money for a rainy day. I could save for a holiday. I might go to Darwin to see what it’s like up there.

I like to listen to music: rock’n’roll or country music is what I love. I always have.

I’ve had lots of different pets: dogs, cats and birds. My favourite was a dog I had called Susie. A small German shepherd cross. She was pretty smart. I trained her to walk, to heel without a lead.

I like my pitch and I have loads of friends and people to talk to me. I have quite a few regular customers. I like meeting other people and making friends. I like to help other people and I know a lot about local Adelaide.

Hearsay

Andrew Weldon Cartoonist

“

Shakespeare may have written King Lear during the plague, but Dolly Parton funded a COVID vaccine, dropped a Christmas album and a Christmas special.

Kenro Kusumi, professor and director of ASU’s School of Life Sciences and associate dean at The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, on the discovery that young alligators have the ability to regrow their tails up to 23cm. Just as long as the dinosaurs don’t learn how to regrow…

SCIENCE DAILY I US

“I shouted with joy when I first saw the first shrimp walk out of the water. I was thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, I deciphered [a] secret of nature!’”

Watcharapong Hongjamrassilp, from University of California, on discovering why Thailand’s shrimp leave the water for an annual rainy season march – they’re avoiding strong currents.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC I US

Author Lyz Lenz, one of bajillions of Dolly Parton fans, who is crediting the singer with saving the world from coronavirus, after she donated US$1 million to research that developed the Moderna vaccine.

TWITTER I US

“There are a lot of Santas that are entirely sitting out the season. You have another group who are doing virtual visits over Zoom.”

“Santa Bryan” on the hazards of being a professional St Nick during a COVID Christmas. Santa Bryan is still going out – with a plexiglass barrier and a no-touch, social-distancing policy.

But where does that leave Rudolf?

06

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

VICE I US

“To not wear [something] because it’s females’ clothing, you shut out a whole world of great clothes.

And I think what’s exciting about right now is you can wear what you like. It doesn’t have to be X or Y. Those lines are becoming more and more blurred.”

Pop star Harry Styles on the commentary around his decision to wear a Gucci dress on the cover of Vogue this December.

VARIETY I US

“Dressing up is a way of reclaiming happiness regardless of outside factors. It’s realising that you, as a person, even if no-one else sees you, are the most important thing. People are getting creative with the clothes in their closets and having fun… They’ve come through the first [UK] lockdown and realised it’s just not viable to live in sweatpants.”

Fashion futurist Geraldine Wharry on why dressing up while locked down is about more than fashion.

BBC I UK

“Our finding that alligators have retained the cellular machinery to regrow complex tails while birds have lost that ability raises the question of when during evolution this ability was lost. Are there fossils out there of dinosaurs, whose lineage led to modern birds, with regrown tails?”

“A proud day for Scotland and a signal to the world that free universal access to period products can be achieved.”

MP Monica Lennon on legislation passed by Scottish Parliament that provides for free and universal access to menstrual products, including tampons and pads, in public facilities including universities and schools.

CNN I US

“I’m appealing to the American public to please realise that this is real. This is not fake, this is not a hoax.”

Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious diseases expert, trying to persuade Americans that 12 months and a quarter of a million deaths later, with daily tolls topping 2800, that the coronavirus is actually real.

THE AGE I AU

“We did not install a dancefloor, because the city protocols say ‘No Dancing’. But you see, I saw Footloose, so I knew that you couldn’t really outlaw dancing.”

Bob Hannaford on regrettably organising “Naughty in N’awlins”,

20 Questions

by Little Red

01 Is Sydney or Melbourne closer to

Mount Kosciuszko?

02 Used to describe an economic group

of people, what does the acronym DINK stand for?

03 Who took home the 2020 Aria for

Album of the Year? Bonus point if you can name the album.

04 What is the longest river in Africa?

05 At which Grand Prix did Lewis

Hamilton set a new world-record of 92 Formula One wins in October?

06 Which calendar is used in Australia

and most commonly around the world: the Julian or Gregorian?

07 Who composed the film scores/

soundtracks for The Lion King, Interstellar and Thelma and Louise?

08 The name of which Australian

at risk of extinction. Ecosystems are disappearing before our eyes…

Human activities are at the root of our descent toward chaos. But that means human action can help to solve it.”

UN Secretary-General António Guterres issues a stark warning after a year of global upheaval.

“Humanity is waging war on nature. This is suicidal. Nature always strikes back – and it is already doing so with growing force and fury. Biodiversity is collapsing. One million species are

species in the world?

10 Where is basil thought to originate

from?

11 Which celebrity hosted a talk show

called La Noche del 10?

12 Ceylon became officially known as

what in 1972?

13 What wood is used to make a cricket

“The Department of Transportation’s final rule will protect the travelling public and airline crew members from untrained animals in the cabin, as well as improve air travel accessibility for passengers with disabilities that travel with trained service dogs.”

Nicholas E Calio, president of Airlines for America, on the ruling that people can no longer bring their emotional support animals onto planes, after people had been flouting the rules, bringing pets such as a peacock, a miniature horse and even a panda.

Guide dogs are still allowed.

14 In the vegan culinary world, what

bat? is TVP? 15 Anya Taylor-Joy plays the lead in

which popular Netflix series?

16 The Bloody Ploughman, Nonnetit

Bastard and Doctor Harvey are varieties of what?

17 Which two planets rotate clockwise?

18 Author Douglas Stuart won this

year’s Man Booker Prize for which novel?

19 How many states can water exist in?

20 Which word has Macquarie

Dictionary voted its Word of the Year?

11 DEC 2020

TWITTER I US

09 Are there more known bird or fish

THE GUARDIAN I UK

THE GUARDIAN I UK

“I love that I am trans. And I love that I am queer. And the more I hold myself close and fully embrace who I am, the more I dream, the more my heart grows and the more I thrive.”

Actor Elliot Page (Juno) announcing he is transgender in a heartfelt message on social media.

capital city is thought to be derived from the Ngunnawal word for “meeting place”?

THE NEW YORK TIMES I US

FREQUENTLY OVERHEAR TANTALISING TIDBITS? DON’T WASTE THEM ON YOUR FRIENDS SHARE THEM WITH THE WORLD AT SUBMISSIONS@BIGISSUE.ORG.AU

ANSWERS ON PAGE 43

07

a swingers event in Louisiana “Do you even know what that saw about propaganda means?”

41 of the 250 “Yes, it means to have a revellers test proper look at something.

You know, a proper gander.” positive to Overheard by Louise at Belmont COVID. “I Market, Vic. wouldn’t do it again if I knew then what I know now,” he adds.

EAR2GROUND

My Word

by Karenlee Thompson

D

eanna was the best neighbour. Watered my plants when I was away, brought me a casserole when my stove blew up, gave me a plate of her homemade Anzac biscuits every year. She also told the best stories from her decades of travelling the world. Like the time she stared down an obese moose on the outskirts of an Alaskan town, even mimicking the strange departing grunt of the moose. She once went on Jeopardy! in the US and left TV host Alex Trebek speechless after mistakenly replacing the word “organisms” with “orgasms”.

Deanna had a key to my place and I never hesitated to call her to check if I had left the iron on or the garage door open. She’d be in there in a flash and often left me little gifts to brighten my day – a heart-shaped chocolate or a flower from her garden. So, I was not overly surprised to find a gorgeous loofah hanging on the shower head when I came home after a quick trip to Hobart. The flight had landed at some ungodly hour and I was desperate for a shower, so grabbed the loofah and gave it a bit of a splash around. It was kind of weird, a little bit squishy and it didn’t seem to work well as far as scrubbing my skin.

The next morning, I received a call from Deanna. She had taken ill while I was away and had undergone an emergency appendectomy, but was recovering well. “Can you put my rubbish out? I’ll be in here for a couple more days and there’s a heap of food scraps in there that will go rack.” I knew she meant “rank”, but I was so used to her mispronunciations and malapropisms that I rarely corrected her. It was the only time I could recall her asking for my help and I was pleased to oblige.

Her normally immaculate kitchen was in some disarray, so I washed the few dishes, removed a bit of coagulated mixture from one of the hotplates and gathered up some craft scraps from the table. As I pulled the bag of rubbish from the bin, I couldn’t help but notice fragments of fabric and fancy string. I realised that Deanna must have made my loofah gift herself. I wasn’t particularly surprised, given her penchant for all things crafty. She was always knitting or crocheting, she had done a scrapbooking class and even made soap once.

I arrived at her hospital bed with a bunch of yellow roses – her favourite – and a basket of nibbles from the

corner health food shop. She was in high spirits, despite the most recent news from the doctor. “I’ll be incinerated in here for another week!” She meant “incarcerated”.

As I was taking my leave, I remembered the loofah.

“Thank you for the gift. So thoughtful.”

“Oh! I forgot about that,” she said. “I only put it in there to keep it dry while you were away. It’s not finished yet.”

I was embarrassed and didn’t want to let on that I’d already used it, so I just nodded and agreed to hang it from her kitchen railing when I went home.

Christmas Eve – the last one we were to share together, as it happened – she arrived with a beautiful big basket of homemade goodies. Fruit mince in a fancy jar with checked gingham covering the lid, bespoke Christmas bonbons, a decorative bottle filled with grapefruit and ginger lemonade, shortbread and peppermint creams.

And there, nestled in the bottom of the basket was what looked suspiciously like the loofah I had sluiced my body with a month before but which was now – clearly – a miniature Christmas pudding, with a quaint little holly tie.

“You’ll recognise that then,” she said, killing my last fragment of hope that it was all a bizarre coincidence.

“Almost spoiled my surprise, you did.”

We drank eggnog and she went home tipsy. The next morning, I could hear her sitting at her back patio, talking with family on the other side of the world. I headed off to join my own group, much closer.

I lied – of course – when next we met. The pudding was a delight. Shared it with the family. Lip-smacking good.

“It wasn’t the same one that was hanging in your shower,” she said and my guilt at having hidden a perfectly good pudding in a box in the wardrobe brought a flush to my cheeks. “It didn’t age as well, that one.” With every word she uttered, I felt a growing unease. “Sometimes the moisture gets to them and they turn. I ate that one myself.”

I stammered and stuttered, mortification making me almost mute and then she roared. “Of course I didn’t eat it,” she said. “I smelled the soap on it and put two and three together.”

For the next six months until Deanna moved home to Canada, we couldn’t meet without cackling like deranged hyenas. I imagine I have become one of her many stories and I still have a chuckle every time I see one of those cute little puddings hanging by a fancy thread.

Karenlee Thompson is an Australian short story writer, world traveller and author of Flame Tip. She occasionally blogs at karenleethompson.wordpress.com.

09

Karenlee Thompson plumbs the depths of her friendship with her Canadian neighbour – and gets her just des(s)erts.

11 DEC 2020

A Loofah Minute

The Big Wish Yous Big Issue vendors from all around Australia share festive memories, reflections and hopes for the new year ahead, as we wish you all a happy holiday. at the recycling plant along with

I’ve been worried about this

2020 – scrap it! It’s been a tough

selling The Big Issue. I hope

crisis with COVID and I feel

year for me and everyone. The

my customers enjoy a fantastic

good now that we don’t have

highlight of the year was a trip

Christmas and New Year. Chris

it anymore. We are very lucky

to Broome, getting back to

VA IGA, Hilton

to live in Australia. Thank you

work and bowling post-COVID.

I would like to acknowledge

and Merry Christmas to all my

I spent too much on my holiday,

everyone that smiles at me

customers. Manfred Victoria Park

so 2021 will be about working

when I’m on pitch. I must

I want to thank my customers,

witness about 200 smiles a day.

especially Darrell, Jackie and

That’s a lot of love! Maura His

Liz who kept in contact and

Majesty’s Theatre

supported me in lockdown.

2020 has been a difficult year for

I hope we all have a really good

Bring on 2021! My plan is to keep

all us vendors due to COVID-19.

2021. All I am hoping for is that

working hard, keep saving up

Other than that, my sales have

the Eagles win the Grand Final.

for a house, and to see my son a

been extremely good. I’m

Steve W Elizabeth Quay

bit more. People are twisting my

spending Christmas with the

I would like to say thank you

leg to play netball too – I’ll think

family. Lots of holidays planned

to everyone that came up and

for next year. David L Oxford St,

bought a mag or a calendar.

Leederville

I hope that next year is better

The best part of 2020 was

than this one. I know this

This year’s been a tough one

Christmas is going to be a bit

for everyone. Getting back to

different but don’t let that get in

work when restrictions lifted

the way of enjoying the festive

and chatting to my customers

season. Merry Christmas and

really made a difference. I had

was also a highlight. Next year

a Happy New Year everyone!

a knee operation at the start

I will take things day by day.

Natasha B Raine Square

of the year and feel lucky it

Sean Cnr Hay & William Sts

I’m looking forward to catching

Selling The Big Issue this year

up with my mum for Christmas.

has meant I can be generous

She cooks a delicious lunch and

this Christmas. I love buying

it’s good fun. I’d love to see my

pressies and want to buy them

dad next year. I’m in Perth and

for everyone in my family. It’s

he’s in Sydney so we couldn’t

hobby I have learned is how

my favourite time of year! I hope

see each other this year. I miss

to mosaic. I created a mosaic

This year has brought some good changes for me. My daughter and I moved down to Esperance. It’s brilliant. So quiet and relaxing. I’m looking forward to selling some mags down there next year. Wishing everyone a happy and safe 2021.

Take care! Jannah Esperance I love spending Christmas with my parents, sister and niece. I look forward to buying presents, watching Christmas movies and having a good time. I’m looking forward to continuing to sell The Big Issue next year! Eileen Applecross I’ve been busy with my art this year. Someone gave me a commission to do a Nick Cave painting during COVID lockdown, and I sold my Jimi Hendrix too. I’m pretty happy about that. My art and selling

10

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

The Big Issue keep me busy! A big thank you to my customers.

Tony Perth City Farm

Being stuck inside and not being able to sell The Big Issue to earn money was rough. A new

getting some new customers and making people smile on pitch. Returning to work at the Stirling Markets after lockdown

hard to save some money for my next trip – probably to Darwin!

Thanks for the support! Ryan Royal Perth Hospital

about that one! I wish everyone a great 2021! Mick Perth Train Station

happened before everything got cancelled. I’m wishing everyone a better 2021 and hoping to keep my sales up, do some cooking, listen to heaps of music and see the odd movie. Greg Art Gallery of WA

everyone else has a happy day,

him. I really hope that everyone

2020 has not been too tough

number for my house. In 2021

and hopefully a visit from Santa.

else can have a nice Christmas

on me. My customers have

I am excited to begin a new job

Ronald His Majesty’s Theatre

too. Keith Inglewood IGA

been great in supporting me by

illustrations by Kim Drane

Western Australia

off, or when I have time. Hope everyone has a great Christmas and a good 2021. Rob N Yagan Square

The Big Issue has given me so much: means and a reason to get out of bed. When we weren’t able to sell it reminded me how much I value The Big Issue, even after 13 years of selling. John E Westralia Plaza

It’s my first year selling The Big Issue. It suits me perfectly at the moment. I have somewhere to stay, but I don’t have a lot of stability, so the flexibility is good. I can work when it works!

I love meeting people and it’s cool when people stop and chat when they buy a mag so I can see how they’re going too. I’m

buying magazines and I want

to my regular customers – they

to thank them for that. Some

are models of generosity. I am

highlights from my days are the

grateful for it. May good return

very nice ladies from Michael

upon your good deeds always.

Hill (a shop near my pitch)

Pat L His Majesty’s Theatre

myself. Declan Cnr St Georges

I would like to thank the ladies

Tce & William Sts

and gentlemen who support and

Wow! I didn’t see that coming.

help all Big Issue vendors. And

With COVID, my neck injury

to the movers and groovers and

and a shortened AFL season

boppers out there, stay safe and

it’s been a true annus horribilis.

play it easy. Brett A Busselton

Best wishes and season’s

the buskers playing great music along the mall. My favourite Vietnamese singer is called Mimi – she has a great voice. Phil David Jones on Hay St

The best thing this year: I got a pensioner concession card that

Wishing all Big Issue vendors,

allows me to travel free on WA

customers and staff a Merry

public transport during off-peak

Christmas. What a year:

hours, weekends and public

bushfires, drought and COVID!

holidays. I learned to make

Several local businesses in my

natural yoghurt from the excess

area are suffering, and staff and

milk I got from food hampers.

families are finding it difficult.

My biggest challenge in 2020

I hope in 2021 things will

was to keep my marriage

improve. Happy New Year to all!

vows in place. I overcame this

Don Geraldton

challenge by keeping God’s word and being content.

I like Jesus Christ most about Christmas. I will be celebrating by attending church; it’s close to my heart. My goals and dreams continue for 2021: I want to continue working for The Big Issue and be well in life. Working

COVID-19 has been a big challenge – taking time off work was not easy. One good thing about 2020 was getting a new boyfriend! Looking forward to seeing my boys over Christmas and hoping 2021 will be a better year. Kellee Nedlands

Christmas I hope everyone has a good one. Thank you for buying the mag and helping me support

greetings for the holiday period.

David B Subiaco Post Office

In 2018 I had an accident at a government facility where I worked that left me with a permanent injury. With my brother John’s assistance and our legal team at Soul Legal we have successfully achieved rightful compensation for my injuries, which is a relief! Chris U Angelo St, South Perth

Season’s greetings and best wishes to everyone, and a big thank you to all my customers.

Let’s hope next year is looking up for everybody. Kathy A Busselton

Being back at work has been

at The Big Issue changed my

I’ve been working at my other

great and seeing my regular

life – values, as well as humanity

job for nearly a year. I’m a

customers is fantastic. I like

are cherished throughout

forklift operator and warehouse

playing my music on pitch – my

the organisation. I value the

assistant at SecondBite and

customers like me playing 60s

customers I meet along the

I love it. It’s great that I can still

and 70s radio music. I really

path. Sending a special message

sell The Big Issue on my day

hope we can stay well and that

11 DEC 2020

coming by for a chat, and also

just doing one day at a time. For

11

WA is, Natasha, Back Greg, Pieter, Chr ita Middle Nak Mick, David, Jackie, Pia (staff ), Simon (staff ), David, (dog), Ryan, Ronald, Robbie, Turbo Jas on, Kellee, , Bill nt Fro ve Ste is, Chr don Frank (dog), Kim, Gor

we can keep working. I’m 73

I wish all The Big Issue vendors

years old now and I hope I have

the best for 2021 – they really

a few more good years ahead. All

deserve everything they get. May

the best to everyone. Stay safe!

God’s hand be with you. Pieter

David W Yagan Square

Carillon Arcade

My dear customers, thank you

I would like to wish all my

for your patience during the

customers a very Merry

COVID lockdown. It’s great to see

Christmas and a Happy New

all your bright and lovely faces

Year. My dream for next year is to

again. You’re still supporting

get my transfer so I can move to

me. I love you all – you are all

a bigger place and be close to my

very special to me. I hope to go

parents. I also hope that 2021 is a

to Melbourne next year to see

better year for everyone – it can

my family who I haven’t seen

only get better. Caroline London

in 35 years. I hope next year

Court, St Georges Tce

will be better for everyone. Kim

New South Wales

Fremantle Markets

The three months at the start of 2020 was tough due to COVID, which entailed losing three months of work. My biggest goal is to sell lots of mags and calendars – bring on a healthy 2021. Jackie G Apple Store, Perth

Issue. I feel more connected with people despite the challenges.

I hope this Christmas brings everyone together in joy and happiness. I dream that I can establish myself and open my own house, and have my beloved

and buying off me. The best

around a lot to care and share

thing about 2020 was finding

and flourish in life together.

a girlfriend. I also got a new

Haidar Newtown Station

outdoor cricket uniform. Merry

I’d like to wish Sylvia from

see you in 2021. Jason K Hampden Rd, Nedlands

Roseville and Judith from Ashfield a happy Christmas. And thank you Sunny for the phone

I would like to wish everyone a

you bought me, which connects

successful author. Working for

safe and Merry Christmas! I like

to my tap-and-go so I don’t lose

The Big Issue helps pay my bills.

to spend Christmas at my dad’s

anymore sales. I’d like to wish

Merry Christmas and a Happy

house with my nine siblings and

you a happy Christmas and New

New Year! Peter Kings Cross

the kids. Josh B Peaches Market

Year. You are not only sunny in

This year was a difficult time for me. I missed out travelling to the eastern states with my mum for my 21st birthday. It was also frustrating cancelling my bookings and re-booking flights and accommodation for 2021. My mum and I are going away for a week in February, and THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

being out and selling The Big

Thank you for supporting me

Christmas, Happy New Year and

12

The best thing this year was

name but also in disposition. Bob Marrickville Rd

Next year I hope to have a holiday and visit my kids. Always take it one day at a time. Most importantly, be respectful to others because you never know what they’re going through!

Caspa Crows Nest

What I like most about Christmas is the festivity, good cheer and everyone being in high spirits for the season. I’d like to thank all my customers for your patronage over the years. Adrian Carriageworks I love how Christmas is for everybody. I wish for world peace. I wish for all my

I will be planning a holiday with

The best thing that happened

my sister as well. I just need to

to me this year was seeing Alice

stick it out and sell all my mags

Cooper live. I have been getting

and calendars for spending

better at cooking for myself

It’s been a very challenging

money on my holiday with

since the lockdown. I might

year for all of us. It’s truly nice

my big sister – because we all

see some family and friends in

to know that my customers

deserve it. Letting you know that

Melbourne for Christmas. My

care about my work. During

the calendar will make a great

biggest challenge this year was

the lockdown, they would

Christmas present, so stock up!

when I went to hospital. My goal

often contact me to see how I am

Nakita Myers Bridge & Apple Store

for next year is, as usual, to be a

and ask when I’m coming back.

customers that next year is a better year. Lynn Aldi, Mayfield

NSW TOP PHOTO Back Alan, David I, Bradley, David S, Chris (staff ), Peter D Front Gary G, Buffy (dog), Charle s, Cyril, Mela MIDDLE PHOTO Haider, Lee, Beverley (staff ), Noelene, Jacob, Kelly, Nathan W BOTTOM PHOTO Rachel, Lauren (staff ), Scott, Marlenn, Charlie (staff )

I thank each and every one of

well next year. I want to say a

I love to sell The Big Issue

for supporting me while selling

you for your support. To The Big

big thank you to my customers!

calendars and mags. Hopefully

The Big Issue and indirectly

Issue staff, thank you for always

Pasquale Cnr George & King Sts

we will have a better Christmas

supporting one of the most

checking on me and other

I was feeling quite low this year

this year. I hope all the staff have

direct methods of alleviating

a good Christmas and all the

global poverty, especially in

vendors have a nice Christmas

these challenging COVID times!

Subscription Enterprise (WSE)

too. Bradley Northern Beaches

I would also like to thank Sabine

shifts. When I started doing

I just want to thank all my

the Westpac work, I got my

customers and wish everyone a

energy back. I’m hoping next

safe holiday! Nathan Hornsby

I was able to get back to work.

But the best thing about going back was seeing my customers, Big Issue staff and other vendors.

To everyone I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a peaceful and Happy New Year. My goal for next year is to keep praying for the world to get back to normal so we can have a 2021 without any hassle. Let’s go into next year feeling positive! Glenn

year the virus will be gone so my supports return to normal.

Thanks to everyone for buying a subscription and for their support this year. And especially thanks to Westpac for the work they’ve sent us. I feel they’ve put something productive back in

This was the hardest year of my life. The fear of catching corona was a major problem. This was solved when we had COVID-19 safety training and I was given safety equipment. Working with The Big Issue has changed my

for her emotional support. Have a great and healthy New Year all!

Gary Cnr Market & Kent Sts

After a long and difficult year for so many of us, now is the time to celebrate and enjoy what we have. Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year! Glenn W Paddington Markets

life. I used to be shy and very

The best thing that happened

reserved, lacked confidence

this year was my great-niece

For Christmas I plan to spend

and didn’t know how to budget.

gave birth to my great-great-

a quiet day at home with my

Now I am an expert, and I can

nephew – a happy baby boy!

wife. We usually make a smallish

even joke with my customers.

I hope everyone has a better year

lunch of turkey or chicken and

My aim next year is to sell more

next year! Carol WSE

I would like to thank all my

roast vegies. We like to keep

magazines, save money and buy

customers over the last 10 years

it low key. Merry Christmas

myself a car to help transport

for their support and generosity.

everyone! Trevor Katoomba

my magazines. To my regular

And thanks to Big Issue staff for

I really love selling The Big Issue.

F Cnr Elizabeth & Foveaux Sts

Another year has gone. All the best for Christmas and the New Year. I hope next year is better for everyone. James Glebe

the opportunity to be a vendor and for their continued support.

I’d like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Neil Randwick

my life. Terri WSE

Next year I hope that magazine sales pick up, as they have dropped since the pandemic began. Working for The Big Issue has been the best thing about my

What a crazy year it’s been.

year! Mela Randwick

Who’d have thought 2020

The late great Ian Dury and

would turn out the way it has?

I’m very thankful for all the love and support I got during my time away from selling. To my customers – thank you for your continuous support this year. Hope everyone has a great Christmas and here’s to a better 2021. Marcus Concord

PHOTOS BY PETER HOLCROFT

stuff. I was missing the Women’s

the Blockheads give me real listening pleasure. A great friend who began buying the magazine years ago gave me an iPod during the lockdown.

It was fantastic to find all this great music on it. Other friends met up with me and made sure I was stocked with all the food

I want to thank all my customers

and essentials I needed. Since

and to wish them a Merry

starting back selling The Big

Christmas. Antoinette Wynyard

Issue, I’ve been taken aback

Station

by how much customers and

Merry Christmas to all my customers. I want to thank you for all your support, especially this year! Alex North Sydney This year has been too hard – the distance-keeping, isolation, wearing of mask. The Big Issue has been an encouragement for me. I hope that my life goes

customers and friends, I don’t have words to express my gratitude for your loyal support.

May the blessings of God be with you at Christmas and throughout the New Year. Thank you to the Northern Beaches community, all the staff at Woolworths, The Body Shop and The Big Issue, and all the vendors. Thank you all for putting a smile on my face.

Josephine Avalon & Mona Vale

I’ll be celebrating Christmas with my dad and three brothers.

We usually have a roast chicken

What a year! I am known as an “ideas man” and this year is a good example of how we all had to problem solve and work around things. Now Christmas is here and it’s time to say a very big thank you for all the support, from the phone calls to the texts, it’s made a difference. I wish everyone a safe Christmas and look forward to next year. Scott Potts Point

I have made an antiseptic soap due to COVID. I am also doing a course in assistant teaching.

I like talking to other Big Issue vendors. Ross Chatswood

lunch and open presents! Murray

The Big Issue has broadened

Dee Why

my interests into how women

Thanks to all my customers for your support through the bad times and good times. You rock!

Eddy Old Supreme Court

gain new skills in this recession.

With the help of The Big Issue, I enrolled into a Nails Technology course at TAFE this year. The Big Issue has also helped me make

friends have been concerned

Next year, we celebrate the 50th

about me. I really appreciate

anniversary of the Australian

everyone who buys this

Aboriginal Flag, the 100th

magazine from me but obviously

anniversary of the launch of

some people have stuck with

the Royal Australian Air Force

me for years and that’s special.

and the 25th anniversary of

If I could hit the “play” button

the launch of The Big Issue.

We have all had a very tough

here, it would be ‘Friends’ by Ian

Let me take this opportunity

isolated year, twisted by

to congratulate The Big Issue

confusion, fear and illness.

staff and my regular customers

A note of thanks to all the

Dury and the Blockheads. Drew Summer Hill & Channel 7

new friendships. A new kindness has come my way since I started working at The Big Issue. I’d like to thank all our subscribers and newcomers. Roslyn WSE

11 DEC 2020

My artwork got me through until

– didn’t have much energy to do

13

vendors to make sure we’re okay.

people who walk by my pitch

Merry Christmas and Happy

has helped me have holidays.

in Pyrmont, to my close friends

New Year! Hope you all keep

It gives me money to live on.

who share coffees with me and

buying The Big Issue. Thank you

Having digital payments helps

to all of you. Let’s try to bring

for your support at Town Hall.

me get a lot of sales. The best

that true Aussie fair dinkum

David I Woolworths, Town Hall

thing about The Big Issue is if

kindness to light for I’ve learned

ACT

you are homeless you can get

steps in creative thoughts are so

It’s been a very tough year with

a house. This is what happened

much better than standing alone

bushfires and COVID and many

to me. Vendor support found

in tears. I wish all vendors and

months off but the support of

me more stable accommodation

customers end the year with a

my customers and the Ainslie

at Common Ground through

smile. Enjoy the simple things in

community have been great.

Argyle Housing. Merry

life for we don’t know what next

I don’t put too much expectation

Christmas and Happy New Year.

year will bring. Rachel Pyrmont

on Christmas or next year. More

Don’t forget my $100 tip! Just

important to wish one and all a great Christmas. Doug Ainslie

joking!! Grant W North Quarter, Woden Town Centre, Gungahlin

2020 was a very hard year for

Merry Christmas everyone and

me. Selling The Big Issue helps

I wish you a safe and Happy New

me fight depression. It got me

Year. Have a great 2021. Murray

communities. Andrew Suspension

out and about to meet people,

Cafe & Hamilton Post Office, Newcastle

which makes me feel a lot better.

Ainslie Shops, Lyneham Shops & Kippax Centre

Chris Z Woden & Tuggeranong

The main thing I like about

The biggest challenge was

What I like about Christmas is

Christmas is spending it with

finding out that lockdown

it’s a holiday. I see family and

my family. This year I will be

stopped us selling The Big Issue.

there is lots of yummy food.

spending it with my mother

The Centrelink coronavirus

I also get presents. This year

and my father, my sister and

supplement helped a bit. I also

has been hard but I have kept

nieces and nephew. I will

became an Australian citizen

going. Happy Christmas to my

be helping my mum cook

this year, which was a big stress

beautiful customers. Bianca

Christmas lunch: trifle, turkey,

relief, and have been trying

Curtin & Kingston Shops

ham, pork and beef. Everyone

to get my driver’s licence. My

The Big Issue has been helping

favourite parts of Christmas are

me for the last 13 years. It helps

the trees, the party, the food

me go out into the community

and the gifts. Next year I hope

and meet lots and lots of

to finish my degree and develop

different people. I also get to

To my regular customers,

some good habits, such as body

stir the politicians in a nice way

thank you for your support in

building. Rocky Newtown

when the elections are on. It

the second half of 2020. I enjoy

secret intelligence agencies (you know who you are) balance their awesome powers with the added responsibility to strengthen

ACT Kate (staff ), Luc eil W, Z, Jenny (staff ), Chris W George (staff ), Grant

comes afterwards to share the leftovers. I enjoy that too. It’s a significant time of year. Luceil W Watson Shops

speaking to you guys while I’m on pitch. Have a happy and safe holiday and I hope to see you over the break and next year.

Grace Kambah

Thanks for your support. Have a good Christmas and I hope next year is better than this year.

Dennis Aldi, Canberra Centre

To my regular customers, I would like to wish you all a safe Christmas and a great New Year. Although my year has been a very eventful and tough year everything is looking up. I’m looking forward to creating fun and interesting memories with my 17-month-old son who is now in my care! David R Canberra Centre & Kingston Shops

11 DEC 2020

My wish for next year is that the

contacts who can help you find

15

when times are tough, the small

Queensland To all my wonderful customers, in what has been everybody’s annus horribilis, thank you for your support. The best moments were seeing you again after lockdown. The welcome and the hugs were really appreciated.

It now takes me more days

favourite part of this year has

2021! Jasen Brisbane CBD

been camping, bush walking,

I feel less stressed. She keeps me going. Marshall Brisbane

Next year I’m looking to increase my magazine sales. I also want to

4WDing and horse riding.

Cameron Nobby Beach, Gold Coast

I’m hopefully going to my sister’s

go to Hobart for a holiday, to see

This year due to COVID, I

in Caboolture for Christmas.

my relatives who I haven’t seen

rediscovered my love of bike

Next year I want to increase

for over 11 years. Janine Brisbane

riding. I get to think and reflect.

my sales by 10 per cent. I’ll put the extra income in my savings

After shutdown, coming back was really great. To get out and

account. Ian Coorparoo

you all due to flexible working

At Christmas I get to spend time

went through the lockdown.

see people again, ask how they

It’s good exercise and gives me time to myself. You’ll see me riding around Brisbane North.

Dom Bupa, Brisbane CBD

with my family, who I don’t

I’ve been looking for my family

For Christmas I’m hoping to see

worthwhile. See you in 2021. PS:

see often during the year. On

for a long time, and I’m finally

my sons. They’re over 18 so who

Did you get your calendar? Kerry

Christmas Day my family and

getting somewhere. My brother

knows where they’ll be – but

I have lunch at my mother-in-

Peter will be coming to my place

they always make sure to call me

Selling The Big Issue motivates

law’s house. We go to the beach

on Christmas Eve and staying

on Christmas Day. Next year I’d

me to get out of the house and

on Boxing Day. Michael Brisbane

for a week. On Christmas Day

like to find some stable work as a

socialise while earning some

This year I made about $300

we’ll ring our brother in South

labourer. Jeromy Officeworks

Africa and our cousin in Sweden,

I’m going home to my parents’

Fortitude Valley Station

money. It’s allowed me to meet new people. Peter H Bee Gees Way, Redcliffe

in two weeks from selling The Big Issue. I was really proud of myself and would like to thank

I’m looking forward to better

my customers for their support

health next year; this year’s been

to help me do it. Glenn Medibank

tough health-wise. I’ll work on

another cousin in NSW and my uncle and aunty in England. I’ll be spending a lot of time on the phone at Christmas! Next year I’m looking forward to selling

place in Coolum for Christmas.

Next year I think it’d be very exciting to go to the EKKA, cause COVID stopped it this year.

I’m also hoping to save up for a

This Christmas I’ll be asking

The Big Issue, seeing the people

Santa for a billion dollars. If my

in Sandgate and the Nundah

wish comes true, I’ll firstly thank

Markets – they’re a great crowd.

Santa, his wife and all the elves.

I wish all The Big Issue mob

My family is in Turkey and I am

Then, I’ll devote my life to the

a very Merry Christmas. John

in Australia by myself. Selling

creation of world peace, both at

(Stew) Sandgate & Nundah Markets

The Big Issue has helped me be

a community and global level.

social and gives me an income.

Selling The Big Issue has given

Ben T Cnr George & Tank Sts

customers, the self-esteem it

me meaning, purpose and a

gives you. I feel good about

About eight years ago, a lady

reason to get up in the morning.

myself when I’m working and

I meet interesting people, which

making a contribution to society.

I enjoy. I’d like to thank my loyal

Over lockdown I missed my

and supportive customers. Greg

customers, but also the vendors

my health and I look forward to seeing all my loyal customers in the new year. Tony GPO, Queen St

When I’m working, I’m happy, thanks to The Big Issue. My favourite English words are “Have a good day”. My English is little, not wonderful, but my customers still talk and laugh with me. Next year I wish for peace and health in all the world.

Adnan Kelvin Grove Markets, Coorparoo & Paddington Central

I found some broken fairy lights, which I fixed and used to decorate a sculpture that’s in the shape of a pyramid.

The sculpture sits next to my house and lights up at night.

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

I want 2020 to be done. Bring on

I feel down, she lifts me up, then

in the week to catch up with arrangements, but it’s all

16

loved by Rose because when

It brought Christmas early to the neighbourhood. Lenny Avid Reader, West End

This year I met my girlfriend Rose online. Her encouragement has helped me to feel confident.

We’ve been FaceTiming each other a lot and I look forward to meeting her face-to-face. I feel

walked past me who’d had her purse stolen. I gave her $5, walked her to Central Station and she went home. On grand

Cnr George & Charlotte Sts

bicycle. Megan South Brisbane

Victoria I found out during the lockdown how much The Big Issue means to me. The relationships with

and the conversations we have.

final night this year, a woman

I’m looking forward to visiting

Not to mention the support staff!

who had just moved into my

my sister in Sydney this

But most importantly, I missed

place saw my old vendor profile

Christmas now that the borders

going to work. I’m looking

on my fridge. The photo is from

to NSW are open. Selling The

forward to a big 2021 and plenty

back when I had long hair, and

Big Issue has allowed me to

she said “I know that man”.

save some money and travel

of happy times. Pat Target, cnr Swanston & Little Collins Sts

I said, “That man’s me.” And

to Perth, Cairns and Adelaide over the years. The highlight

The best thing that happened

she said, “Well, you saved me eight years ago.” We have a really

was beautiful Fitzroy Island.

strong friendship now. The joys

I’m looking forward to going

of working on the street, doing

to Darwin next year. I want to

nice things for Queenslanders.

thank my customers for being so

I’m still gobsmacked. Nathan

supportive. Eddie Central Station,

this year was my two teams – Richmond in the AFL and Melbourne Storm in the NRL – winning premierships. My biggest challenge was supporting my friends during lockdown. I’d

7-Eleven, Creek St

Sherwood & Milton Markets

The best thing this year is that

I had anxiety when I couldn’t sell

and things like that. The thing

my partner and I moved into

The Big Issue during lockdown,

I missed the most was going to

new accommodation. Our new

but it got better when I started

work. I missed the excitement.

place is closer to the train station

back again. I’m saving money to

Next year, I’d like to go on more

and to my pitch in the city.

buy furniture, cause I’m hoping

holidays – Griffith in NSW is on

Cassie Medibank, Brisbane CBD

to move to a new place next. My

my wish list. To my customers:

take them to lunch and dinner

worker after completing Certificate IV in Mental Health and Certificate IV Alcohol and Other Drugs. After 2020, it’s hopefully a better year for all. Cheryl Melbourne Central, Elizabeth St

I’ve used this year to write my album called A Mother’s Love; this is also the name of a song on the album, and it is dedicated to my mum. I wouldn’t have gotten through this year without Wild at Heart, a huge thank you to them. They are an amazing community organisation who helped me create the album.

I am excited for next year when it will be recorded and released.

I’d like to say thank you to all my customers here in Ballarat.

I missed you so much during

were happy to see us back. We

I wish you all a happy and safe

the 111 days of lockdown and

are looking forward to Christmas

I’m so glad to see you all again.

and hope never to go back into

holiday season! Linda Sturt St, Bakery Hill, Ballarat

And thanks to all the essential

lockdown. Merry Christmas to

I hope everybody has a great

workers on the frontline during

all our customers. Thank you for

holiday, and best wishes for 2021.

the outbreak. Andrew H&M, cnr

your support now we are back.

Elizabeth & Bourke Sts

David & Kylie Moonee Ponds

I am hoping to get a new electric

Happy Christmas to all my

Although it was hard being in

2021 is that everything starts to

customers. It has brightened my

lockdown at first, I then changed

fire back up again! Denise Rowville

day seeing you all again. Teresa

my mindset and decided to

Cnr Bourke & Elizabeth Sts

get fit. I did push-ups, sit-ups

What an interesting year, to

Merry Christmas everyone! I am

and tricep dips every day. I also

so glad we are back. I love music

listened to soul music to keep

and my dream for next year

me motivated. It was really

is to be in a Pink Floyd tribute

challenging not seeing my

band! I am on a waiting list to get

daughter. I am looking forward

singing lessons – fingers crossed!

to seeing her at Christmas. I hope

I am so excited for 2021, I hope to

next year is much better and

be a frontman singing ‘Shine on

less challenging than this year.

You Crazy Diamond’. I will keep

I miss my regular customers

you all posted! Steve B Market

and having a chat – I hope some

Square, Geelong

come back next year! Wishing

PHOTO BY BARRY STREET

treat me with respect and buy

you all a Merry Christmas. Craig Parliament Station, Lonsdale St

say the least. I want to thank everyone for their support when we returned to selling. Your support means so much to each and every vendor, especially in these times. I want to thank all the lovely customers out there for providing me with an income whereby I can purchase what I need for school and other essentials in life. Big thank you to vendor support, The Body Shop for their assistance and Graeme Wise for starting the

magazines. Selling The Big Issue

Merry Christmas and a happy

magazine back in 1996. Daryl

has been good to me, and I’m

2021! I hope next year will be

St Kilda, Windsor & Melbourne CBD

looking forward to 2021. Hope

much better for me and my father Tim. From me and the

My biggest challenge for 2020

next year is better – I plan to keep selling books to my lovely

cats Trouble, Bully, Midnight,

for being on the front cover as

customers. Alan Melbourne

Lucky and Chucky. Garry & Tim

Central

Flagstaff Station & Lonsdale St

Santa last Christmas, and just

Lockdown in Victoria was hard.

After 18 months I have finally

being on telly, on The Project –

We didn’t do much – we stayed

finished my course. Next year

that was really great. The best

at home. When we finally started

will be spent looking for 80

thing this year was starting back

back selling it was great to see

hours’ placement. I can now

at work after lockdown. The Big

our regular customers and they

become a community support

Issue has changed my life by

was taking all the great remarks

loving every bit of it! And also

11 DEC 2020

Thanks to all my customers who

tricycle next year. My hope for

17

QLD Back Ted, Gary, Angie, Craig (staff ), Lenny, Jamie, Ben Front Eddie, Janine, Adnan, Tony, Nathan, Amanda (staff )

giving me something genuine to

I would like to wish all The Big

lying to you if I said it wasn’t

do, by helping myself and doing

Issue customers a very Merry

a difficult year. I would like to

something good. It took a while

Christmas. It’s been a hard 2020

thank many people who were

for people to come back into the

for everybody. We hope 2021 will

there for me. Especially my Don

city, but it’s slowly getting busy

be better and we look forward

– you are the best. Thank you to

again. This year, I also started

to seeing all our customers

Hollie Ellis, and a special thank

selling at Dandenong Market,

during the festive season and

you to The Big Issue staff. Selling

meeting lots of new customers,

in the New Year! David H&M, cnr

in Bendigo now gives me the

which is really great! I’ll be

Elizabeth & Bourke Sts

motivation to build customers.

celebrating Christmas with my

Lockdown gave me a chance to

I would like to wish everyone a

grandchildren. To all my regular

do some exercise. I did a lot of

customers, I hope you have a

walking every day; it helped me

New Year. Coral Bendigo

Merry Christmas and a Happy

feel better. I have lost weight and

New Year. Thank you very much.

it is better for my health. I am

It’s been a bit of a struggle this

Lionel Young & Jackson, CBD

feeling very good being back

Happy Christmas and thank you

selling The Big Issue. While I was

to all my customers. Hope 2021 is good. Stephen Glenferrie Rd, Malvern

I am glad to be back selling again and having chats and friendly jokes with people. It will be a quiet Christmas for me, maybe celebrate with my sister. 2021 for me will be still selling the mag – I am married to this job! Willy Pakington St, Geelong

I dealt with lockdown by keeping myself active, exercising and doing my word finder puzzles. I am also a very prolific penfriend writer; I write to people all over the world and lockdown gave me the opportunity to pen more letters. I am looking forward to another day trip to Ninety Mile Beach, and hoping to do more day trips. I wish all my current and future customers a happy and joyous 2021! Michael Prahran

gave it to me when I returned.

People are very generous. They have been giving me fruit, coffee and sandwiches as well as buying the magazine. Hoping next year will be much better and peaceful for everyone. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Con The Body Shop, Bourke St Mall

Koornang Rd, Carnegie

being outside with people and doing my usual routine. I still feel locked down at times, like a cloud, like a time lapse. But I’m heartened a little by the light at the end of the tunnel, albeit guardedly. We’re doing well; I’m proud of us. I hope everyone is happy and well and maintains social distancing. Keep carrying on being positive into 2021.

TikTok. I make funny videos

My biggest challenge was

of me dancing and it makes

avoiding the COVID. But I

everyone happy! One of the

learned how to put a credit

best things that happened to me recently is that I am now supported by NDIS. I have a worker who helps me and I am just about to move into my own place. Jeffrey Prahran Mission & Melbourne CBD Hello, I want to thank all my clientele for their great support

all walks of life. It’s unreal what

a happy and safe 2021! Lachlan

even to exercise. I’ve missed

Louis Southern Cross Station & Centreway, Collins St

To all my customers, wishing

being better than 2020! Have

year. I haven’t got out at all, not

During lockdown I came across

over the last seven years. So

looking forward to next year

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

up their magazine money and

Market & Centreway, Collins St

you a Merry Christmas. I am

18

away one of my customers saved

Merry Christmas and a Happy

many wonderful people, from a difference a smile and a “good morning” or “good afternoon” can make. Thank you! Most of all, have the best Christmas ever, kick COVID to the curb and enjoy

Rock’n’roll! I know this year has

a well-deserved Happy New

been a tough one. I hope 2021

Year. Special thanks to Shirley

will be better. We have beaten

and hubby who supported me

COVID-19, and I just wish it

throughout the lockdown. I’m

doesn’t come back again. For all

overwhelmed and very grateful.

customers and vendors around

Jo Big W, Ballarat

Australia, have the best holidays.

Well, what a year this has been!

Live long and prosper for 2021.

I have survived it, through the

Phil Melbourne CBD & Richmond

good and bad times. I would be

VIC TOP PHOTO Back Denis, Jeffrey, Sue, Stephen, Andrew, Lieu, John, Con Front Johnnie, Teresa, Lionel, Lachlan BOTTOM PHOTO Back Garry, Danilo (staff ), Michael, Alex (staff ), Pat, Alan, Trevor, Sarah (staff ), Darryl, Phil Front Craig, Lesa, Gemma (staff ), Cheryl, Louis, David

into my phone; a lovely young

how resilient we all are. I want to

surgery. I am okay now – the

through. Being able to come

Woolworths worker patiently

give a shout out to a lovely lady

doctor gave me the all clear.

back to work was the best

showed me six times, but I got it.

named Helen that I met at the

Thankfully my vision is a lot

thing that happened this year.

My dreams and goals for 2021 are

Smith St tram stop. I wish her

better now! My Christmas plans

Christmas is a special time for

to win a $20 million Lotto draw

and all my other customers a

are uncertain at this point, but

families, but I will be spending

and to buy a country pub on the

Merry Christmas and the safest

I have some really good friends

mine on my own as my family

seashore. Working at The Big

New Year! Lesa Cnr Elizabeth &

who live not too far away. I have

are in Queensland. I like to work

Issue has definitely changed my

Bourke Sts, Myer Bourke St

known them for years, so they

Christmas Eve – customers are

South Australia

are like family. We’ll celebrate

in a good mood. I wear my Santa

together. Fred B Bupa Dental, CBD

hat and I already have a Santa

Hello to everyone! I want to get

beard! Brian W Glenelg & Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas

2020 was an unheavenly year, but remember when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

I just want to say to my regular customers. “I love youse all!”

Geoff Church St, Middle Brighton

This year was difficult as we were in lockdown – but we succeeded!

We always had Big Issue staff on call and someone was always there for us, showing their care and support. God bless everyone in Australia and around the world. Lieu WSE

year! I am looking forward to picking summer salads and growing winter vegies! A huge thank you to all the kind customers from the city to Blackwood and everywhere in between – for your kindness and compassion once we returned.

Have a Merry Christmas and a safe New Year. See you in 2021.

better in 2021. My health has been awful, and I’ve had to go to

My biggest challenge this year

hospital a lot this year. Working

was when my partner Victoria

less has helped me learn a new

moved from Australia back to

hobby – how to crochet tubular

her home country of Nigeria.

scarves. I made one in Aboriginal

Now we communicate regularly

flag colours for my cousin and

using WhatsApp voice and video

another one with tiger stripes!

calls. The best thing this year

Claudett The Body Shop, CBD

was making new friends at the

Cindy Blackwood & Adelaide Farmers Market

It’s very good working for The

My wish is to get a new pitch at

money. I have been working

Colonnades shopping centre

Big Issue, especially when I make with The Big Issue for a year now.

I also like the job because I like

boarding house where I live.

I will be celebrating Christmas by catching up with family and friends. Working for The Big Issue has changed my life,

I was adrift while not selling The

in Noarlunga. Change is good!

Big Issue, missing my customers,

I used to live near there and

many of whom are like friends.

I really like the area. Maybe I’ll

you all a very Merry Christmas

Without my badge I thought

even move back there one day.

and a Happy New Year. Janet T

I was invisible. Then something

My biggest challenge in 2020

Artisan Cafe, CBD

unexpected happened. I’d be

was getting back out after COVID

My three big wishes are: 1) To

waiting for a tram when a lady

lockdown. I was so happy when

enjoy Christmas lunch with my

I can’t wait to get back to work

approached me, slipping bank

we went back, because being

children. 2) That all my loyal

as soon as I get my motorised

notes into my hand. “I hope

stuck at home all the time made

customers have a safe and happy

wheelchair organised. The best

we’ll see you again with the

me sad. For Christmas, I am

Christmas. 3) That The Big Issue

thing about selling The Big Issue

magazine,” she said. Another

looking forward to celebrating

allow me to interview Margot

is getting to say hello to people

paid for lunch at a cafe near

with a few close friends. We’ll

Robbie – she played my favourite

and having a chat, and I’m

where I worked, and someone

have a BIG lunch. Wayne A The Body Shop, CBD & Goodwood

comic character in a movie.

looking forward to getting back

brought me lovely clothes to

I would love to hear how she felt

out there in 2021. I’d like to wish

wear. People stopped me in the

Staying home during lockdown

about the part. I would pay to go

everyone a happy Christmas

street, asking how I was coping.

was a big challenge. It was so

anywhere just for the chance!

and I hope to see my fiancée

It’s great to feel so valued and

good to get out of the house,

Simon G Hungry Jack’s, CBD

for lunch and have a nice meal.

cared for. Thank you, beautiful

come back to work and make a

people! Mariann Albert Park &

Wishing all my customers a

bit of money. Returning to work

Merry Christmas and a Happy

was the best thing that happened

New Year. Hope to see you all

2020 was a trying year for all of

in 2020. Christmas is good fun

again next year – 2021 will be a

us Melburnians, but we are a

– especially spending time with

better year for everyone. Thank

very resilient bunch and we are

my family. And presents, of

you all for buying the mags when

doing wonderfully. I got quite

course! We will spend Christmas

we came back out after three

Chris C Europcar & Bupa Dental

in Victor Harbor. Selling The Big

months of staying home. Hi to all

Issue gets me out and meeting

It was a hard year, but I sold a

Melbourne staff and vendors – I

people. I really like that. One day

personal record of 20 magazines

bet you’re all happy to be back!

I’d like to meet someone special

in one day! I really enjoy my

Kerry Anne Adelaide Arcade, The Body Shop & Elizabeth City Centre

pitch and all my regulars – the

The hardest thing about 2020

them after lockdown helped

Central Station, Elizabeth St

PHOTOS BY MARK AVELLINO

My garden is growing well this

depressed when the last full lockdown started – and couldn’t wait to get back to work. The Big Issue this year has given me purpose again and I am loving

– that’s my goal. Rhys The Body

meeting people. I’d like to wish

including earning a bit of extra money and making new friends.

I wish to thank my regular customers for their loyalty and support. Craig P Europcar, CBD

The best thing about Christmas is seeing everyone enjoying themselves. I’d also like to wish The Big Issue staff a happy Christmas. To all the customers, please keep buying The Big Issue!

thought of being able to sell to

going out to my pitches and

Shop & Haigh’s, CBD

seeing and talking to people.

I had to take some time off

was COVID, and if not for my

me persevere. Selling The Big

It’s awe-inspiring to listen to

this year, not just because of

loyal customers I don’t know

Issue has given me skills and

people’s stories and see exactly

COVID-19, but to have eye

how I would have gotten

confidence and I get to meet new

11 DEC 2020

and my awareness has risen.

19

life. I find that I’m more attentive

like mince pies, pudding and custard. Next year it’d be great to have a holiday – if I could go anywhere it’d be Italy. Michael L James Place & Adelaide Arcade

Throughout the year the support from my church has got me through, as well as support from The Big Issue.

I had hoped to get out and see more of South Australia this year – places like Whyalla, Port Pirie and Kangaroo Island – now I might have to do that next year! I like selling near Rundle Mall, especially at Christmas, as people are out shopping. Luke M James Place & Port Adelaide Plaza

I want to thank The Big Issue staff and other vendors and Mall kept me going. It’s a good

spending time with my family.

pitch as all the workers come

I’m hoping for a better 2021 and

through from the train station.

maybe beating my record! To all

I hope to go to the Hutt Street

my customers, please stick with

Centre for Christmas; I’ve been a

me! Jason L Hindmarsh Square

few times and they put on a full

During the first lockdown, some of the things that got me through were talking with my wife and watching westerns. John Wayne

Christmas time, so my message to customers is to please buy them! Kelvin Topham Mall

movies are my favourites – I’m

I felt really isolated in the first

showing my age now! When we

lockdown as I live alone, but I got

were in the second lockdown in

through by using the internet

SA, my granddaughter couldn’t

and playing my keyboard and

come over to help put up the

violin. My sales after lockdown

Christmas tree, but hopefully

were good. This Christmas will

they can all come for a Christmas

look different to last year when

Day turkey lunch. I’m hoping for

I visited my sister and niece in

a better year next year and to all

Germany! This year, I hope to see

my customers, have a good one!

friends as I don’t have any family

Ron K Pirie St, Zuma Caffe, North Adelaide & Elizabeth City Centre

in Adelaide. In 2021 I hope there is no more coronavirus and no

During lockdown, my pets kept

such thing as social distancing.

me busy. I have got two dogs,

Let’s all have a better year next

a cat and four chickens. The

year. David HWL Haigh’s, Unley &

chickens lay eggs every day,

Cibo Espresso

which is handy. For Christmas, we have a big lunch where I live and then we go away every year PHOTO BY NAT ROGERS

spread! I love selling calendars at

in January to Port Lincoln for the Tunarama Festival. Next year I hope the coronavirus is gone!

Willpower got me through lockdown and the thing I looked forward to the most was working again. I have enjoyed meeting new customers this year – and

everyone who has stuck by me and encouraged me this year. Having survived two COVID lockdowns means I am especially glad for my freedom – the day-to-day uncertainty was challenging. I dream to have a holiday to NZ, and I hope to go skydiving. The Big Issue has given me the chance to meet new people and share stories and smiles. I look forward to seeing my customers and those smiles next year. Merry Christmas and happy holidays. Vernon Stirling When we went into lockdown I was worried I wouldn’t see my children. It was hard to keep busy. I made art, listened to music, watched movies and learned to save. Facebook helped me keep in touch. A big thing that happened was my son became a father! My dream is to one day have a beautiful garden and travel overseas. I love feeling I am part of The Big Issue team!

It’s helped build my confidence.

To my regular customers – enjoy Christmas; I hope 2021 is a better year. Debbie H Topham Mall

regulars. They are buying the

2020 was tough

calendars from me because I am

We’ve all had enough

I found that after the first

in it for the month of September!

Merry Christmas and all

lockdown, sales were slow, but

My family come to visit me at

that stuff.

my regular customers at Topham

Christmas and I love all the foods

Daniel K Hutt St & Waymouth St

Mark M North Adelaide

11 DEC 2020

people. At Christmas I will be

21

SA Back Michael S, Mark M, Fred 2nd Kon, Brendon, Wayne, Sean J, Kerr y 3rd Alex, Rhys , Debbie H 4th Jason, Brian W, Matt (staff ), David, Beck (staff ) 5th Erica (staff ), Ron K, Michael L, t Vernon, Kelvin, Claudett Fron Ruth and Fifi (dog, and a very lovely dog at that!)

series by Mark Nixon

The Big Picture THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

22

There’s a Bear in There As we unwrap our new toys this Christmas, photographer Mark Nixon remembers our much-loved childhood companions.

Is Pink Teddy’s sad expression pathetic or prophetic?

Though his grimace was stitched 20-ish years before he got mauled at a college party, doesn’t it say, I’ve seen stuff, man...

Seems ironic that this plush chum is named Spotty.

Despite having travelled the world with his mate Siobhan – who’s had him for 26 years, since her very first Christmas – his fur remains flawless.

Former companion to Mark Nixon’s friend Isobel, who passed away a few years before this photo was taken, Teddy is now beloved

by Isobel’s nieces, Robin and Lauren.

It is unknown how he lost his leg.

by Aimee Knight Small Screens Editor @siraimeeknight

FOR MORE FROM MARK NIXON VISIT MARKNIXON.COM.

23

While this guy looks a lot like Eeyore, his preschool custodian dubbed him Wozzy.

Then, after a candle mishap, Burnt Wozzy.

11 DEC 2020

W

hen we care for something excessively, exceptionally, we say we love it to bits, and the snuggly specimens – or what’s left of them – in this adorable photo series are living proof.

Irish photographer Mark Nixon was so touched by his toddler’s affection for a Peter Rabbit plushie that he set out to document Dublin’s most treasured teds. “The more loved, unwashed, and falling apart the better,” he writes in the introduction to his book, Much Loved. It’s stuffed with 60 soft toys, aged five to 104, including his own childhood confidante, Panda. In fact, there are three generations of Nixon teddies in the tome: Mark’s, his son’s and his father’s. And while it is, without doubt, a family affair, Much Loved’s most potent message is that family isn’t always flesh and blood.

Be they hirsute or hairless, dapper or dishevelled, the softies pictured here have been cuddled to within an inch of their lives, and have come back for more. Now, rationalist readers may raise a brow at this rampant anthropomorphism, but spend some time gazing into Pink Teddy’s eyes before you decide that objects don’t have a soul.

At the spritely age of six, Flopsie is a spring chicken compared to the timeworn idols in Mark Nixon’s photo series. But she is much loved nonetheless.

There are three in the bed at la Casa de Slattery: Jenny, her husband and Brownie (pictured).

But the latter is not as sweet as his name implies – this wild boy doesn’t wash.

Nixon’s own ted is Panda, now 50, whom he’s had since he was a wee lad. “I remember clearly snuggling up with him in bed as a child,” he says.

11 DEC 2020

There once was a bear named Slim Jim/Who, when saved from the bargain bin/By his new pal Maria/ Whispered “I’ll keep her”/And for a score or more now, they’ve been kin.

25

Teddy Moore got his clean-shorn appearance from his owner, Daragh, who “kissed the fur off him” over their 43 years together.

Ricky

26

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

Let’s hear it for the people of the year, the hospital workers: nurses, doctors, janitors and anyone else who just lived and worked through a global pandemic.

by Ricky French @frenchricky

’Tis the Ski-son

I

t might sound like an overly casual approach to a serious task, but I must admit to writing this column while sitting up in bed. It’s not laziness; I’m following doctor’s orders to spend as much time as possible with my legs raised and straight, a posture not entirely conducive to working at a conventional desk. Readers of a recent column may recall that back in March I suffered what could only be described as the wankiest injury in the First World, mangling my knee while skiing off piste in the Swiss Alps. As one unkind person remarked, “What did you do, snow-plough into a group of people lined up for the chairlift?” Equally helpful were comments about the dangers of low-speed crashes. “If you crash fast you skim across the snow like a stone skimmed on a flat lake. Your problem is you were probably going too slow, so you fell with a splat…” Or words to that effect. Thanks.

So it was last week that I hobbled into hospital and had the first operation of my life. But this is not about me. Let’s hear it for the people of the year, the hospital workers: nurses, doctors, janitors and anyone else who just lived and worked through a global pandemic. They were amazing. They would have had no idea back at the start of January that 2020 was going to thrust their professions and workplaces into the spotlight. When the pandemic reached Australia we didn’t know what to expect. Hospitals were overrun in other countries – the scenes were shocking.

Who’d want to work on the frontline and risk all that?

Well, plenty did, and do. I have a friend who’s a nurse in Melbourne and he worked tirelessly, eventually catching COVID-19 himself (which kept him “off the beers” for several days, he was disappointed to report).

Getting “on the beers” became a Victorian catchphrase thanks to Premier Dan Andrews, in one of those awful moments when a desperately uncool career politician tries to

sound down with the everyman. The word of the year though, anointed by the Macquarie Dictionary, was “doomscrolling”: “the practice of continuing to read news feeds online or on social media, despite the fact that the news is predominantly negative and often upsetting”.

Plaudits also to parents suddenly forced to homeschool their kids. Teachers taught from home. Workers worked from home, if they could. Those whose work didn’t involve computer screens still had to leave the house and mingle in pandemic land, while the rest of us stayed home doomscrolling. So hats off to them (but masks on, please).

Christmas is almost upon us and the good news is most of us are allowed to travel interstate to be with family (if that’s your definition of good). For Victorians especially, this freedom seemed a pipe dream not so long ago. But with freedom comes responsibility.

More people are planning to stay within their own state for summer holidays – if they take them at all – feeling safer and more in control within the confines of their cars or caravans.

Of course it has its own word: “staycation”.

I’m all for it. We often don’t appreciate what’s in our own backyards, and every state in the country has limitless incredible places you could spend time in – you could never visit them all in a lifetime.

This summer I’ll be taking it easy and putting my feet up. Doctor’s orders, remember? The knee will eventually get better and with a bit of luck I’ll be back boring you all to death with my Parkrun results within three months.

The bad news, according to my doctor, is I’m unlikely to ever be fit enough to be drafted into an AFL team. Instead, I’m researching new ski destinations. Call it doomscrolling.

Ricky is a writer and drummer who’s been given a leg-up these holidays.

by Fiona Scott-Norman @fscottnorman

PHOTOS BY JAMES BRAUND

O

f all the lousy tricks played by 2020, one of the most aggravating has to be the distortion of time. It’s been a temporal house of mirrors. When are we?

I usually skip blithely through a year from cultural event to cultural event – “it’s Comedy Festival, it must be April” – but the festivals were all cancelled like Kevin Spacey and my inner clock has springs hanging out the back.

Christmas is upon us, having snuck up from behind like it was playing a game of statues, and I am not down with it. Christmas can rack off.

I mean, sure, look at the date, technically it’s time for jolly St Nick, but in terms of internal preparedness I’m still rocking May, baby. At best it’s Happy Easter, know what I’m saying?

The ways in which I am ill-prepared, philosophically and practically, are manifold, ranging from already carrying extra “Christmas” kilos due to COVID snacking, through to having no idea where we stashed the tinsel after moving house. Should we get a tree? I don’t know. It’s tradition, we’re home for the duration (Woodford Folk Festival cancelled, see Kevin Spacey, above), and I like the idea of festive showboating through the front window for the new neighbourhood. But what with bushfires and ecosystem collapse, I’ve lost the appetite for randomly killing trees. It feels a medieval way to celebrate. And what about turkeys? They are delicious and required as a Christmas table centrepiece, yet are also hilarious and emotional birds with prominent expressive snoods.

And what about greeting cards? I usually design a personalised chook-themed “Merry Clucking Christmas” card, but this year a) I still don’t have new chickens and can’t be using images from my prior fox-nommed flock, and b) the final date for posting anything with a whisper of a hope of on-time delivery was, I’m pretty sure, a month ago when I was entirely focused on influencing the American election through telepathy and doomscrolling Twitter.

Shop-bought cards cost a stack of coin, and my practice, if you will, is to send many, many

cards. I’m like Oprah with Pontiac G6s. “You get a card! You get a card!” I have a mailing list longer than the ingredients required for Heston Blumenthal’s In Search of Perfection bangers and mash recipe. Look, it’s not that I don’t want to do Christmas, but at the rag end of 2020 I’m not sure I’ve got the “spoons” – to reference essayist Christine Miserandino’s excellent metaphor for energy expenditure.

Of course, neither do I have spoons for the guilt I’ll feel if I throw it all in and spend Xmas alone in my knickers catching up on Schitt’s Creek. Holy paradox, Batman! In times like this I naturally turn for inspo to my spirit animal*, Melania Trump. Melania is also having a difficult December and a snuck-up Christmas. She’s had to present as the face of America’s festive season despite having been roundly mocked for making a dog’s breakfast of previous years, and the surfacing of candid profanity-laden audio during which she darns Christmas all to heck. Oh and her husband has just lost office, she’s moving in January and there’s a raging pandemic. And yet! Look at her go! Serene as a deep fake goddess, presiding over perfectly reasonable memeproof decorations which the press have declared “fine”. I know she has hordes of minions doing the actual work, but given that Melania has as much interest in Christmas as I do in Keynesian macroeconomics, I am impressed she didn’t just give us all the manicured finger. Thus, in the spirit of Melania, I hereby commit to sucking it up and Doing Christmas. Checks internal clock… No problem. I’ve got months. * Not my spirit animal. My spirit animal carries a few more COVID kilos.

Probably a turkey. Check out my emotional intelligence and charismatic snood.

Fiona is a writer, comedian and rebel without a Claus.

11 DEC 2020

Oh Deer, It’s Christmas

Christmas is upon us, having snuck up from behind like it was playing a game of statues, and I am not down with it.

27

Fiona

The unstoppable Jackie French has two new books out this Christmas – one of them inspired by a miraculous moment from last summer’s bushfires.

by Thuy On Books Editor @thuy_on

I

n mid-January, our third month of constant bushfire where we live [at the top of the gorge in the Araluen Valley, NSW], a small black wombat stumbled out of the smoke at 2am. She had obviously smelled the water at our wildlife refuge but couldn’t quite make the last 10 metres. I was on ember watch that night,” explains author Jackie French of the genesis of her latest picture book, The Fire Wombat.

French recalls how the wombat slowly drank the water offered. There were more than a hundred creatures there that night. “All stood back to let one exhausted wombat drink. Animals do tolerate each other in disasters, but I have never seen anything like this.

Nor have I seen anything like the help and generosity we received during those months, when every time the roads were clear – which wasn’t often – a car or ute would arrive with sacks of carrots, celery, sweet potato, corn, apples, pears, lucerne pellets and bales of hay.”

This traumatic experience for the beleaguered marsupial forms the basis of French’s new rhyming book for children. Illustrated by Danny Snell, it is sure to become another classic in her bestselling wombat series, which includes Diary of a Wombat and Christmas Wombat. It begins: “Early morning. Earth is mourning/ Breathing heat, brown leaves and smoke/The monster called a bushfire woke/Grey sky became its scarlet cloak.”

The fire wombat is seen tentatively leaving its burrow only to face a devastating panorama of flame, smoke and ash. She’s soon joined by a thud of other Australian animals – including wallabies, kangaroos, cockatoos, goannas and echidnas – trying to flee to

THE FIRE WOMBAT IS OUT NOW. A PORTION OF THE BOOK’S PROCEEDS WILL SUPPORT THE WOMBAT PROTECTION SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA.

PHOTO BY KELLY STURGISS

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THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

Books

Jackie French

From the Flames

safety. They follow the wombat into a deep tunnel “where even bushfire’s breath can’t creep” and when they crawl out again with burnt paws, the creek is dry and “everything they’d known was grey”.

French has written more than 140 books for children and adults, garnering in excess of 60 national and international awards across a range of genres. The Fire Wombat is not the only book of hers released this year; she also has a novel for adults – The Angel of Waterloo, about “a woman in the 1820s finding Indigenous mentors and friends who share her passion for medicine” – out now.

She says the storyteller in her was forged early in life, and her proficiency and love for the art explain her productivity. “It’s doing what comes naturally. I read in many genres. Why not write in many genres? When I was six, I was allowed to tell a story to the class for the last 20 minutes of each day if we had behaved ourselves.

I told stories to my brothers and sister, too, when they were small. It has always seemed natural to create stories, and weave history and the world around me into stories.”

The prolific writer and former Australian Children’s Laureate (2014-2015) is also concerned with diversity in children’s literature, and agrees with the wider push for cultural, gender and LGBTQI+ representation in books for kids. “My priority is to see that our books reflect the diversity of our society, and its neglected past diversity, too,” she says. “This means that authors need to move out of their peer groups, family group, social groups and comfort zones – find what we have failed to see, and failed to understand and write about – and then create books that see us all.

“So much of the history when I was young was based on dead white males in cities. My work has tried to show the actual diversity that has always been there, whether in convict-turned-bushranger Black Caesar, or Nanberry in Nanberry: Black Brother White, or Refuge, about the many, many threads that have become the fabric of Australian society. Rainstones was about a white child seeking an Indigenous mentor,” she says.

French believes in using her profile as an author and ambassador in other ways, too. This year, she helped raise thousands of dollars for her local bushfire brigade, for the Children’s Book Council appeal to buy books for kids in fire-struck areas, and for various wildlife charities.

“I auctioned ‘anything I can do that is legal’ and let people across Australia, the US, Germany, Japan and other countries bid,” she says. “People asked for naming rights for real wombats or the wombats in my books, for mentorships or signed copies of books, and much more.”

In The Fire Wombat, salvation for the animals comes from a helicopter dropping food and drinking water, with a “vast carrot migration” set-up, among other morsels.

Finally, rain comes: “New leaves erupted from burned roots/Black seeds blossomed with green shoots.”

JACKIE FRENCH’S CHRISTMAS RECOMMENDATIONS FOR YOUNG READERS

29

11 DEC 2020

I highly recommend Katrina Nannestad’s We Are Wolves, Oliver Jeffers’ What We’ll Build, Matt Stanton’s The Odds and Tomos Roberts’ The Great Realisation.

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THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

Music The Avalanches

by Brodie Lancaster @brodielancaster

Brodie Lancaster is a writer, editor, author and critic based in Melbourne.

T

o the makers of music – all worlds, all times.”

This is the message etched onto the Golden Record, the fabled disc launched into space aboard the Voyager craft in 1977. It was full of sounds designed to immortalise humanity: many types of music, from classical to rock to indigenous folk to electronic; greetings in dozens of languages; and an hour-long recording of creative director Ann Druyan’s brain waves, captured shortly after she fell in love with the project head, astrophysicist Carl Sagan.

By the time the Voyager had entered interstellar space 35 years later in 2012, electronic dynamos The Avalanches were well behind on their second album: the follow-up to their sample-heavy 2000 debut Since I Left You had been teased about half-a-dozen times. During this period, as their public silence stretched on, the band’s movements became so closely watched that in 2016 Pitchfork published a list titled “Ten Times Hell Has Frozen Over Since the Last Avalanches Album”. Their second album, Wildflower, was released in July of that year.

“It was completely laborious. Hard work,” says Tony Di Blasi today. He and fellow founding member Robbie Chater are the last remaining Avalanches – in the 20 years since their debut, the band have lost members steadily. Their record label, Modular, shuttered before Wildflower was finished, and Australia’s dance music scene didn’t look or sound the same by the time they emerged from their bunker. In a way, The Avalanches are like the cockroaches that survived every nuclear blast.

Now comes their third record, We Will Always Love You, an exquisite take on love’s power to illuminate darkness and endure in all of space and time. After learning of the love story between Druyan and Sagan, Chater described it as “the most beautiful thing [he’d] ever heard”. Without trying, the band had found something to pin their next record to, seeking to

WE WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU IS OUT NOW.

11 DEC 2020

The Avalanches reach for the stars on their third album – about the wonders of being in love.

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Interstellar Overdrive

improve on the drawn-out, directionless pursuit that was the making of Wildflower.

That the music flowed so naturally was a great relief, since those mythological 16 years had them questioning everything – namely, what it meant to be musicians if you weren’t touring and performing and releasing things, and whether all the praise of Since I Left You was warranted.

I ask them both how, comparatively, the last few years have felt. And in unison they reply: “Free.”

“It was a massive weight off the shoulders. The pressure built and built and built, and getting rid of that was extraordinarily freeing,” Di Blasi says. “We’re not doing that again. We’ve done our art record that almost killed us – mentally, spiritually, physically. Not again.”

Sagan and Druyan’s influence is felt not just in the sentiment and vastness of the record, but in its most intimate moments as well. The first sound on opening track ‘Ghost Story’ is the voice of Superorganism singer Orono Noguchi. “It’s hard really being…so far apart…all this distance.” It’s a voicemail she left for a boyfriend as a teenager, telling him that even when she’s gone, this – her voice, her message of love – will always be with him.

“I’ll always love you,” she says before hanging up.

Remnants of this message – and ones from vocalists including Leon Bridges, Tricky, Karen O and Sampa the Great – float in again later, like faint dreams. On two successive tracks, the lyrics of one-time collaborator David Berman are repeated by other artists: “The light of my life is going out tonight/Without a flicker of regret.”

“It was just a strange twist,” Chater says of hearing that the Silver Jews frontman, who collaborated with the Avalanches on Wildflower, died last August. “He was a living collaborator and then he wasn’t.”

Losing Berman helped to crystallise Chater’s thoughts about sampling the voices of long-passed artists. I suggest the act of sampling is almost like one of preservation, of casting a fellow artist’s work in amber.

“Right! And then we’re just musicians making another record that’s preserved – a bit like the Golden Record,” Chater says. Each sound, artist and listener is part of a continuous cycle, he says. The records he samples came from hours spent crate digging, and each crackle or warp in the vinyl comes from the life it lived on turntables before he came to own it. After using sounds from those records in an Avalanches song, someone else hears it on the radio, and the cycle continues. “It helps put yourself in perspective,” he adds. The music was there long before him, and will continue long after he’s gone.

In this way, he and Di Blasi really are like Druyan and Sagan, contributors to one big, intergalactic conversation.

In the act of sampling, curating and compiling sounds, they’re preserving moments and feelings, recasting them anew and beaming them out for whoever might be lucky enough to find their record of – as Druyan puts it – “the wonder of love, and of being in love”.

The Witches

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Cinema’s Dahl-ing Roald Dahl’s The Witches is returning to the cinema – with a spellbinding difference to the 1990 version – care of legendary filmmaker Robert Zemeckis.

by Annabel Brady-Brown Film editor @annnabelbb

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eteran director Robert Zemeckis is contemplating the seemingly eternal attraction of Roald Dahl’s stories for filmmakers, over the phone from LA. “Talking mice and giants and bizarre creatures and chocolate factories…” – such images, he muses, are ripe material for the cinema.

His version of The Witches marks the 15th Dahl adaptation to hit the silver screen, and it doesn’t take a genius Hollywood producer to see that the magical, mischievous worlds Dahl conjures are a natural fit for Zemeckis, who for five decades has been pushing popular cinema to giddy visual heights.

There’s the time-travel wizardry of the Back to the Future trilogy, the pioneering live-action/ cartoon mash-up of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

(1988), the accidental heroism of Forrest Gump (1994) and the Carl Sagan-inspired Contact (1997) – on through to underappreciated recent titles, like 2015’s made‑for‑Imax highwire stunt The Walk or 2018’s Welcome to Marwen, in which a PTSD-suffering Steve Carell finds solace in an imaginary miniature village.

Of course, The Witches has already been filmed,

in 1990 by arthouse director Nicolas Roeg, who emphasised the terror lurking in Dahl’s story of an orphan boy taking on a coven of killer witches in a grand old hotel. A cult favourite, Roeg’s film famously “appalled” Dahl – especially the sugary ending added to appease audiences, which sees a good witch save the hero from living out his years as a cute white mouse.

“His estate agreed to remake the movie on the one condition that the hero could not be turned back into a boy,” explains Zemeckis. “They were very respectful of what upset Dahl in the first version. I only know what happened based on what I read, but I can understand… it’s pretty tough for the average audience to rate a movie high when they’re expecting a traditional storybook ending, and [the book] doesn’t have that. So I knew that going in, and I said, ‘Yes, let’s make the movie the way it was intended.’”

Opening with Dahl’s cheeky warning – “This is not a fairytale” – Zemeckis’ version hews closer to the original, capturing both the sweet and the sinister, with large slabs of dialogue taken wholesale from the book. But the most 2020 update is the reworking of the

THE WITCHES IS IN CINEMAS NOW.

11 DEC 2020

PHOTO BY DANIEL SMITH / © 2020 WARNER BROS INC ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Like his mentor Steven Spielberg, who adapted The BFG in 2016, Robert Zemeckis “missed the window of Roald Dahl’s children books” when growing up. “I was a bit older when Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and those all came out,” he says. Instead, he’s connected through Dahl’s film work from the late 60s. “He was a screenwriter on the Sean Connery James Bond movie You Only Live Twice, which was always my favourite when I was a kid. And one of my favourite World War II movies, 36 Hours, is based on a short story of his.”

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THE FANTASTIC MR DAHL

story – co-written by Zemeckis, The Shape of Water director Guillermo del Toro and Black-ish creator Kenya Barris – with a Black child, Charlie (Jahzir Bruno), and grandmother (Octavia Spencer) at the helm, in small‑town Alabama, in 1968.

“The original novel was pretty offbeat and quirky, set up in a strange northern England beach community with a Norwegian grandmother. So I thought, well, let’s set it in a quirky and offbeat place and move it to America. There were two choices, the two places in America where witches are part of the folklore: there’s New England, that was a little too on the nose,” says Zemeckis. “But the Gothic South has a rich tradition of witchcraft and voodoo and all sorts of strange goings-on down there, so that became the idea.

“When we decided to set the movie in the South with an African American hero, then the obvious moment in American history is the late 60s – which was also a great benefit because we could get rid of any possibility of there being closed-circuit security cameras, cell phones or anything that could get in the way of complicating the bizarre nature of the story.”

This sort of set-up is common to Zemeckis’ films, which often take place at pivotal cultural moments – see: the Beatlemania-infused I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978) or the medley of 21st-century milestones that forms Forrest Gump’s connective tissue.

By taking place in 1968, when the civil rights movement has just made such significant gains, the new film is given an unexpected but heartfelt spin.

“Yeah, it’s celebratory, and I think that’s the way to do it, in a subtle way, so everyone can read the real history into it on their own. I always like to present those issues in a way where the audience has to bring a little bit of something to the party as well.”

One thing that’s not subtle: Anne Hathaway’s delightfully campy turn as the Grand High Witch, which positions the film closer to Zemeckis’ high-society satire Death Becomes Her (1992).

“I think it works so well because both Annie and I completely understood the subversive nature of Dahl’s character, the way he wrote it,” he says. “We were pretty much in sync on how it should all be.”

Rather than the nightmare-inducing prosthetics used in the 1990 film, Zemeckis embraces CGI (naturally) for the freaky transformations of the bald, clawed, child-hating witches. With shades of both the Joker and Cruella de Vil, Hathaway levitates, sends furniture bouncing off the walls and reveals a monstrous fanged grin – all the while shrieking in a raucous, overblown accent that the actor modelled on Old Norse.

“She knew what she wanted to do, and she had no problem going for it,” says Zemeckis. “I think she had a really great time playing the character as well.”

Film Reviews

Annabel Brady-Brown Film Editor @annnabelbb

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here’s a sad irony to the fact that Mank – a movie in love with the movies, even when they break your heart – will be seen by most people on Netflix. On second thoughts, perhaps that’s totally appropriate. Made by David Fincher (Gone Girl, The Social Network), the film is a fantastical look at the creation of Citizen Kane (1941), but it’s not interested in the canonical film’s director, Orson Welles. Rather, our hero is the little-known screenwriter Herman J Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman), who was part of a quick-witted set of writers lured to Hollywood in the late 1920s, and contributed to more than 70 films. Officially, he shares the writing credit for Kane with Welles. But “who really wrote Citizen Kane?” is one of Classical Hollywood’s favourite subjects of gossip. Fincher presents a what-if scenario – following the line laid out by New Yorker critic Pauline Kael in 1971 – that sees Mankiewicz hunkered down in a Californian ranch after a car accident, cranking out his masterpiece in 60 days while offering wisecracks to anyone in earshot. In reopening this musty mystery, Mank offers plenty of food for thought: where does authorship begin and end? How does today’s world mirror the bullying of the 1930s power elite? It’s also a visual treat: filmed in black-and-white, several sequences nod to Welles’ inventiveness and stylistic bravado, including the shot of an empty bottle that drops from Mankiewicz’s hand – a tribute to the snow globe that famously slips from Kane’s. ABB

ROSEBUD, ANYONE?

THE FATHER 

To witness a loved one suffer from dementia is heartbreaking. But what often goes unconsidered, at least in film, is how terrifying and disorienting life can be for those with the disorder. Florian Zeller directs this adaptation of his award-winning play, starring an impressively vulnerable Anthony Hopkins as Anthony. An 80-year-old Londoner who begins to notice strange occurrences in his beloved flat, Anthony is cared for by his daughter (Olivia Colman), who struggles to find a nurse who her father won’t send running. Zeller takes a unique approach to portraying the bewildering experience of dementia from Anthony’s perspective, with multiple actors playing the role of his daughter, her husband and the nurse, and multiple locations serving as his flat. We are immersed in Anthony’s confusion and frustration, as reality slips further away from his grasp. Though it sometimes feels stifled,The Father is a devastating and inventive take on a condition that inspires both fear and empathy in many of us. JESSICA ELLICOTT DAYS OF THE BAGNOLD SUMMER

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When a planned holiday with his Florida-based father falls through, metal-loving teen Daniel (Earl Cave, son of Nick) is forced to spend six weeks in the British suburbs with his librarian mum Sue (Monica Dolan). It goes about as well as you’d expect, as she repeatedly fails to connect with him and he flails about trying to figure out why everything seems so crap. Directed by Simon Bird (who plays Will on The Inbetweeners), this small-scale coming-of-age comedy is a delight. The tone is wry, the humour gentle and even the broader characters – like Tamsin Greig as the hippy mum of Daniel’s only friend and Rob Brydon as a slickly charming teacher who chats up Sue – are more than one-note jokes. Cave and Dolan are a great double act even as their characters clash and sulk. Their bond is realistically awkward, occasionally heartfelt but never sappy; there’s an undercurrent of care and concern even when they’re (gently) slamming doors and coming home (slightly) drunk. ANTHONY MORRIS

THE BEE GEES: HOW CAN YOU MEND A BROKEN HEART 

The first full-length doco about the Bee Gees follows the band’s unique trajectory, mapping their journey from Brisbane teenagers to British invasion pop group to disco-pop crossover without feeling haphazard. Anchored by contemporary comments from surviving member Barry Gibb, as well as archival interviews with his brothers Robin and Maurice, the film pays loving tribute to those behind the scenes: two producers who worked on Saturday Night Fever (1977) recreate the drum loop for ‘Stayin’ Alive’ by cutting analogue tape. The undeniable influence Black music had on the Bee Gees is acknowledged, and the film’s exploration of the racism and homophobia at the heart of the broader cultural backlash against disco is essential. Frank Marshall’s documentary succeeds where many music films fail: without dissolving to platitudes, it evokes the creative process of this fascinating group and centres their personalities, focusing on craft and brotherhood. GREER CLEMENS

Small Screen Reviews

Aimee Knight Small Screens Editor @siraimeeknight

WOLFWALKERS  | APPLE TV+

STUFF THE BRITISH STOLE

 | PRIME VIDEO FROM 23 DEC

 | PODCAST

Set in ambient late 1950s New York, writerdirector Eugene Ashe’s second feature Sylvie’s Love is a tender romantic drama, ideal for the holiday season. The plot centres the sheer pull of young love, desire and aspiration at a time when choice and liberation posed overt risk due to gendered discord. As TV producer Sylvie (played by a charming Tessa Thompson, Westworld) wrestles with the reality of her life choices, she crosses paths once again with her first big love, the ever romantic and earnest Robert (former NFL star Nnamdi Asomugha). While Sylvie and Robert bring the hindsight of early adulthood into their new dynamic, some things haven’t changed. Packed with classical tropes – spanning romantic fate to slow dancing in the street – the film’s appeal lies in its warmth and a restrained and slow-burning narrative, along with a timeless and soulful soundtrack. Sylvie’s Love is graced with subtle predictability, though its foreseeable moments are a welcome comfort at a time when the world feels most uncertain.

In the first episode’s closing beats, host Marc Fennell says, “To tell you the truth, I don’t really have a definitive opinion on British colonialism”. After five episodes of this new ABC RN series, which flits between various murderous actions of the colonial empire (and sometimes, its eager-to-please supplicants), your feelings may be less ambiguous.

Ostensibly focused on the stories of pilfered artefacts held in British museums, STBS borrows heavily from Uncomfortable Art Tours’ Alice Procter (The Whole Picture), who appears throughout. Mostly, it’s an excuse to talk through other things – the legacy of history on its descendants, the obliteration and resurfacing of cultural practices, and the contradiction of fetishising foreign cultures while literally razing and massacring them.

Fennell’s punchy narration and affable interviews share the stage with a delightfully diverse array of accents and histories, and a grandiose sound design rich with orchestral drama. If you like your history with a generous helping of muskets, strings and decapitation, dinner’s ready. JON TJHIA

LAURA LA ROSA

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hristmas came early at Aunty this year. The national broadcaster started unwrapping its festive programming on 1 December with the very merry Bluey special, ‘Christmas Swim’. If you missed it, the Heeler family get an encore screening this Christmas Eve, just before the 7pm news on ABC TV. But if you, like me, can’t wait that long, it’s up now on ABC iview.

While you’re there, catch up on That Christmas. The hour special brews a yuletide mood as luminaries like Benjamin and Michelle Law, Di Morrisey and Dr Norman Swan reminisce on Christmases past. The segment in which Dhungatti artist Blak Douglas uses paint pens on glass to illustrate an encounter with a migaloo kangaroo is a true delight.

The seasonal treats keep coming all month long, with Spicks and Specks, Hard Quiz and Play School getting into the spirit. On 13 December, comedian Sammy J reflects on the year that was, and wasn’t, in Sammy J’s 2020 Dumpster Fire Spectacular (ABC Comedy and iview). For the more optimistic and/ or green thumbs among us, the Gardening Australia Christmas special (18 December, ABC and iview) digs up good news stories from 2020 – a year in which many folks switched off their screens to reconnect with nature. Then on 20 December, Australia’s favourite satirist stages a play about capitalist greed in Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell: Pagan Holiday Special (ABC and iview). I hear it’s as meta as you might expect, which seems befitting of this “silly season”. Enjoy yours, however you celebrate. AK

11 DEC 2020

SYLVIE’S LOVE

CRIKEY, IT’S CHRISSY

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Animated in the same stunning style as Cartoon Saloon’s previous films The Secret of Kells (2009) and Song of the Sea (2014), Wolfwalkers continues the studio’s quest to bring Irish art and mythology to the screen. The story follows English child Robyn Goodfellowe (voiced by Honor Kneafsey, A Christmas Prince) in 17th century Kilkenny, where the strictures of town life, enforced by her well-intentioned father Bill (Sean Bean, The Lord of the Rings), chafe against Robyn’s adventurous personality. When she befriends Mebh Óg MacTíre (Eva Whittaker), a shapeshifter who can turn into a wolf – and who belongs to the clan of Wolfwalkers that Bill is tasked with destroying – a deeply sympathetic narrative unfolds. The studio’s illuminated, manuscript‑inspired, hand-drawn style paints a portrait not of good and evil, but of people trying to survive, causing harm due to fear, duty or genuine ignorance, not malice. With sketch lines and blurs of colour adding an expressive flourish to each movement and frame, the result is a compassionate and thoughtful portrait of coexistence, for an audience of any age. JINI MAXWELL

Music Reviews

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Isabella Trimboli Music Editor

hristmas, the season for mawkish festive songs that clog radio airwaves and supermarket speakers. But there are plenty of oddball holiday songs in the anti-canon that avoid or purposefully subvert this sickly sentimentality.

You can trace the strange arc of Scott Walker’s career – from 60s crooner to reclusive avant-garde genius – with two Christmas-adjacent tracks: the beautiful baroque pop song ‘Winter Night’ from Scott Walker 3 (1969) and the unnerving ‘The Day the Conducator Died (An Xmas Song)’ from his late masterpiece Bish Bosch (2012).

If, like me, you like your holiday cheer turned inside out, then The Fall’s petulant punk rendition of ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’ as well as their sly 2003 original ‘(We Wish You) A Protein Christmas’ shouldn’t be missed.

For those looking for something a little more holy, 70s cult power-pop band Big Star’s ‘Jesus Christ’ is a patchwork of church hymns, indiefolk and warbling vocals from Alex Chilton.

A more recent discovery is the acidic ‘Things Fall Apart’ by the underappreciated no wave star Cristina (who sadly died due to complications from COVID this year). The bitter 1982 release is about a woman trying to hold onto her holiday rituals despite her life crumbling around her.

But it’s The Pogues’ classic ‘Fairytale of New York’ (featuring Kirsty MacColl) – where two drunkards exchange insults on the grimy streets of 1940s New York on Christmas Eve – that will forever hold the title as the best anti-Christmas Christmas song. IT

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A NO W I HAVE N. M AC HI NE! GU !

HO HO ! HO

@itrimboli

DOLLY PARTON A HOLLY DOLLY CHRISTMAS 

Having lent her voice to the Black Lives Matter movement and funding COVID research that led to the Moderna vaccine, you’d forgive Dolly Parton for resting on her laurels in 2020. But deck the halls, because she’s showing no signs of stopping – A Holly Dolly Christmas is her third Christmas album in 30-odd years. The album highlight is Parton’s duet with Michael Bublé, ‘Cuddle Up, Cozy Down Christmas,’ a waltzy, firelit romance song. Another bright point is the banjo-studded rendition of ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’, featuring Jimmy Fallon, whose oversized “gee whiz!” schtick deserves its own credit. However, there are a few head-scratching moments: ‘Comin Home for Christmas’ gives us the weird image of “Christmas on the stove” – the only explanation is perhaps how cooked and overwrought the song is. Come for the Bublé and Willie Nelson duets, as well as a few of the originals, but maybe sneak off to another Christmas party if you can – I hear Andrew Bird’s doing a good one this year. DECLAN FRY

JOJO DECEMBER BABY

CALEXICO SEASONAL SHIFT

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Normally, this is the time of year when most pop stars begin to slow down, but after a career that’s spanned almost two decades (and began at age 12, no less), JoJo is more energised than ever. December Baby is her third album this year (after the acclaimed Good to Know and its acoustic redux), but bears none of the fatigue one might expect given her prolific output. Instead, it’s a smart, contemporary Christmas record that (mostly) avoids the genre’s tritest trappings: languid covers, saccharine vocals, cheesy bells-andwhistles accoutrements. Yes, there is the odd festive cover that sounds mawkish amid sexier, more infectious original cuts, but these are thankfully relegated to interlude status.

It’s on sultry track ‘North Pole’, and a surprise duet with Maroon 5 keyboardist PJ Morton on ‘Wishlist’ that JoJo’s signature R&B vocals and melisma take centre stage, reminding us of her lasting pop power. This is not quite a new holiday classic for the ages, but it is a welcome respite from the shopping-centre jingle onslaught destined for the weeks to come.

Calexico’s first seasonal album steers mostly clear of Christmas standards – except for a languid version of the John Lennon classic ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over)’. Instead, they’ve crafted a “cross-cultural seasonal celebration” that mixes traditional Latin music with indie folk. So don’t be surprised when you hear mariachi flourishes or cheeky mentions of mezcal (as well as nods to this year’s unique hardships). The two mainstays – Joey Burns and John Convertino – began playing together in wider ensembles and lending themselves out as an itinerant backing band, so it’s only natural that Seasonal Shift be a boisterous end-of-year party, stuffed with many guest appearances. DeVotchKa’s Nick Urata sings lead on a sweetly rocking version of Tom Petty’s ‘Christmas All Over Again’; Nigerian guitarist Bombino lends a vibrant twang to ‘Heart of Downtown’; Mexican producer Camilo Lara drops rhythmic spoken word into the synth-spritzed ‘Sonoran Snoball’; and Gaby Moreno and Gisela João contribute guest vocals in Spanish and Portuguese, respectively. DOUG WALLEN

MICHAEL SUN

Book Reviews

Thuy On Books Editor @thuy_on

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FACTORY 19 DENNIS GLOVER

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Acclaimed YA and children’s author Garth Nix places his latest book firmly in the urban fantasy genre, where myths and fairytales clash with contemporary life on Earth. Susan Arkshaw is newly arrived in London, ostensibly to begin her studies at art school, but mainly to track down her long-lost father through a collection of odd heirlooms given to her by her mother. Barely a week into her search, Susan witnesses an extraordinary killing and tumbles headlong into the world of the Booksellers, a family of supernaturally gifted humans who patrol the borderlands between the magical world and the mundane.

In partnership with the attractive and genderfluid Merlin and his magical extended family, Susan begins to realise that her search is only a tiny part of a greater mystery. Despite Nix’s liberties with several classic myths, the story is sure to keep the attention of any young booklover with a penchant for the supernatural. The book is a rollicking adventure filled with high-speed chases, bewitched coppers and ancient feuds. RAPHAELLE RACE

A comic fable about Big Tech’s increasing hold over us, Factory 19 follows the grandiose experiment of an Elon Musk-esque billionaire who painstakingly replicates factorycentred life circa 1948 in a near-future Hobart.

The idea is that physical labour provides its own reward, and that smart devices are erasing any distinctions between work and rest. Of course, this being satire, nothing works out as planned, which gives author Dennis Glover ample opportunity to examine the folly of wealth disparity, Trump-style populism and nostalgia itself. Yet for such a high-concept story, there’s a surprising degree of autobiography here: like protagonist Paul Richey, Glover is a former speechwriter, and he even grew up in an industrial town much like Factory 19. He has also written a book about modern Australian economics and a novel about the creation of George Orwell’s 1984, all of which positions him nicely to pen this class-conscious comedy. While the plotting and dialogue can grow repetitive at times, there are plenty of penetrating insights delivered with a light, breezy touch.

WHEN WE SAY BLACK LIVES MATTER MAXINE BENEBA CLARKE 

Maxine Beneba Clarke’s latest publication is a picture book, which she has both written and illustrated. It takes on the voice of a Black parent telling their young child, “Little one, when we say Black Lives Matter, we’re saying Black people are wonderful-strong. That we deserve to be treated with basic RESPECT, and that history’s done us wrong.” Beautifully produced in a bright palette of pastel colours and soft rounded forms, the book translates a complex political movement into simple concepts that kids can understand.

Though there is anger coursing through Clarke’s words, there’s also defiance and a celebratory joy too. When protesters are dancing on the streets, they’re saying that fear will not destroy them, and even as they remember historical and ongoing injustices and horrors, there’s still a steadfast determination to get the stories out to the next generation. Whether writing for adults or children, in fiction or poetry or picture books, Clarke’s work is ineffably powerful. THUY ON

DOUG WALLEN

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THE LEFT-HANDED BOOKSELLERS OF LONDON GARTH NIX

11 DEC 2020

f you’re anything like me at the tail end of this traumatic year, you’ll be finding it hard to concentrate on long novels with labyrinthine plotting and a multitude of characters. Fortunately there are several new books out there that are full of distracting titbits to cater to those frayed attention spans.

Eamon Evans’ Whatever Happened to Ned Kelly’s Head (And 50 Other Fascinating Australian Mysteries) is one such book that offers some head-scratching for the armchair detective. Aside from the famous criminal skull, there are short chapters on topics as varied as the missing Beaumont children, the stolen (and returned) Weeping Woman from the National Gallery of Victoria and Tasmanian actor Errol Flynn – was he a Nazi spy? Evans’ tone is breezy; this is not an academic tome full of extensive footnotes but a lightweight read.

Then there’s What’s It Like to Be Chased By a Cassowary?, edited by Felicity Lewis, a collection of “explainer” articles taken from The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald that seek to provide answers to random questions, such as “What impact has slavery had in Australia?”, “What is cultural burning?”, “Why do we have leap years?” and the perennial favourite, “Are we alone in the universe?”

Both books are sure to provide some conversational interest during your next Christmas party lull. TO

Public Service Announcement

by Lorin Clarke @lorinimus

Time in lieu of all the time you spent in front of a screen this year.

Time in lieu of the hours wasted on anxiety: not a sunk cost! You can use the period between Christmas and New Year to cash in those hours. Open a book and look out a window. Watch a leaf spinning in mid air, suspended by an invisible spider web. Lose an hour. Lose three.

Time in lieu of all the times you’ve held it together.

All the times you’ve not said something or just pushed on. All the times you’ve calmly done the things that needed to be done and not managed to have so much as a cup of tea or a shower until well after it (probably) says you should in the Geneva Convention. Use your time in lieu to float in the sea or have a bath or eat something utterly ridiculous and not have to share it with a single soul.

Time in lieu of the sleep you didn’t get. It will come back to you, during this time. You won’t see it coming. You’ll sit down on a couch to untie a knot from a ribbon or read the instructions for something and you’ll wake again, surprised and drooling, the light outside a sepia yellow.

Time in lieu of solitude. Time in which to move through the world. Climb a mountain. Walk to the shops. Dive into the sea and resurface, surrounded by gleeful strangers. Glimpse other people’s lives – a beach cricket match, frisbee in the park, a picnic of leftovers and hangovers and children in oversized hats. Time in which to get lost in a shared laugh with a real-life friend or commune with nature. Let a dog jump up on you.

Ruffle a cat behind the ears.

Time in lieu to read, or watch something, or sit in front of the Boxing Day Test and fall asleep. Life doesn’t stop for the period between Christmas and New Year.

It can, of course, be depressing and silent and empty – is everyone else having more fun? – but the best thing about time in lieu is this: it’s ungoverned. There are no rules for how to spend it. You can spend it eating peanut butter toast in your underwear. That’s your time in lieu. You do whatever you want with it. I do recommend snoozing in a chair at one point, though, you’d be surprised how that sleep in lieu can really sort you out. After a year like this (with a few exceptions – vaccines, babies etc) you really do deserve it.

Lorin Clarke is a Melbourne-based writer. The second season of her radio series, The Fitzroy Diaries, is on ABC Radio National and the ABC Listen app now.

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t’s not even finished yet, and it was a cliché by about March that 2020 was just a straight-up disaster. A yawning chasm of endless horror; a menacing twist at every turn.

As with most clichés, though, this is a bit of a generalisation. Some of you had a wonderful time.

Babies were born, friends were made. Many of you did things that will change the world forever. Made vaccines, for instance, or delivered ice cream to strung‑out Big Issue columnists, or were very kind to elderly neighbours. To those people I say: well done, you. You’ve done a world of good for 2020’s reputation.

Really bumped it up from a big fat zero.

Whether 2020 deserves your wrath or not, though, we’re approaching one of the most under-appreciated times of any year. No, not Christmas. Not New Year.

A time untouched by the people in charge of joyful holidays (a well-meaning bunch who are sometimes, well, just a little bit much).

I’m talking about that little postage stamp of time – that little rectangle in the corner of the year that truly ensures it is delivered into the next year – that little bit of time that goes between Christmas and New Year. It doesn’t have a name. It isn’t recognised on the calendar.

In fact, I hesitate to lionise it lest it become another date of significance. You know how people who work full-time sometimes get something called time in lieu?

That’s when someone gets (paid) time off to make up for time they’ve spent working extra hours. I didn’t used to know this, and I used to find the idea of time in lieu so intriguing. Time in lieu of what?

That period between Christmas and New Year is time in lieu. Not paid time but extra time. Time you are owed. The shops are shut, nobody’s planning things. It’s empty time.

11 DEC 2020

Time to You

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

Tastes Like Home edited by Anastasia Safioleas

40 Bill Granger

FOOD IMAGE AND RECIPE FROM AUSTRALIAN FOOD. FOOD PHOTO BY MIKKEL VANG. PORTRAIT BY HUGH STEWART

Tastes Like Home

Chopped Salad with Peanut and Lime Dressing Ingredients

Bill says…

Serves 4

y grandmother always cooked Christmas lunch. She used to do a hot roast dinner and, having already made them in July, would boil the Christmas puddings for three hours on the stovetop. It would steam the whole kitchen and she’d have to turn up the air conditioning.

We’d spend the morning in the pool swimming and then come inside and freeze while eating a hot roast dinner!

My dad was a butcher so we had all the meat – chicken, ham, roast beef. Roasted potatoes and hot Gravox too. And because my grandmother couldn’t get everything into the oven at the same time, she’d heat it back up by pouring hot gravy all over it. On a hot 41-degree day! Having spent time in the UK, it now makes total sense. It’s cold outside, it’s raining and it gets dark at three or four. It’s perfect. Even Christmas lights make sense. In Australia as a young child, it was always hard staying up late to see the Christmas lights because of daylight savings.

For me Australia means fresh produce – it’s what feels like home. This salad is the perfect way to showcase this. What I love about Australian food is that we take a new culture’s food as part of our acceptance [of them]. I remember growing up with a Greek friend who once brought in a fried eggplant sandwich. I thought that was crazy. Now of course getting a bit of fried eggplant in your sandwich is completely normal.

My favourite comfort food, which might sound bizarre, is a chopped salad. At Christmas I like doing this as part of a big beautiful centrepiece.

I’ve finally embraced Christmas for what it is.

Going to my sister-in-law’s for Christmas in Melbourne, someone brings a beautiful salmon they’ve smoked at home, everyone brings a salad, there’s a barbecue and we all sit outside on the balcony at a big trestle table. It’s what it should be: a mid-summer celebration of family.

Peanut and lime dressing 4 tablespoons smooth peanut butter 4 tablespoons coconut milk juice of 1 lime 1½ tablespoons tamari soy sauce 2 teaspoons maple syrup

1 kohlrabi, cut into matchsticks 1 iceberg lettuce, torn into quarters 250g cherry tomatoes, halved 2 Lebanese cucumbers, chopped 100g sprouting seeds 150g edamame beans, blanched 1 large yellow beetroot, steamed, peeled and diced ¼ red cabbage, finely sliced 2 tablespoons lemon juice 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 1 bunch each dill, coriander and mint

Method To make the crispy peanuts, preheat the oven to 180°C. Mix the nuts with the oil, sugar and salt in a roasting tin and roast for 12 minutes, or until starting to colour. Toss with the chopped lemongrass and sliced lime leaves, return to the oven and cook for a further 4 minutes or until golden brown. Toss through the chilli flakes. Leave to cool and then gently crush the peanuts. These will keep for five days in an airtight container.

To make the peanut dressing, blend all the ingredients together with 2 tablespoons of water until smooth.

Arrange the kohlrabi and torn iceberg in a bowl, then add the tomatoes, cucumber, sprouting seeds, edamame beans, beetroot and red cabbage.

Whisk together the lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil.

Drizzle over the salad and season to taste.

Spoon a little peanut dressing over the top and sprinkle with the crispy nuts. Garnish with herbs and serve the rest of the peanut dressing on the side.

M

AUSTRALIAN FOOD BY BILL GRANGER IS OUT NOW.

11 DEC 2020

100g blanched peanuts 1 teaspoon olive oil 1 teaspoon soft brown sugar 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt 1 lemongrass stalk, white part only, bruised and finely chopped 2 makrut lime leaves, stalks removed, finely sliced 1 teaspoon chilli flakes

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Crispy peanuts

Puzzles

ANSWERS PAGE 45

By Lingo!

by Lauren Gawne lingthusiasm.com MAGNUM

CLUES 5 letters Gin and___ Jotted down Range of voice Room setting Seek, invite 6 letters Amorous Circuitous way Head journalist Ice‑cream cone Portly 7 letters Beat, thrash Pipe or passage Regular daily habits Tell, describe 8 letters Over‑anxious Teaching

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Sudoku

by websudoku.com

Each column, row and 3 x 3 box must contain all numbers 1 to 9.

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9 7 1 4 1 2 2 5 9 3 6 9 2 7 8 5 8 2 1 7 1 4 8 1 3 6

Puzzle by websudoku.com

Solutions CROSSWORD PAGE 45 ACROSS 1 Four seasons 7 Mow 9 Total 10 Instantly

11 Landscaping 12 Emu 13 Splurge 15 Gate 18 Idea 20 Barrier 23 UFO 24 Violoncello 26 Orwellian 27 Iraqi 28 Spy 29 Poltergeist

DOWN 1 Fatalism 2 Untangle 3 Sales 4 Animate 5 Ousting 6 Slaughter 7 Mitten 8 Way-out 14 Redevelop 16 Giuliani 17 Arborist 19 Asocial 20 Brownie 21 Tudors 22 Norway 25 Cling

20 QUESTIONS PAGE 7 1 Melbourne 2 Double Income No Kids 3 Tame Impala ( The Slow Rush ) 4 The Nile 5 Portuguese Grand Prix 6 Gregorian 7 Hans Zimmer 8 Canberra 9 Fish (approximately 32,000) 10 India 11 Diego Maradona 12 Sri Lanka 13 Willow 14 Textured vegetable protein 15 The Queen’s Gambit 16 Apple 17 Venus and Uranus 18 Shuggie Bain 19 Three (liquid, solid and gas) 20 Doomscrolling

11 DEC 2020

Using all nine letters provided, can you answer these clues?

Every answer must include the central letter.

Plus, which word uses all nine letters?

by puzzler.com

43

Word Builder

This Latin word is for something great, either in its size or value. It’s related to words like magnificent, magnify and major, as well as maximum, maestro and mayor. Magnum opus is literally a “master work” – English master was originally mægester, which (you guessed it) is also related. A magnum of wine is two standard bottles, around one-and-a-half litres. The first written English reference to a magnum of booze was from the Scottish poet Robbie Burns talking about port in 1788.

With the lure of a name that invokes greatness, it’s unsurprising that magnum has been used for a type of gun (1935), a detective (1980) and an ice cream (originally from Denmark in the late 1980s).

Crossword

by Chris Black

THE ANSWERS FOR THE CRYPTIC AND QUICK CLUES ARE THE SAME. ANSWERS PAGE 43.

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2

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8

Quick Clues ACROSS

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DOWN

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Cryptic Clues

Solutions

ACROSS

DOWN

1 No fuss arose reserving hotel? (4,7) 7 Voiceover of Simpsons character cut (3) 9 Drink with a First Lady is complete (5) 10 Sunk last tinny then and there (9) 11 Spills gin and claps outdoor work (11) 12 Iconic Australian dance music group (3) 13 Spun records longing to splash out (7) 15 Topple both sides after Georgia’s scandalous

1 Large distribution of mail’s leading to resignation (8) 2 Straighten out aunt’s clash with Glen (8) 3 Journalist’s air travels (5) 4 Enliven an Italian partner (7) 5 Unseating event: removing leader? (7) 6 Christian has expression of disgust for butcher (9) 7 Romney went without exterior cold weather

ending? (4) 18 Middleman occasionally displays thought (4) 20 Complication: barrister lost settlement case (7) 23 Foreign visitor identified by leaders of UK Foreign Office (3) 24 Five struck oil with colonel’s instrument (11) 26 Free rein? allow dystopian… (9) 27 …foreign national to air moving English quiz show (5) 28 Thomas Pynchon entertained agent (3) 29 Pilot gets upset outside Queen’s presence (11)

1 Acceptance of the inevitable (8) 2 Straighten out (8) 3 Corporate department (5) 4 Energise (7) 5 Expelling (7) 6 Kill (9) 7 Glove (6) 8 Unconventional (3-3) 14 Renovate (9) 16 Former US mayor (8) 17 Tree surgeon (8) 19 Avoiding interaction with others (7) 20 Chocolate desert (7) 21 Royal family members (6) 22 Scandinavian country (6) 25 Hold on tight (5)

garment (6)

8 Bizarre exit (3-3) 14 Communist and First Lady cut and grow again (9) 16 Confused, ailing Trump insider, one appearing at

1-across, 9-across, 11-across (8)

17 Borat is messing with Republican professional found

at 1-across, 9-across, 11-across? (8)

19 Wild, salacious American leaving and avoiding

community interaction (7) 20 Have cheese-covered sweet treat (7) 21 Without taking sides, study Norse dynasty (6) 22 Howard’s regressive way for nation (6) 25 Hang on to fish (after catching first) (5)

SUDOKU PAGE 43

6 9 1 3 5 2 4 7 8

5 3 2 7 4 8 9 6 1

8 4 7 1 6 9 5 2 3

2 6 5 4 9 3 8 1 7

4 7 8 5 2 1 6 3 9

3 1 9 8 7 6 2 5 4

9 8 6 2 1 7 3 4 5

7 5 3 6 8 4 1 9 2

1 2 4 9 3 5 7 8 6

Puzzle by websudoku.com

WORD BUILDER PAGE 43 5 Tonic Noted Tenor Decor Court 6 Erotic Detour Editor Cornet Rotund 7 Trounce Conduit Routine Recount 8 Neurotic Doctrine 9 Reduction

11 DEC 2020

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45

9

1 Equivalent to 12 months (4,7) 7 Cut down (3) 9 Add up (5) 10 Straight away (9) 11 Outdoor beautification (11) 12 Flightless bird (3) 13 Spend big (7) 15 Access point (4) 18 Notion (4) 20 Obstacle (7) 23 Alien vessel (3) 24 Musical instrument (11) 26 Dystopian (9) 27 Baghdad resident (5) 28 Intelligence gatherer (3) 29 Noisy ghost (11)

Click CHRISTMAS DAY, 1915

British Soldiers

words by Michael Epis photo by Getty

46

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

O

ur memories of World War I hold an instructive contradiction: it was the most ghastly war ever at that time, where chemical warfare was unleashed for the first time, soldiers were sacrificed in the hundreds of thousands without purpose on the Western Front, and it all culminated in a death toll beyond imagination – 20 million, half of them soldiers, half civilians. Yet it was also the last war fought on a human level – with bayonets and men on horses – before industrialised weaponry took over, so that people sitting at desks in say, Virginia, USA, operate drones that kill people in say, Afghanistan.

One image that has stuck in our minds is the so‑called Christmas truce in 1914, on which hostilities were largely abandoned for the day, in deference to the shared Christianity of most combatants. Stories of Germans singing Christmas carols and the British singing them back are legion. Soccer games too, were played – although the truth is disputed at every point. It seems the Royal Welch Fusiliers played the Germans at Frelinghien, in northern France – and that the Germans won 3-2. What is certain is that a memorial game was

played there in 2008, and the Germans did win, 2-1.

The English will tell you that it is now traditional that England wins the war and Germany the soccer.

The British soldiers above are most certainly playing soccer on Christmas Day 1915. It is Officers vs The Rest played in Salonika, Greece. The score is lost to history – but my money is on The Rest.

The soldiers were part of the 26th Division, who’d been despatched to a strange outpost of the war. Greece was officially neutral. It fought wars bookending WWI: the two Balkans Wars in 1912-13 and the GrecoTurkish War in 1919-1922. Inevitably it was dragged into WWI, partly because it ended up with two competing governments during the so-called National Schism.

The Allies were based in Salonika, making sure Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire were kept at bay. As many as 250,000 Allied troops were in the region – more than 8000 died, but malaria was a bigger problem, infecting 160,000 soldiers.

The lesson, though, is that Christmas is a time for peace, of putting aside differences. If armies can do it, why not families?

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17 APR 2020

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

words by Michael Epis photo by Getty

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