Reading inspired by Undercurrent by Peta Clancy

How to make a basket by Jazz Money

How To Make a Basket is a poetry collection that is both deeply personal and political. This poetry collection examines the violence and tensions of colonialism, while celebrating love and connection. Money explores ways that places and bodies hold memory, and how we connect to ancestors, history and Country.  

This All Come Back Now: an anthology of First Nations speculative fiction

This All Come Back Now is an exciting collection of First Nations speculative fiction. This collection uses elements from past histories to imagine science fiction futures or explore alternate worlds. The stories in this book often innovative and unusual, celebrating communities and culture. It's a love letter to kin and country, to memory and future-thinking. 

Collective movements: First Nations collectives, collaborations and creative practices from across Victoria.  

Collective Movements includes artworks and essays from a Victoria wide project, documenting ways that collectivity and collaboration are integral to First Nations art practices. This exciting book includes a huge range of art, writing, theater, dance and performance, all through the lens of collaboration.

This book hammers home the ways that collectivity and community are deeply entwined in First Nations art making and creativity. 

Heat and Light by Ellen van Neerven 

Heat and Light is a mythical and mystical novel by Ellen van Neerven. This novel is comprised of a series of interconnected short stories following a family spanning three generations, imagining how our past connects and affects our futures.

The book moves between a traditional family saga to a mysterious and mystical future, incorporating humor and whit to examine our present.  

65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art 

This collection documents the exhibition of the same name held in Melbourne in 2025. The artworks include celebrate the brilliance and diversity of First Nations art, while confronting Australia’s colonial history.

This publication features writing from 25 leading thinkers across generations and disciplines, as well as showing artworks from the exhibition, celebrating and delving into the histories of First Nations art.  

Firelight by John Morrisey 

Also available as an eBook (Borrowbox)

Firelight is a speculative and dream-like series of short stories by John Morrissey. The stories use fantastical, mysterious or satirical elements to investigate colonialism and identity, while foregrounding the humanity and sensibility of the characters. Firelight is weird and subtle with a science fiction twist.  

Big Sky by Bruce Pascoe and Ray Norris 

Big Sky merges indigenous knowledges of the sky and cosmos with contemporary astrophysics. Pascoe and Norris discuss how these ways of knowing overlap, interweave and bring our skies alive.  This book highlights the ways that humans have always looked to the stars to make meaning and sense of life here on Earth.   

Marramarra: Indigenous artists making history visible   

This book traces indigenous artists and artworks from all around the world. Marramarra explores how indigenous artists and their communities use their art as a truth telling medium, revealing hidden histories.

These artworks aim to trace pathways to a healing future by providing insights into memory and history, as well as tracking the effects of colonialism on these stories.