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Monthly Archives: July 2020

Read more about the article Language, marketing and racism

Language, marketing and racism

Coon cheese is finished as a brand. The most surprising thing is that it took this long. The brand's owner, Saputo, has decided it will move with the prevailing tide of public opinion and change a name that some have perceived as racist. And while it is certainly true that the name doesn't have racist origins - it was named after famous cheesemaker Edward Coon - the company has evidently opted to take the same line so recently taken by other big food product makers. That is, if the brand-name is upsetting a growing number of…

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Read more about the article The mysterious case of the vanishing “natives”
Doug Lithgow in his study with framed copies of the charts he found in the Hydrographic Office of the British Navy in 2008

The mysterious case of the vanishing “natives”

Doug Lithgow, Freeman of the City of Newcastle, NSW, and noted campaigner for the environment and heritage, can cite many high points in his long life of activism and community involvement. But one of which he is especially proud is his "discovery" of the original hand-drawn map of the mouth of the Hunter River, drawn in 1797 by Lt John Shortland, RN. Actually, the chart wasn't lost. Like much of Newcastle's documentary heritage it was simply kept somewhere other than Newcastle. In this case, the somewhere else was the Hydrographic Office of the British Royal Navy…

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Read more about the article Ones that didn’t get away: people with fish.
Two women with a flathead, probably at Lake Macquarie. Photo by Milton Merrilees.

Ones that didn’t get away: people with fish.

Rummaging around collections of old amateur and family photos and negatives I find certain themes recur. One of these themes is fish and fishing. People love fishing, and taking photos of each other fishing. Personally, I am nobody's idea of a fisherman. You can count the fish I've caught on the fingers of one hand and still have a couple of fingers left over. Fish fingers, probably, since that's more my style than worrying myself with cold winds, tangled lines, smelly marine life and all the rest of the alleged pleasures that accompany the fishing life.…

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