Borderlands is a collaboration between Northern Territory writers and literary scholars Glenn Morrison, Raelke Grimmer and Adelle Sefton-Rowston to create and publish a dedicated Northern Territory literary journal that showcases Territory stories by Territory writers and storytellers.
In 2018, the project was supported by an ArtsNT grant and seed funding from Charles Darwin University to scope an NT journal’s viability. Now in Phase 2, we are raising funds to produce pilot online (2019) and print (2020) editions of the journal.
Australian literature is largely created and published on the eastern seaboard or in metropolitan centres. Yet Australia is a vast, multicultural nation. In the NT, a fifth of the population were born overseas, and a quarter are Indigenous. Indigenous voices are becoming more prominent across Australia, but need the accompanying weight of those from the NT, the Australian jurisdiction with the highest percentage of Indigenous people. The Territory’s isolation from the rest of the nation and proximity to Asia also contributes to the Territory’s unique lifestyle. These are stories that need space within Australian literature.
Writing about the NT is too-often undertaken by non-NT writers, who cannot bring the necessary insider perspective to such stories and ideas. A dedicated NT journal will benefit the local community by creating a dedicated platform to showcase Territory storytellers and the Territory to a national audience. The journal aims to publish storytelling not only in text, but through photojournalism, oral storytelling, images and video.
Australian writers are often underpaid or not paid at all for their work, and so donations will be used to pay writers and editors for their contributions to the journal, providing Territory writers with a local opportunity to be paid industry rates to sustain their arts practice. The creation of the journal will not only provide Territory writers with a local means to be paid for and showcase their work to local and national audiences, but will contribute to the sustainability of the Northern Territory arts sector.
Our project is part of Creative Partnerships Australia’s MATCHLab program, and every donation we receive until May 31st 2019 will be matched dollar for dollar, up to $10,000.
To find out more about the project, visit borderlands.cdu.edu.au or find us on Facebook
