Compass Points: a blueprint for an ecopoetic review of Vanessa Berry's 'Mirror Sydney' as a disabled narrative / reading process by Gemma Mahadeo

*In light of the review I present here, I would like to pay my respects to the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nations, and their elders past, present, and emerging, on whose land I work and live. Sovereignty was never ceded.* COMPASS POINTS: an interactive ecopoetic book review of Vanessa Berry's *Mirror Sydney* This place called Sydney. You may like to think of this your centre and starting point. Go to the [[contents of sorts]] section of this review and note that the sections do not need to be read in any prescribed order. Read as many, or as few sections as you want to.

which classification? [[north: people]] [[north: places]] [[north: timeline]] another direction? [[north]] [[south]] [[east]] [[west]] back to [[introduction]] or back to [[COMPASS POINTS]] [[personal experience of Sydney due to chronic illness & as a British immigrant]] [[the disabled body and navigating space/s]] [[metaphysical compass points and phantom experiences]] [[the dutiful Asian kid goes maths/sci but longs for arts/humanities in high school]] [[introductory classifications]] [[introductory classifications: creators of text]] [[introductory classifications: people mentioned in introduction]] [[introductory classifications: places mentioned in introduction]] [[introductory classifications: timelines in text's introduction]] [[introductory classifications & conclusions of sorts: html resources & further info]]

which classification? [[south: people]] [[south: places]] [[south: timeline]] another direction? [[north]] [[south]] [[east]] [[west]] back to [[introduction]] or back to [[COMPASS POINTS]] [[personal experience of Sydney due to chronic illness & as a British immigrant]] [[the disabled body and navigating space/s]] [[metaphysical compass points and phantom experiences]] [[the dutiful Asian kid goes maths/sci but longs for arts/humanities in high school]] [[introductory classifications]] [[introductory classifications: creators of text]] [[introductory classifications: people mentioned in introduction]] [[introductory classifications: places mentioned in introduction]] [[introductory classifications: timelines in text's introduction]] [[introductory classifications & conclusions of sorts: html resources & further info]]

which classification? [[east: people]] [[east: places]] [[east: timeline]] another direction? [[north]] [[south]] [[east]] [[west]] back to [[introduction]] or back to [[COMPASS POINTS]] [[personal experience of Sydney due to chronic illness & as a British immigrant]] [[the disabled body and navigating space/s]] [[metaphysical compass points and phantom experiences]] [[the dutiful Asian kid goes maths/sci but longs for arts/humanities in high school]] [[introductory classifications]] [[introductory classifications: creators of text]] [[introductory classifications: people mentioned in introduction]] [[introductory classifications: places mentioned in introduction]] [[introductory classifications: timelines in text's introduction]] [[introductory classifications & conclusions of sorts: html resources & further info]]

which classification? [[west: people]] [[west: places]] [[west: timeline]] another direction? [[north]] [[south]] [[east]] [[west]] back to [[introduction]] or back to [[COMPASS POINTS]] [[personal experience of Sydney due to chronic illness & as a British immigrant]] [[the disabled body and navigating space/s]] [[metaphysical compass points and phantom experiences]] [[the dutiful Asian kid goes maths/sci but longs for arts/humanities in high school]] [[introductory classifications]] [[introductory classifications: creators of text]] [[introductory classifications: people mentioned in introduction]] [[introductory classifications: places mentioned in introduction]] [[introductory classifications: timelines in text's introduction]] [[introductory classifications & conclusions of sorts: html resources & further info]]

Darug and Guringai People Captain Cook author (Vanessa Berry) author's grandfather author's sister Victor Cusack The Hard-Ons (band) Savage Cabbage (band) elderly couple two teenage female buskers shop assistant looking at smartphone [[north: places]] [[north: timeline]] [[north]] [[south]] [[east]] [[west]] back to [[introduction]] or back to [[COMPASS POINTS]]

Pacific Highway Hornsby Shire (plaque commemorating Capt. Cook’s discovery of east coast of Australia) NorthConnex motorway Jersey Street Florence Street Coronation Street train station bridge gorge quarry train station bridge ‘Asian Market’ AMF bowling alley Danny’s Patisserie Discovery Records Kmart Face restaurant Forbes Footwear Florence Street Mall Mix Up Music Odeon Cinema Police Citizens Youth Club Stomp Cafe Wrigleys Factory [[north: people]] [[north: timeline]] [[north]] [[south]] [[east]] [[west]] back to [[introduction]] or back to [[COMPASS POINTS]]

200 million years ago - blue metal from rock formed after volcanic eruption 1850s - Pyrmont: three quarries (Paradise, Purgatory, Hellhole) 1950s - CWA tearoom 1960s onwards - Westfield shopping centre 1970 - fountain 1993 - water clock; ‘Rock Around The Clock’ event [[north: people]] [[north: places]] [[north]] [[south]] [[east]] [[west]] back to [[introduction]] or back to [[COMPASS POINTS]]

Joan Sutherland Shakespearian actors Neil Diamond Walter Benjamin author as child, author as teenager sandwich consumers arcade shortcut/thoroughfare pedestrians Nicholas Kepreotis customer queue (Wool Inn) woman with two children inspecting sugar paste roses scruffy boys waiting for haircuts (Rod’s Hair Shoppe) woman having hair braided (Afro Varieties Salon) haircut apprentices (Active Career College) [[west: places]] [[west: timeline]] [[north]] [[south]] [[east]] [[west]] back to [[introduction]] or back to [[COMPASS POINTS]]

Penrith Greater Sydney Nepean River Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre Panthers World of Entertainment Parramatta Blacktown drive-in cinema Wet-n-Wild water park Arnotts factory Seven Hills (Superman, fields, bulldozers) Featherdale Wildlife Park Rooty Hill RSL (pre-2003 nicknamed ‘Vegas of the West’) Westfield mall High Street shops: op shops, party supplies, hobbies, new-age, bargains, independent retailers seventeen shopping arcades (1960s, 1970s) Parisian arcades Nazi-occupied France Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris 1920s High Street - tearooms, barbers, bakeries, estate agencies 1950s movie theatre, Greek milk bars, electrical stores 1970s arcades Memory Mall Woodriff Street sandwich shops and barbers Memory Park war memorial 1980s arcade memories evoke extended domesticity Nepean Walkway tobacconist and funeral parlour Lorraine’s hand made baby’s wear and pretty doll shop Maxim’s hair salon The Cottage Lane Floraison Design Power of Beauty Devine Creations Prima Ballerina ballet shop Behind the Mask Fancy Dress store New Age store NK Centre; milk bar & greengrocer; car park One Stop Cake Decorations shop Wool Inn haberdashery shop Nepean Pizzas and Charcoals Elizabeth Arcade Broadwalk Arcade Calokerinos Arcade Elizabeth Arcade bookstore Rod’s Hair Shoppe Jon’s Salon Male Look Hairdressing Man About Town Gents Hair Stylist Cherie Hair Fashions Pamela Hair Boutique Central City Arcade Afro Varieties Salon Parker Arcade Active Career College upstairs solicitors’ offices Station Street Penrith Centre Skiptons Arcade real estate coaching business guitar school City Centre Arcade guitar school Riverlands arcade, car park and hobby store Quilt Shop Hair Fanatics The Shoe Shed Bish’s One Stop Bowls Shop Derby Skates Westfield (formerly Penrith Plaza) Reuben F. Scarf Hand Tailored Suits Allen Arcade Henry Street Henry Street Arcade Shiptons Polly’s Bead Shop [[west: people]] [[west: timeline]] [[north]] [[south]] [[east]] [[west]] back to [[introduction]] or back to [[COMPASS POINTS]]

1800s: Parisian arcades and Victorian-era arcades come into existence 1920s: German philosopher Walter Benjamin begins his work *Passagenwerk* (‘Arcades Project’ documenting Parisian arcades of his in decline; Penrith’s High Street sees tearoom, barbers, bakeries, and estate agencies appear 1940s: Walter Benjamin takes his own life after unsuccessful attempt to flee Nazi-occupied France post-WWII: Benjamin’s manuscript hidden away in Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris 1950s: Greek milk bars, electrical stores and a movie theatre appear in Penrith 1960s-1970s: Penrith shopping arcades appear on High Street; Lorraine’s shop displays beauty guides in shop window from this time; Elizabeth Arcade bookshop has selection suggesting that many households had *Encyclopedia Brittanica* in the 1970s 1980s: Berry begins to have lived experience with arcades as extensions of public and private spaces, which continues into her teenage years; Lorraine’s shop displays 1970s beauty guides in shop window 1982: collection of Benjamin’s work is published 2003: advertising laws ban ‘Vegas’ mention in regards to the Rooty Hill RSL and its sign proclaiming it the ‘Vegas of the West’ 2010s: scruffy boys sit waiting for haircuts in Rod’s Hair Shoppe; a woman patiently has hair braided a few doors down at Afro Varieties Salon [[west: people]] [[west: places]] [[north]] [[south]] [[east]] [[west]] back to [[introduction]] or back to [[COMPASS POINTS]]

Aboriginal Sydney clans Gweagal people Cammeraygal people Wangal people Gadigal people Dharawal people Cooman (Gweagal man shot by Cook’s 1770 landing party) airplane passengers author and friends in their twenties ‘Golden Coin Sale’ stallholder National Parks workers Captain Cook schoolchildren on excursions Queen (Elizabeth II) Sydney University students King George III Arthur Phillip teenagers playing boules Russian-speaking family celebrating a birthday deep sea divers 19th-century gentleman shooting parties Juanita Nielsen Marianne Schmidt Christine Sharrock surfers cliff house dwellers Depression shack community Bert Adamson residents murder victims criminals [[south: places]] [[south: timeline]] [[north]] [[south]] [[east]] [[west]] back to [[introduction]] or back to [[COMPASS POINTS]]

Cunnel / Kurnell Dharawal country Kamay /Botany Bay Silver Beach Wanda Beach Captain Cook Drive Prince Charles Parade Stingray Bay Potter Point Towra Point Voodoo Cronulla Greenhills Beach Princes Highway Port Jackson coastal bushland industrial sites wastewater treatment plant sand mine nature reserve Caltex oil refinery Caltex wharf petrol station, playground, tennis court 1950s cottages crocodile owner’s suburban home waterways Cook’s landing place & obelisk La Perouse ‘Mad Max’ dunes / filming location desalination plant Bert Adamson’s house [[south: people]] [[south: timeline]] [[north]] [[south]] [[east]] [[west]] back to [[introduction]] or back to [[COMPASS POINTS]]

1770: Captain Cook’s landing party on land; Cooman, a Gweagal man is shot by party. His shield was taken and its return is sought from the British Museum. 1788: Arthur Philip chooses Port Jackson for penal settlement over Botany Bay 1870: obelisk to mark Cook’s landing erected bearing words ‘Warra warra wai’ (‘go away’ as spoken by Gweagal people to Cook and his crew) 1920s: Bert Adamson builds his cliff house 1920s-1940s: Depression shack communities established 1950s: Caltex oil refinery in operation; grid of the suburb’s streets lined with cottages from same time; road into Kurnell built with refinery 1965: murdered teenage friends Marianne Schmidt and Christine Sharrock found behind Wanda Beach - investigations remain unsolved 1970: reenactment of Cook’s landing with Queen of England in attendance, upstaged by Sydney University students speedboating; Aboriginal people throw wreathes in mourning ceremony to acknowledge dispossession of their land (many Sydney clans calling the area home for thousands of years) 1974: Bert Adamson’s cliff house is destroyed by vandalism and fire 1975: disappearance and presumed murder of Juanita Nielsen late 1970s to mid-1980s: Mad Max film franchise filmed in sand dunes 1980s: dunes filled with abandoned, vandalised, broken-down cars 2000s: author and her friends do midnight drives to Kurnell 2007: desalination plant constructed, and remains of victims of unsolved murders found 2010s: several-storey homes with porticos and double garages begin replacing the 1950s cottages 2014: refinery closed/downgraded to fuel import and storage May to August, annually: whales head north August to September, annually: whales head south [[south: people]] [[south: places]] [[north]] [[south]] [[east]] [[west]] back to [[introduction]] or back to [[COMPASS POINTS]]

Birrabirragal people Cora Gooseberry, Queen of Sydney and Botany Cora Gooseberry’s father Aboriginal clans meeting British Miss Bury H.A. B. A.N.W. Caspar David Friedrich boys on bicycles people dashing between traffic Sydney’s first immigrants tourists by boat and airplane men in suits women in white dresses people committing suicide at cliffside Don Ritchie ‘Angel of the Gap’ hundreds of people who wanted to attempt suicide at the cliffside beachgoers with towels on shoulders Tony Abbott tourists whalers military British Prime Minister George French Angas white invaders (as sea monsters, as described by Cora Gooseberry’s father) early British settlers nudist beachgoers walkers-by smoking men in uniform 122 people who died in Dunbar disaster (many labelled wealthy Sydney residents returning from a London holiday) James Johnson, sole Dunbar survivor and deckhand, eventual lighthouse keeper Icelandic apprentice watchmaker and Johnson’s rescuer Steph (engraved into padlocks by lover proposing) women wearing bikinis eating strawberries previous visitors to naval base (as evidenced by initials carved) Annette Kellerman, professional swimmer nineteenth-centure female bathers men protesting mandatory bathing skirts retired-looking couple with matching outfits woman tracing something in wet sand with stick man attempting to take photograph beach strollers sunbathers [[east: places]] [[east: timeline]] [[north]] [[south]] [[east]] [[west]] back to [[introduction]] or back to [[COMPASS POINTS]]

Barraory Central Station Coogee Devonshire Street Cemetary George Street Leichhardt Mackenzie Street Martin Place North Head Parramatta Road quarantine station South Head South Reef Sydney Harbour Sydney Heads Watsons Bay Barracluff ostrich farm, Diamond Bay The Gap Gap Park Double Bay Rose Bay Camp Cove Cliff Street Hawkesbury Lady Bay Hornby Lighthouse South Head lighthouse Bondi Beach Coogee Aquarium South Head’s eastern cliffs, ocean and camera obscura HMAS Watson [[east: people]] [[east: timeline]] [[north]] [[south]] [[east]] [[west]] back to [[introduction]] or back to [[COMPASS POINTS]]

6000 years ago: Birrabirragal people live and fish in what is known as Camp Cove; Barraory (South Head) indicates presence of whales, kangaroos, fish, and its peoples Triassic Period to 1788: 220 million years of history under which Hawkesbury sandstone forms from accumulated layers of sediment 21 January 1788: the aforementioned areas divided up by invading peoples 1833: prohibition of ‘daylight bathing’ in Sydney beaches 1840s: displaced Aboriginal harbour clans and Cora Gooseberry (Queen of Sydney and Botany) camp in South Head; descriptions of British invaders begin to be recorded 1857: Dunbar passenger ship disaster 1900s: H.A.B. writes a postcard to Miss Bury, Sydney under constant expansion; Australia becomes a federation 1903: 1833 law repealed 1907: mandatory for men to wear bathing skirts leads to protests 1910: close-fitting costumes outdoor swimming called ‘Kellermans’ designed and worn by beachgoers (one-piece close-fitting costume that resembles today’s swimsuits) 1950s: people no longer solely relying on the Heads to enter Sydney with advent of air travel [[east: people]] [[east: places]] [[north]] [[south]] [[east]] [[west]] back to [[introduction]] or back to [[COMPASS POINTS]]

It was my hope to revisit Sydney as a tourist before completing this review, because though I have been to it, illness-induced memory loss means I am only certain of the fact that I’ve visited it, but cannot really recall details of my time there. All I really remember is that it was unbearably hot and humid, and that it seemed ‘slicker’ than Melbourne. I feel at home in north of the Yarra because life feels a little more scruffier, and this strikes me as odd as someone who was born south of the Thames, in London. This is pertinent because waterways shape humans adopting the dwellings they choose (1970s south London is historically categorised as being very working-class, with a large multicultural community). Waterways are also an important part of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders' identity and heritage. [[introduction]] [[the disabled body and navigating space/s]] [[metaphysical compass points and phantom experiences]] [[the dutiful Asian kid goes maths/sci but longs for arts/humanities in high school]] [[introductory classifications]] [[north]] [[south]] [[east]] [[west]]

I had a few approaches I wanted to take in regards to reviewing it. I’d recently finished her *Ninety 9* and *Strawberry Hills Forever*. Because Berry is so good at articulating what she wanted *Mirror Sydney* to be and do, I too wanted to try a different approach in reviewing it. The illustrations are beautiful, and so detailed, take into account old and new versions of places that have existed in Sydney, sometimes as long as it has been a city, and sometimes before. [[personal experience of Sydney due to chronic illness & as a British immigrant]] [[the disabled body and navigating space/s]] [[metaphysical compass points and phantom experiences]] [[the dutiful Asian kid goes maths/sci but longs for arts/humanities in high school]] [[introductory classifications]] [[north]] [[south]] [[east]] [[west]]

I’ve also been thinking a lot of about the disabled body, and its navigation of space. In the week I began writing this, I attended a talk at ACMI chaired by disability activist Carly Findlay, and afterwards, a few of us gathered for dinner. One of the panellists, Kate Hood, was unable to use a low-floor tram to travel to our dinner destination because the gap between the accessible platform and tram was engineered in a way that it was assumed that a (manual) wheelchair user would be ‘wheeled back’ onto the tram by a companion. This is deeply disappointing, given that nearly 20% of the Australian population identify as living with a disability. Another panellist, Alistair Baldwin joked that screenwriting students would be excellent at writing the descriptions of visual media that can be read for those with visual impairments. I also offered that poets would be excellent at this too. You'll note that this review deliberately does not have any audio-visual media. I'm privileged to call Carly my friend, as she has also introduced me to the social model of disability when I often confess that because I am physically able, it feels like dishonest to claim to have a disability. [[introduction]] [[personal experience of Sydney due to chronic illness & as a British immigrant]] [[metaphysical compass points and phantom experiences]] [[the dutiful Asian kid goes maths/sci but longs for arts/humanities in high school]] [[introductory classifications]] [[north]] [[south]] [[east]] [[west]]

This review is a bit of an experiment and a document - I identify as living with a disability though my illness is not obvious when I am in public. I still struggle to think of myself as a disabled person, because of ableist conditioning - yet, these last few weeks, my capacity to live, eat, sleep and enjoy life have meant that I cannot do as much work I would like to. What I offer here, is the blueprint of how I would have liked to review *Mirror Sydney* by categorising each of its ‘compass points’ chapters. My aim is to eventually review, rewrite, and reimagine each chapter in the method I'll outline below. I also love the possibilities of this software called Twine to tell queer, decolonised, intersectional, disabled perspectives because it is a very tangible way to tell narratives that do not follow linear trajectories. It isn't mentioned much in the 'Compass Points' chapters of *Mirror Sydney*, though Berry does mention she has chronic fatigue syndrome. It's also not discussed at length in her in *Ninety 9* and *Strawberry Hills Forever*. Does her meticulousness and storytelling shape her output? It would be wonderful to explore this one day, if she would consent to sharing that narrative with us, her readers. She may already have done this in her zine output. As a latecomer to her work with no exposure to her zines, this may indeed be the case. Her encyclopedic knowledge and documentation also makes me wonder if it's one of the reasons she rarely mentions holidays abroad. I've also spent most of my life in Melbourne, and after twenty years of driving, do know a lot of its shortcuts and tricky ways to avoid peak hour traffic. I also cannot afford to travel overseas. This is something I don't really mind because it has allowed me to notice changes and nuances in Melbourne that many of my lucky travel-bug friends might miss - they're nothing major, but there is a security in such intimate knowledge of a city, its suburbs, its transport infrastructure, its outdated shops and new, sleek-lined apartments. [[introduction]] [[personal experience of Sydney due to chronic illness & as a British immigrant]] [[the disabled body and navigating space/s]] [[the dutiful Asian kid goes maths/sci but longs for arts/humanities in high school]] [[introductory classifications]] [[north]] [[south]] [[east]] [[west]]

In Year 7 or 8 at my high school, there was a subject called ‘People, Places, and Time’ which was a semester-long mishmash of history and geography. What will follow is the classification and reduction of the introduction and the four compass points according to these three markers. Whilst reading these, if you are a person with no direct lived experience of disability, I encourage you to construct impressions of these places using only the information given. Please don't mistake the subject or this suggested blueprint as being simplistic - it feels inclusive in a way as to provoke curiosity in a human just starting secondary education (an enormous privilege in itself - I went to a private Catholic co-ed high school), and by embracing 'people, places, and time' here, I want to reconnect to that curiosity without some of the prejudices I, and many others, now face as grown adults. I also see its potential in telling decolonised narratives, though for here, and Berry's book, it's a microhistory from the primary text creator's viewpoint. [[introduction]] [[personal experience of Sydney due to chronic illness & as a British immigrant]] [[the disabled body and navigating space/s]] [[metaphysical compass points and phantom experiences]] [[introductory classifications]] [[north]] [[south]] [[east]] [[west]]

[[introductory classifications: creators of text]] [[introductory classifications: people mentioned in introduction]] [[introductory classifications: places mentioned in introduction]] [[introductory classifications: timelines in text's introduction]] [[introductory classifications & conclusions of sorts: html resources & further info]] back to [[introductory classifications]] or back to [[COMPASS POINTS]] [[north]] [[north: people]] [[north: places]] [[north: timeline]] [[south]] [[south: people]] [[south: places]] [[south: timeline]] [[east]] [[east: people]] [[east: places]] [[east: timeline]] [[west]] [[west: people]] [[west: places]] [[west: timeline]]

Vanessa Berry Harry Williamson Andrew Davies Western Sydney University / Giramondo Publishing Company / Artarmon Everbest Printing Co. / NewSouth Books Allison Colpoys Simon Yates Delia Falconer Luc Sante Ross Gibson [[introductory classifications: creators of text]] [[introductory classifications: people mentioned in introduction]] [[introductory classifications: places mentioned in introduction]] [[introductory classifications: timelines in text's introduction]] [[introductory classifications & conclusions of sorts: html resources & further info]] back to [[introductory classifications]] or back to [[COMPASS POINTS]] [[north]] [[north: people]] [[north: places]] [[north: timeline]] [[south]] [[south: people]] [[south: places]] [[south: timeline]] [[east]] [[east: people]] [[east: places]] [[east: timeline]] [[west]] [[west: people]] [[west: places]] [[west: timeline]]

Gadigal a British politician Situationists Eugene Atget Italo Calvino Joseph Mitchell Ruth Park Robert Walser Virginia Woolf Berrys (listed in phonebook) / Sydney (grandmother, grandfather, father, mother) [[introductory classifications: creators of text]] [[introductory classifications: people mentioned in introduction]] [[introductory classifications: places mentioned in introduction]] [[introductory classifications: timelines in text's introduction]] [[introductory classifications & conclusions of sorts: html resources & further info]] back to [[introductory classifications]] or back to [[COMPASS POINTS]] [[north]] [[north: people]] [[north: places]] [[north: timeline]] [[south]] [[south: people]] [[south: places]] [[south: timeline]] [[east]] [[east: people]] [[east: places]] [[east: timeline]] [[west]] [[west: people]] [[west: places]] [[west: timeline]]

Me-mil Warrane Artarmon Asquith Berala Bonnyrigg Camperdown Cremorne Croydon Ermington Galston Gordon Lidcombe Miller’s Point North Sydney Sans Souci Waterloo Willoughby Goat Island Great Synagogue Hallstrom Park Comic Kingdom A&R plastics transmission tower ABC TV transmission towers Wrigley’s factory water reservoir AMP Building m Harbour Bridge m Australia Square Opera House St Vincent de Paul op shops Red Eye Records Tank Stream Arcade Pitt Street Mall Sydney Cove Sydney Harbour Sydney Tower Sydney Town Hall St Mary’s Cathedral Martin Place Liverpool Street Victoria Road Bradfield Highway Venice, Italy New York, USA London, England [[introductory classifications: creators of text]] [[introductory classifications: people mentioned in introduction]] [[introductory classifications: places mentioned in introduction]] [[introductory classifications: timelines in text's introduction]] [[introductory classifications & conclusions of sorts: html resources & further info]] back to [[introductory classifications]] or back to [[COMPASS POINTS]] [[north]] [[north: people]] [[north: places]] [[north: timeline]] [[south]] [[south: people]] [[south: places]] [[south: timeline]] [[east]] [[east: people]] [[east: places]] [[east: timeline]] [[west]] [[west: people]] [[west: places]] [[west: timeline]]

1788 WWII England 1920s Hong Kong - Armistice Day / River Calder, West Yorkshire 1930s Shanghai 1960s Paris 1960s 1970s 1980s 2012 (blog) [[introductory classifications: creators of text]] [[introductory classifications: people mentioned in introduction]] [[introductory classifications: places mentioned in introduction]] [[introductory classifications: timelines in text's introduction]] [[introductory classifications & conclusions of sorts: html resources & further info]] back to [[introductory classifications]] or back to [[COMPASS POINTS]] [[north]] [[north: people]] [[north: places]] [[north: timeline]] [[south]] [[south: people]] [[south: places]] [[south: timeline]] [[east]] [[east: people]] [[east: places]] [[east: timeline]] [[west]] [[west: people]] [[west: places]] [[west: timeline]]

I consulted the following URLs in writing this review: https://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/national-inquiry-employment-and-disability-issues-paper-1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sydney_suburbs https://www.acmi.net.au/events/mainstreaming-disability/ http://www.eorapeople.com.au/places/ https://checkpoint.org.au/video-game-grounding-exercises/ https://www.theliftedbrow.com/liftedbrow/2017/12/7/an-atlas-of-reflections-a-review-in-hypertext-of-vanessa-berrys-mirror-sydney I also read Vanessa Berry's *Strawberry Hills Forever*, published by Local Publications Press, 2007 & *Ninety 9*, published by Giramondo Press, 2013. My thanks to Tegan Elizabeth Webb and Trevor Crowe for helping me with their knowledge of *Twine* and of Sydney and Berry's works respectively. [[introductory classifications: creators of text]] [[introductory classifications: people mentioned in introduction]] [[introductory classifications: places mentioned in introduction]] [[introductory classifications: timelines in text's introduction]] [[introductory classifications & conclusions of sorts: html resources & further info]] back to [[introductory classifications]] or back to [[COMPASS POINTS]] miniature personal note which you're welcome to read, but not essential to the review [[conclusion: where do we go from here]]

*postscript:* (from checkpoint.org.au) Re-orient yourself in place and time by asking yourself these questions: 1. Where am I? 2. What is today? 3. What is the date? 4. What is the month? 5. What is the year? 6. How old am I? 7. What season is it? I invite the reader of this review to consider that their 'map' is just as valid as anyone else's, and to consider the privileges and prejudices we face as shaping our experience and navigation of place and space. Ideally, I would love to be able to entirely render Berry's *Mirror Sydney* by using this *Twine* interface, especially as I feel it would be so valuable to those who cannot physically travel/move through her Sydney, and also be of use to those with visual impairments/who rely on speech-to-text descriptors. If this is something you feel you would be interested in, please feel free to get in touch with me at gem @ eatdrinkstagger dot com. **I would like to pay my respects to the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nations, and their elders past, present, and emerging, on whose land I work and live. Sovereignty was never ceded.**

To use this compass, click on any of the subject headings, or skip down to the direction words at the bottom. This section lists subsections that you might like to read, but again, only if you want to. [[introduction]] [[personal experience of Sydney due to chronic illness & as a British immigrant]] [[the disabled body and navigating space/s]] [[metaphysical compass points and phantom experiences]] [[the dutiful Asian kid goes maths/sci but longs for arts/humanities in high school]] [[introductory classifications]] [[introductory classifications: creators of text]] [[introductory classifications: people mentioned in introduction]] [[introductory classifications: places mentioned in introduction]] [[introductory classifications: timelines in text's introduction]] [[introductory classifications & conclusions of sorts: html resources & further info]] which direction now? [[north]] [[north: people]] [[north: places]] [[north: timeline]] [[south]] [[south: people]] [[south: places]] [[south: timeline]] [[east]] [[east: people]] [[east: places]] [[east: timeline]] [[west]] [[west: people]] [[west: places]] [[west: timeline]]

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In light of the review I present here, I would like to pay my respects to the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nations, and their elders past, present, and emerging, on whose land I work and live. Sovereignty was never ceded.

COMPASS POINTS:

an interactive ecopoetic book review of Vanessa Berry's Mirror Sydney

This place called Sydney. You may like to think of this your centre and starting point. Go to the

contents of sorts

section of this review and note that the sections do not need to be read in any prescribed order.

Read as many, or as few sections as you want to.