Ep3: Inch by Inch
Clare and Yves are joined by Tony Birch, Melbourne-based historian, novelist, poet and public intellectual trained in indigenous history. Is archival research always a fact-finding mission—or can it be a form of call and response? Reflecting on his journey from academic historian to award-winning fiction writer, Tony explains how he answers back to the colonial archive and uses language to take back country. The group also discusses the History Wars of the early 2000s, hear Tony recite his poem “Archive Box,” and learn about the contraband he’s got stashed at home.
References
Tony Birch’s Publisher Page
Tony Birch The White Girl (2019)
Tony Birch “Footnote to a ‘History War’ (Archive Box - No. 2)” (2004)
Charles Reznikoff Testimony: Volume I: The United States, 1885-1915 (1978)
Further Reading
Tony Birch
Tony Birch, Broken Teeth (Cordite, 2016)
Tony Birch, “The Trouble with History,” Australian History Now (NewSouth, 2013)
Tony Birch, “Recovering a Narrative of Place,” Griffith Review 60 (2018)
Find Tony Birch on Instagram @tony_birch_