Wandering with Intent

This is a rich and enjoyable collection of writings that combines Kim Mahood’s reflections on art and literature with her unique life experiences. Moving between desert and coast, between the sparsely populated remote interior and densely populated cities, the 17 essays make for fascinating reading. Mahood says these pieces are ‘the product of [her] own wandering among the conundrums and contradictions of the cross-cultural world [she’s] chosen to inhabit, and of [her] intent to understand and honour it’. What emerges is the extraordinary wealth that Australian culture contains, and what can be achieved when the very ordinary limitations of unimaginative policies and attitudes are discarded. More than that, the essays reveal a world of poetry and difference, with a treasure trove of literary references acting as counterpoint to the complexity and richness of life in remote communities and in the vastness of Australian deserts.

Within the collection, readers will find Mahood’s 2012 essay ‘Kartiya are like Toyotas’, which became recommended reading for people going to work in remote First Nations communities. Both enlightening and entertaining, it also reads like a metaphor for bureaucratic organisations or government departments. Two other essays about the mythical Night Parrot draw together an intriguing collection of history, Indigenous knowledges and references to other authors and films (from D.H. Lawrence and Dorothy Porter to Penny Olsen’s book Night Parrot and Rob Nugent’s 2016 documentary Night Parrot Stories). Though the essay is ostensibly about man’s obsession (and it does seem to be a white male thing) with finding this mysterious species of bird, Mahood turns it into a meditation on the human psyche.

The titular essay, ‘Wandering with Intent’, and several other pieces also include descriptions of Mahood’s art practice and the many artists she has worked with. Recollections of place and experience merge with descriptions of artistic process to conjure up not only visual imagery but also the depth and breadth of an artist’s life.

Margaret Snowdon is from Readings Carlton