Red and Floral at The Salon

The last week has been intensely busy for me and I have very little to say because of it. Study is consuming all of my non work hours and every moment of it is difficult. I’m writing two essays concurrently. One is on Melanesian workers and their recruitment into the Queensland labour market. It’s an area I knew nothing about before I started taking this particular history subject, which is why I love history. It’s an interesting, but challenging subject. Things I’ve learned in it include: the city of Darwin in the Northern Territory was named after Charles Darwin, the American civil war impacted on Australia’s sugar cane and cotton production, Papua New Guinea is part of the subregion of Melanesia, Australia has a horrible and complicated history of slave labour and indentured labour. That last one may seem very obvious, with the country having been colonised as a penal colony, but learning all the details about it has been really educating. I chose the essay on the indentured labour, slavery and kidnapping that went on to get Melanesian workers for the sugar industry because I knew nothing about it until I took on this subject at uni.

The other essay I’m doing is looking at two texts and the post-humanist challenges they offer with their narratives. One is the graphic novel Maus which tells the story of an Auschwitz survivor in his own words as he told his son. It also covers his son’s struggle to understand and to comprehend what his parents went through in the Holocaust. Jews are drawn as mice, the Polish as pigs, Germans as cats, Americans as dogs. It’s an iconic novel that I highly recommend. The other text is the film Never Let Me Go which has a brilliant cast. It’s the story of 3 children who are clones, raised in a boarding school to become organ doners when they become adults. They are presented much like animals that are farmed for meat, with society having absolutely no consideration for the fact the clones are human too. They fall in love, the hope, they work to put off the inevitable donations that will end their lives. It’s an achingly beautiful film.

Now that I’ve told you all of that I must get back to writing these essays, so here is a little bit about what I’m wearing and this week’s location. I’ve worn this dress before in the first couple of months of taking up fashion blogging. I’ve also worn this sweater and these shoes before, many times. The dress is a favourite of mine that I have been enjoying mixing all different ways this winter. The skirt is nice and thick with many layers so it is easy to pair with some thermals and a jumper. I bought it years ago, so I’m sorry I cannot link you to where you can buy it. Winter has arrived, and made sure everyone knows it! When doing these photos we (my sister and I) avoided an outside location because the wind was bitterly cold. We ended up at The Salon at The Gallery. It’s the coffee shop attached to the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery. They’ve refurbished it with shelves of books and comfy couches, which is nice because with all this cold weather feeling cosy is the best thing.