Testimony and memory : re-writeable video memoirs

In Chris Marker’s Sunless (1985), the narrator states: “We do not remember, we re-write memory much as history is rewritten.” This presentation considers the ways in which my parents’ stories have been (and can be) re-written. In 1996, my father and mother engaged in a process of remembering, narrating and re-considering their histories when their video testimonies were recorded for the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. They experienced much of World War II in different locations – only re-united after many months. For these video testimonies, they were recorded separately – once again, with a distance of many months between. Whenever there is an attempt to protect a story from interruption and contradiction, narrative multiplicity arises. By comparing and analysing their separate stories in terms of what was said, what was not said, what was unspeakable, and what was unknowable, I am interested in the uncertainties, the gaps, and the different ways in which they attempted to re-make their own histories whilst in the midst of storytelling. I am also interested in re-editing these memoirs into a multi-perspectival family video album, in which the stories and storytellers re-inhabit a shared and re-writeable space of storytelling.

Conversations with my mother

An intense and sometimes disturbing series of encounters between the filmmaker and his mother as they relive the traumatic years of his childhood and adolescence. Following the migration of the family to Australia from Holland in the difficult postwar years they had to grapple with problems of housing, social injustice and adjustment made more difficult by the father's mental illness. For the filmmaker 'the sentiment had to be uncompromisingly true' although he became aware that 'all film is fiction'.

An interview with the Very Rev. Dr. Themistocles Adamopoulo, Apostle to the Poor and Oppressed

Father Themistocles is an inspiration to many people in many parts of the world. He has led an extraordinarily colourful and rich life, one that reflects his own colourful and buoyant personality. Unfortunately, very little of his fascinating life is known to people, who are usually aware only of his current passionate commitment to serving the poor and oppressed in Africa. But underlying this commitment is a wealth of experience and knowledge that few of us can hope to match.

I first came into contact with Fr Themistocles as a theology student in Sydney over ten years ago, where ‘Brother Themi’ (as he was affectionately known to students) would guide us through the intricacies of New Testament scholarship, Hellenistic philosophy, the Hebrew language, and the academic world in general. My friendship with Fr Themistocles has continued to grow since then, and I have always thought it worthwhile that the life and adventures of ‘the polytropic Themi’ (to borrow a phrase he likes to apply to his great mentor, the apostle Paul) should be more readily known than they presently are. I hope, therefore, that the interview that follows goes some way towards fulfilling this objective (though I also hope that a more detailed account of Fr Themistocles’ life will someday be written, preferably by Fr Themistocles himself).

Social control, self-control and psychosocial problems in adolescent males

‘Psychosocial problems’ are psychological problems that are regarded as resulting from the interaction between the adaptive capacities of individuals and the demands of their physical and social environments. Many different factors have been theoretically proposed, and empirically established, as predictors of a range of psychosocial problems in adolescents. However, a problem exists in that this literature appears to lack an integrative framework that has validity across the range of problems that are observed. The purpose of the current research is to propose and test a model that draws together three clusters of factors that are useful in predicting the incidence of adolescent psychosocial problems. These are family structural background factors, family functioning variables and control beliefs. Data were collected from 155 adolescent males aged between 12 and 19 by a single concurrent and retrospective self-report questionnaire. This included data about the respondent (age, involvements with mental health or juvenile justice agencies) and family structural background factors (days per week worked by mother/father, occupational status for mother/father, residential mobility, number of persons in the family home). The questionnaire also incorporated the Parental Bonding Instrument (Parker, Tupling & Brown, 1979) to quantify the levels of perceived parental care and overprotection, and an adaptation of the Parental Discipline Style Scale (Shaw & Scott, 1991), to assess punitive, love withdrawing and inductive discipline practices. In addition, the (Low) Self-control Scale (Grasmick, Tittle, Bursick & Arneklev, 1993) and the Locus of Control of Behaviour Scale (Craig, Franklin, & Andrews, 1984) were used to collect data concerning adolescents’ perceived behavioural self-control and locus of control. Finally, selected sub-scales of the Child Behavior Checklist Youth Self-Report (Achenbach, 1991b) were used to collect data on the incidence of social withdrawal, somatisation, anxiety and depression, aggression and delinquency among the respondents, and in aggregated form, the incidence of ‘total problems’ and internalising and externalising behaviours. Results indicated family structural background factors, family functioning variables and control beliefs possess limited predicted validity and that the usefulness of the proposed model varies between specific psychosocial problems. Family functioning variables were generally stronger predictors than family structural background factors, particularly for internalising behaviours. Of these, levels of parental care and overprotection were generally the strongest predictors. Perceived self-control and locus of control were also generally strong predictors, but were particularly powerful with respect to externalising behaviours. The strength of predictive relationships was observed to vary between specific internalising and externalising behaviours, suggesting that individual difference variables not assessed in the current research were differentially influential. Finally, the parental and individual characteristics that predicted maximal levels of adjustment (defined in terms of minimal levels of internalising and externalising behaviours) were explored and the correlates of various parenting style typologies (Parker et al., 1979) were investigated. These results strongly confirmed the importance of family functioning and control beliefs with respect to the prediction of internalising, externalising and well-adjusted behaviours. In all analyses, substantial proportions of the variance in the incidence of problem behaviours remain unexplained. The findings are examined in relation to previous research focused on (familial) social control and (individual) self-control with respect to psychosocial problems in adolescents. In addition, methodological considerations are discussed and the implications of the findings for clinical and community interventions to address problem behaviours, and for further study, are explored.

Presbyterian ethos and environment in the novels of John Buchan : a religious and historical study

The aim of this thesis is to establish, from a historical and religious perspective, that the Presbyterian ethos and environment in which John Buchan was reared was the predominating influence in the writing of his novels. Presbyterianism was not the only influence on Buchan that determined the character of his stories. Buchan was by temperament a romantic, and this had considerable influence on his literature. His novels are romances, peopled by romantic figures who pursue romantic adventures. There are the signs of Buchan's romantic nature in the contents of the novels: creative imagination, sensitivity to nature, and expectations of the intrusion of other worlds, with destiny-determining events to follow. But Buchan had also an acquired classicism. His studies at Glasgow and Oxford Universities brought him in touch with a whole range of the master-pieces of classical literature, especially the works of Plato and Virgil. This discipline gave him clarity and conciseness in style, and balanced the romantic element in him, keeping his work within the bounds of reason. At the heart of Buchan's life and work, however, was his deeply religious nature and this, while influenced by romanticism and classicism, was the dominant force behind his work. Buchan did not accept in its entirety the Presbyterian doctrine conveyed to him by his father and his Church. He was moderate by temperament and shrank from excesses in religious matters, and, being a romantic, he shied away from any fixed creeds. He did embrace the fundamentals of Christianity, however, which he learned from his father and his Church, even if he did put aside the Rev. John's orthodox Calvinism. The basic Christianity which underlies all Buchan's novels has the stamp of Presbyterianism upon it, and that stamp is evident in his characters and their adventures. The expression of Christianity which Buchan embraced was the Christian Platonism of seventeenth century theologians, who taught and preached at Cambridge University, They gave prominence to the place of reason and conscience in man's search for God, They believed that reason and conscience were the ‘candle of the Lord’ which was existed every one. It was their conviction that, if that light was followed, it would lead men and women to God. They were against superstition and fanaticism in religion, against all forms of persecution for religious beliefs, and insisted that God could only be known by renouncing evil and setting oneself to live according to God’s will. This teaching Buchan received, but the stamp of his Presbyterianism was not obliterated. The basic doctrines which arose from his father's Presbyterianism and are to be found in Buchan's novels are as follows: a. the fear (or awe) of God, as life's basic religious attitude; b. the Providence of God as the ultimate determinative force in the outcome of events; c. the reality, malignity and universality of evil which must be forcefully and constantly resisted; d. the dignity of human beings in bearing God's image; e. the conviction that life has meaning and that its ultimate goal, therefore, is a spiritual one - as opposed to the accumulation of wealth, the achieving of recognition from society, and the gaining access to power; f. the necessity of challenge in life for growth and fulfilment, and the importance of fortitude in successfully meeting such challenge; g. the belief that, in the purpose of God, the weak confound the strong. These emphases of Presbyterianism are to be found in all Buchan's novels, to a greater or lesser degree. All his characters are serious people, with a moral purpose in life. Like the pilgrims of the Bible, they seek a country: true fulfilment. This quest becomes more spiritual and more dearly defined as Buchan grows in age and maturity. The progress is to be traced from his early novels, where fulfilment is sought in honour and self-approving competence, as advocated by classicism; to the novels of his middle years, where fulfilment is sought in adventures suggested by romanticism. In his final novel Sick Heart River. Buchan appears to have moved somewhat from his earlier classicism and his romanticism as the road to fulfilment. In this novel, Buchan expresses what, for him, is ultimate fulfilment: a conversion to God that produces self-sacrificing love for others. The terminally-ill Edward Leithen sets out on a romantic adventure that will enable him to die with dignity, and so, in classic style, justify his existence. He has a belief in God, but in a God who is almighty, distant and largely irrelevant to Leithen's life. In the frozen North of Canada, where he expects to find his meagre beliefs in God's absolute power confirmed by the icy majesty of mountain and plain, he finds instead God's mercy and it melts his heart. In a Christ-like way, he brings life to others through his death, believing that, through death, he will find life. There is sufficient evidence to give plausibility to the view that Buchan is describing in Leithen his own pilgrimage. If so, it means that Buchan found his way back to the fundamental experience of the Christian life, conversion, so strongly emphasised in his orthodox Presbyterianism home and Church. However, Buchan reaches this conclusion in a Christian Platonist way, through the natural world, rather than through the more orthodox pathway of Scripture.

Risk of prostate cancer associated with a family history in an era of rapid increase in prostate cancer diagnosis (Australia)

OBJECTIVE: We conducted a case-control study of prostate cancer and familial risk of the disease in Australia between 1994 and 1998, a period during which the incidence of prostate cancer increased dramatically with widespread use of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing. METHODS: 1475 cases and 1405 controls were asked about prostate cancer in their first-degree relatives. Odds ratios (OR) were calculated using logistic regression. RESULTS: Cases were more likely to report a family history of prostate cancer than controls (OR 3.0; 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.3-3.9) and cases reporting an affected relative were younger (58.8 versus 60.9 years, p < 0.0001). The OR for an affected first-degree relative increased with increasing number of affected relatives and decreased with increasing age of the case. The OR for more than one affected first-degree relative was 6.9 (95% CI 2.7-18). The OR for an affected brother was 3.9 (95% CI 2.5-6.1) and for an affected father was 2.9 (95% CI 2.1-3.9) but these were not significantly different (p = 0.2). When analyses were repeated including only diagnoses made in relatives prior to 1992, the risks were generally similar except that the OR for an affected brother decreased to 3.1 (95% CI 1.2-3.9). When only relatives' diagnoses made after 1991 were included results were again similar to those for all relatives, although the effect for brothers was greater and the attenuation with age at diagnosis dissipated. CONCLUSIONS: The recent introduction of PSA testing that has resulted in a greater prevalence of apparent prostate cancer, does not appear to have substantially altered familial risks of disease, although effects associated with brothers may be inflated.

The letter S

In 'The Letter S' Paul Carter overlays a number of parallel journeys. A group of actors meet with a young playwright to work on a his new play: theirs is an artistic journey. The playwright's father wrote a radio play which they listen to: it is Memory As Desire about the journey in search of the inland sea, and the mutual incomprehension of indigenous and European cultures. His new play is based on the Odyssey and in particular the relationship between father and son: the son searching for the lost father. Just as the search for the inland sea is ill-fated, so to the cast of actors conclude that their search for a new theatre is futile. The indigenous people had no letter 'S', leading to misunderstanding. The explorers failed to listen to the land. The characters in the version of the Odyssey are washed away in a sea of sibilants. This is a work packed full of ideas, puns, and concrete poetry propelled by desire and loss, but also hope.

Colour of walls : incorporating the exegesis "Unfit for publication"

The thesis is presented in two parts: a novel and a theoretical essay. It is a broadly autobiographical work, concerning issues and events surrounding father-daughter rape. It is written from the mother's perspective, and deals with the impact of child sexual assault on the lives of two generations of working-class women.

Family relationship quality and early alcohol use : evidence for gender-specific risk processes

Objective: Family characteristics (relationship quality, parental behaviors, and attitudes relating to alcohol use) are known to influence alcohol use in the mid-teen years, and there is evidence that family characteristics have different influences on mid-teen girls versus boys. This study examined child gender differences in the association of family relationship quality, parental disapproval of children's alcohol use, and parental alcohol use with early adolescent alcohol use.

Method: Grade 6 and 8 students (modal age 11 and 13, respectively; N = 6,837; 52.6% female) were recruited from 231 schools across three Australian states. Hypotheses were tested using two-level ordinal logistic regression (individuals nested within schools). The main dependent measure was lifetime frequency of early adolescent alcohol consumption. Independent variables included mother's/father's alcohol use, closeness, conflict, and disapproval of adolescent alcohol use. Control variables included sensation seeking, peer alcohol use, and socioeconomic disadvantage.

Results: The key findings were that for the young age group (Grade 6), emotional closeness to the parent of the opposite sex was protective. Family conflict was associated with females' drinking in both age groups but not males' drinking.

Conclusions: There was evidence of gender differences in the epidemiology of family relationship quality and early alcohol use. Social developmental models may need revision to account for these child gender differences. Gender-specific family dynamics may be an important consideration for family-oriented prevention strategy.

Gender differences in the impact of families on alcohol use : a lagged longitudinal study of early adolescents

Aims From the pre-teen to the mid-teen years, rates of alcohol use and misuse increase rapidly. Cross-sectional research shows that positive family emotional climate (low conflict, high closeness) is protective, and there is emerging evidence that these protective mechanisms are different for girls versus boys. The aim of this study was to explore gender differences in the longitudinal impact of family emotional climate on adolescent alcohol use and exposure to peer drinking networks.

Design Three-wave two-level (individual, within-individual over time) ordinal logistic regression with alcohol use in the past year as the dependent measure and family variables lagged by 1 year.

Setting Adolescents completed surveys during school hours.

Participants A total of 855 Australian students (modal age 10–11 years at baseline) participating in the International Youth Development Study (Victoria, Australia).

Measurements These included emotional closeness to mother/father, family conflict, parent disapproval of alcohol use and peer alcohol use.

Findings For girls, the effect of emotional closeness to mothers on alcohol use was mediated by exposure to high-risk peer networks. Parent disapproval of alcohol use was protective for both genders, but this effect was larger for boys versus girls, and there was no evidence that peer use mediated this effect. Peer drinking networks showed stronger direct risk effects than family variables.

Conclusions Family factors unidirectionally impact on growth in adolescent alcohol use and effects vary with child gender.

Dads doing it tough during partner's pregnancy : busting the blues

Baby blues aren't just about mothers; dads are doing it hard too.

Interparent agreement on the strengths and difficulties questionnaire : a Chinese study

This article reports on the first study to investigate interparent agreement when the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is used to assess school-aged children. It is also the first study conducted in China on agreement between parents reporting on their child. Both parents of 380 girls and 320 boys completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Chinese version). Because reliabilities were poor, the Conduct Problems and Hyperactivity=Inattention subscales were merged to form an Externalizing Problems subscale, and the Peer Problems subscale as an independent variable was omitted from analyses. Consistent with past research, moderate to strong correlations were found between mother and father reports for emotional and behavioral problems, although interparent agreement was better for externalizing problems than internalizing problems for both girls and boys. Mothers reported significantly higher scores than fathers for prosocial behaviors for their sons. Findings suggest that, in general, one parent’s report will be similar to the other’s when the SDQ is used in the form adapted for this study. More work on the psychometric properties of the SDQ is needed in China.

The compositor of the farce of dustiny : Lacan reading, and being read by, Joyce

"We have learnt to see Joyce as Lacan's own symptom," writes Jean-Michel Rabate, "and as the sinthome par excellence" (2006, 26). This duality of Joyce as an unreadable text permeated with enjoyment and at the same time as an enigma that Lacan wants to decipher supplies the key to an understanding of Seminar XXIII. Lacan's addition to the triad of the Real, the Symbolic and the Imaginary of a fourth term, the Sigma (or sinthome) firms up his late shift from the speakingbeing (parletre, the Lacanian neologism that indicates the insertion of the human being into the signifying chain) to MAN (LOM, a Lacanian play on l'homme). Instead of the human being as inserted into the Symbolic Order, Seminar XXIII presents Joyce as inserting himself into language, tying the signifier to the body in a special, unique way. For Lacan, the sinthome is eccentric to the registers of the Real, Symbolic and Imaginary, yet it paradoxically links them when the Name-of- the-Father fails. The implication is carried in the concept of "nomination" that the Name-of-the-Father (or its structural equivalents, such as "Woman," "God" and "Joyce") makes language possible for the individual.

Ecology / economy

This work speaks to ideas of nurturing and embodiment. In one half of the screen we see a father massaging his child with coconut oil, a common practice in Fijian families, and an early investment in the health and spiritual wellbeing of the child. In the next frame we see the other end of the life cycle and an imagined re-enactment of the folding of the Fijian flag, as in the American military tradition for fallen service people. Here Bolatagici refers to the number of Fijians fighting for foreign armies, including the United States.

Sisters of the sun

A film about flows of time and language on the Volcanic Plains of Western Victoria. Directed by Simon Wilmot. Produced by Patrick West & Simon Wilmot. Script by Patrick West.

The past has its place in the future. Wombeetch Puyuun is teaching Scottish-born settler Isabella Dawson his aboriginal tongue so that her father, James Dawson, can write his book. But how can language preserve the past in a land where time overwhelms words? Meanwhile, contemporary Australians from the Volcanic Plains of Victoria’s Western District meditate over life in a place of sheep, algae, eels, lava and stars. Susan Cole and Janice Austin, descendents of Isabella and Wombeetch’s people united for the first time, reflect on Wombeetch’s friendship with James, and what it means to be ‘the last of your tribe.’

The event 'Flows and Catchments' was held at the Warrnambool Art Gallery on 2/12/2012.

Sisters of the Sun has also screened at Lake Bolac Eel Festival (March 2014) and Warnambool Art Gallery (Feb 2013)