Conversations with my sister

Negotiating art, love and labour

Featured in

  • Published 20170502
  • ISBN: 9781925498356
  • Extent: 264pp
  • Paperback (234 x 153mm), eBook

ON THE WAY home from Brisbane airport, my older sister Tammy turns to me from the driver’s seat and asks an unexpected question: ‘So, are you going to marry him?’ She says this in a silly voice while pulling a silly face – a mode of speaking we adopted as kids when we wanted to express something serious to each other, like affection or an apology, without having to show vulnerability.

Our family is highly emotional, which happens when most of you have been mentally ill at some point, and Tammy and I have seen what happens when family members allow emotions to get the best of them: from screaming matches so fierce they cause neighbours to drop in to ensure no one’s been murdered, to decades-long grudges that will only be resolved in the afterlife. As the youngest kids in the family, forever observing, we learnt to be silent and mask big feelings with humour, though we always make an effort to be open with each other.

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

If you are an educator or student wishing to access content for study purposes please contact us at griffithreview@griffith.edu.au

Share article

More from author

Good things come in pairs

MemoirONE OF THE first things you notice at a Chinese wedding reception is the Chinese character for ‘double happiness’. Among the swaths of vermillion...

More from this edition

Futurefear

PoetryDriverless Cars Transmogrify Ethics!Galahs spring-grapple from nest to road. AIs Writing Festive Songs!A puff and it is nothing – some down – Will Automation Take Your...

Who owns the future?

EssayTHE FUTURE IS always arriving, in one form or another. There is no no future. It’s an absurdly simple point, like saying that one...

Economic illiterates

EssayTHE YEAR I was born, Paul Keating dropped Australia’s corporate tax rate by ten percentage points. As I started primary school, it dropped six...

Stay up to date with the latest, news, articles and special offers from Griffith Review.