AustLit

'This issue of the Journal of Australian Studies goes to print at a time when many Australians are questioning a future of climate disruption. The bushfires that continue to burn have sent smoke particles around the globe, choked cities and regional towns, and led to shock, grief and anger at the scale of destruction to Country. As the debate about climate change pivots to reluctant acceptance and the deep divisions over inaction fade, we will likely remember this period as a kind of shared catastrophe and harbinger of change. We humans are agents of change—individually and collectively—some constructive, others less so. Environment, gender, race: each is reinvented, distorted and manipulated, straitjacketing people and land. In this issue, we look to how gender has been subverted, reimagined and repurposed; how literature and art has given voice to alternate imaginings; and how politics remains central in apology.' (Carolyn Holbrook, James Keating, Julie Kimber , Maggie Nolan  & Tom Rogers  : Editorial introduction)