Category: Thoughts
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Past is Parallel
June has always been a strange time of year for me. It’s my birthday month, and so always carries a certain melancholy I associate with growing older. This year it also coincides with the end of my 12-month Writing Fellowship with the Centre for Stories. During that time I’ve been working on a collection of…
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No Justice, No Peace
It seems like everywhere I look lately, I see injustice. Fear. Misuse of power. Oppression. Outrage. Living in Boorloo/Perth, it is easy to feel separated from the rest of the world in our own little bubble. It is a privilege to be able to shut off or turn away when everything becomes too much –…
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“Where are you from?”
It’s been a while since my last post. I’ve had a productive couple of weeks though, poetry-wise: poetry events including workshops and poetry slams, submitting poems to journals (and getting accepted!), and writing poems for submission have all been keeping me busy. This last week, I’ve been trying, specifically, to write a poem about ‘belonging.’ One…
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Poetry Can Save Us
In my last post, I talked about the significance of art and how we, as humans, are drawn to beauty. Today’s post is in a similar vein – I’ll be thinking about and exploring the significance of poetry as an art form. You may have noticed, if you’ve read some of my other posts, that…
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Make Noise or Beauty
Today, I want to talk about art. Specifically, the importance of art. And by art I really mean anything that has been born out of creativity, like creative writing and poetry, drawings and paintings, novels and comics, music, and stage and television productions. Now, I know this is something that lots of different people, probably…
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Caught Between Countries
In my last post, I talked a little about my experience as a person of mixed race/ethnicity. I mentioned how, because of this, in both of my countries of origin, I am perceived as an immigrant. Although in many ways I felt that word did not apply to me because neither of the countries in…
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Mixtiza
Mixtiza = mixed [race] + mestiza Lately, I have been thinking about race. In particular, I’ve been reflecting on my experience of race as a person of mixed ethnicity, something I’ve mentioned in previous posts. A little bit of background for you – my mother is a white Anglo Australian, and my father is Filipino, from…
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Home: Tasmania
This weekend I’m back in Tasmania visiting friends and family. Tasmania has been my home for the last seven years, and now, being back for the first time since moving interstate, I’m thinking a lot about home as a concept. As I’ve mentioned in another post, I have a mixed race and immigrant background. Over…
KAYA ORTIZ 