Mykaela Saunders imagines the future of Tweed in acclaimed debut

MYKAELA Saunders’ debut short story collection Always Will Be has been shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards in fiction, placing her alongside some of the country’s best-known authors including Tim Winton.

Winton won his first prize the year she was born in 1984, a fact Saunders still finds surreal.

“I had to study his books in high school so this is absolutely wild to me,” she said.

Also on the list is Fiona McFarlane, who once taught Saunders in a university writing class where she drafted the first story that would later appear in the collection.

To now be named alongside her former teacher, as well as Michelle de Kretser and Emily Maguire, still feels “absurd, but in a good way.”

But for Saunders, the most important recognition has come closer to home.

“I wrote the book for my community,” she said.

“And everyone who has read it has told me that they loved it and that’s all I wanted. Literary prizes are great but who I want to read and like my book are the people in my community.”

Always Will Be imagines the Tweed in many futures, from being submerged under water to frozen in ice, reshaped by climate catastrophe or revitalised through Goori sovereignty.

“All of the stories are set in the future in Tweed but each of the stories is a different version of the future,” Saunders said.

“Some of those futures could be tomorrow or in a few years and it goes on into more far-out and far-flung kinds of worlds. We have a Tweed that is underwater, a Tweed that is frozen, a Tweed where a fascist has taken power.”

The idea came in 2015, when Saunders went to see Mad Max: Fury Road.

 

She loved the spectacle but couldn’t ignore what was missing.

“I realised that in the whole franchise there were no living Aboriginal characters and I thought well why can’t I write my own stories and centre my community,” she said.

Not just one or two characters, but whole communities.

That determination runs through every story in the collection.

“The only way those futures are going to be asserted is through sovereignty and so all of the stories assert some kind of sovereignty,” she said.

“Whether that is sovereignty over our ceremonies, or education, or land. I just wanted to explore all of that because there hasn’t been a lot of it written by our own people.”

While some of the stories are playful or funny, the writing is also infused with grief.

Saunders spoke of losing people young, of suicide and old people dying before their time, and of the climate anxiety that weighs on everyone.

“Even though many of the stories are pretty fun and some of them are funny, there’s a lot of real grief and anxiety in there. Some of that is personal but a lot of it is communal, especially when we’re looking at climate change and the effects of bizarre weather events on our people.”

Her years working in education and community work also shaped how she writes.

“When I’m writing stories I am writing communities of characters like constellations of people who are in relationship to each other,” she said.

 

“Growing up in the Tweed community, such a strong incredibly supportive beautiful community that I love with all my heart, I was taught by the best. I was taught how to be a good community person because I had the best role models.”

Asked what she hopes the Tweed will look like in a hundred years, Saunders gave a simple answer.

“First and foremost the community will still be there, living on country in community and in culture,” she said.

“I hope there are still fish in the water. I hope there are still birds in the trees. I hope there are still trees for the birds.”

Saunders believes the Northern Rivers community has a resilience that will carry it through.

“I see how people band together when there are climate catastrophes like the recent floods and how people always look out for each other. That’s a really positive thing and something to draw strength from.”

For now, she is happy to take in the moment.

“I’m just really happy and really proud to come from the Tweed,” she said.

“It’s an absolute honour to be on that list with all those other storytellers. It’s pretty mind blowing to think that more and more people read this book outside of the community.”

Always Will Be, the debut short story collection by Mykaela Saunders.