EP7: The Fullness of Yourself

Can historians kick off the shackles of footnotes and approach the past in the spirit of play? This week on Archive Fever, Clare and Yves are joined by Dr Nadia Rhook, a historian and poet whose most recent collection is Second Fleet Baby (Freemantle Press, 2022). In a conversation that tackles the limitations of the history discipline, Nadia shares her journey from conventional academic historian to creative writer who connects with the past from the fullness of herself. How can we restore the past in ways that nourish the historian? Why does being more creative involve giving up authority? And what can settler historians learn from First Nations archival poetics?

Second Fleet Baby by Nadia Rhook (Freemantle Press, 2022)