Melissa Watts

Acknowledgement of Country

I am a writer living and working on Wadawurrung Country.

I gratefully acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land, water and culture, the Wadawurrung People. I recognise their continuing custodianship of the land, water and culture. I recognise that I, and my children, benefit from this custodianship.

I pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging and extend this to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People.

I recognise that sovereignty has never been ceded. I recognise that dispossession and genocide is part of Australia’s history, and its impact is present today.

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Tonight we went to the rally. All five of us. And when the stories got too much for my children we took them for a walk. We've been talking about violence against women in our house for many years in age appropriate ways. But these last few months it's been inescapable in our community. Our own patterns of behaviour have changed - I mean this as a response to feeling unsafe on our streets and attending searches for missing members of our community, watching helicopters overhead and wishing for positive outcomes.

We have a little (actually very large) buddy who hangs out in our fig tree every night. It's not so great for our fig harvest, and I suspect our quince may have been eaten too, but we are loving our little pal. So far they have been alone so it all feels very subversive... Where is the rest of the colony? Is this a mum having a bit of alone time? A grandpa unwilling to give up his stash? Will the rest of the family eventually follow?

This International Women's Day I walked the tracks from my home for the first time since February 5.

Just started this (I know I'm late to the party). In tears in the prologue, bawling by page 5 😭.