Meanjin Vol 83, No 4

The power of the artist has never been more crucial to our future — nor more imperilled. When mercenary technologies are deployed against writers, cultural practice is reduced to consumption, human creativity to generative ‘artificial intelligence’, and new work to ‘content’. ‘Literature and art, poetry and drama do not spring into being at the word of command,’ wrote Founding Editor Clem Christesen in our very first editorial. ‘Their life is a continuous process of growing within itself, and its suppression is death.’ Since 1940, Meanjin has proudly championed the work of writers and artists. Every editor has taken an uncompromising stand on the public value of this work, and Meanjin 83.4 Summer 2024 is no different. We move through Ambelin Kwaymullina’s knowledge systems. Find Ben Walter’s remote. Sit down with Gerald Murnane. Greet new life with Leni Shilton. Reimagine George Williams’s university. Impose a new inconvenience on Ella Mittas. Throw down Nicholas Pickard’s gauntlet. Ask Rose Harriman’s powerful question. Our reading begins with Joe Geia’s Carumba Institute Meanjin Oration: Uncle shows us that while culture evolves across millennia, it’s how we respect it today that counts — because it’s artists who keep the voice alive.