On a global scale, the woes of my small family are trivial, but oh goddess, I’m so happy to see the back of 2021! It has felt like a cascade of pain and tribulation, with lockdown just adding to the doom. But when I look back there’s quite a lot I’ve achieved, quite a lot we’ve achieved as a family.
My biggest achievement is signing off and finalising the edits for the manuscript of my latest book, Writing Women, which is going to be published by Palgrave Macmillan. It is based on my PhD thesis, and looks at the role of women journalists and the women’s pages in the Malay-language media from 1987 to 1998, two landmark years for media freedom in Malaysia. It’s been a rollercoaster journey, both getting my PhD and finalising this manuscript, so I’m looking forward to holding this, my latest baby, in my hands.
It is also almost exactly a year ago that I finished my Permaculture Design Course – while I’ve not been able to use it much, as yet, it has altered some of the ways in which I view the world and my place in it. We have been growing more food, built a worm farm, pickled our own olives and built community around us. Related to that, I’ve also started my journey into Shamanic Womencraft, which is both challenging and exciting.
While Malaysia still doesn’t have a right to information law, as a society, we’ve made considerable progress and it looks like we might see something tabled next year – this is an issue I’ve been working on since around 2004, so being able to see it come into being would be fantastic. Huge kudos to the team at the Centre for Independent Journalism on their persistence in keeping the fire burning.
The sheer volume of books that my family has got through this year – thank you lockdown! – has been startling. I’ve staggered out of the library, barely visible through the toppling tower. And some of the books I’ve shared with the kids, and which the kids have enjoyed, have been challenging – Animal Farm, To Kill a Mockingbird and a whole month of Shakespeare. Go us!
Professionally, I’ve been involved in around 15 citizens’ panel selections in Victoria and New South Wales; and started working on a Massive Open Online Course of deliberative democracy.
And lastly, we’ve started work on Stardust Farm. It’s going to take the time it takes, but the journey has begun.
