AustLit

'In March 2019, when the call for submissions for this second volume of Sūdō Journal was released, north Queensland had just begun to recover from a deluge of catastrophic proportions. A nation wept as footage of inundated homes, decimated livelihoods and mass graves of drowned livestock were broadcast into its living rooms. Now, as this second volume of the journal reaches publication, it feels as though every other part of the country is caught in a firestorm. Our northern gaze surveys the conflagration with a mixture of pity, horror, and a desire to repay the kindnesses that we experienced less than a year ago. We hope our readers to the south are safe; know that you are in our hearts. How we, as a nation, respond to this disaster will be a test of our character. The hope is that we will come together to face adversity, rather than allowing it to drive us apart as it so often does. We need firebreaks far more than we need the trenches of ideological partisanship.' (Wayne Bradshaw, Introduction)