The AISN Book Club remains one of the AISN’s key internal activities and a central aspect of the firm’s commitment to celebrating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and histories. Over the course of 2022, the AISN has held four sessions of the Book Club, each centring on texts by Indigenous authors.
This year, the AISN Book Club has read, and discussed, the following texts by Indigenous authors:
Two of the four texts were collections of short stories, rather than full length texts; this was well-received by participants. The collections of short stories allowed participants to engage with a number of different voices (in the case of Flock). Selecting a few stories to read and discuss also made book club more accessible for many. The AISN intends to continue to further expand the mediums selected (films, pays, poetry etc), with the view to continuing to encourage participation and broaden the scope of Indigenous work that the Book Club supports.
The AISN Book Club has made two key changes to the usual model in 2022/23 to align with the Statement of Commitment.
- For meetings of the Book Club, we have sourced beverages and snacks from Indigenous-owned businesses, in line with our procurement commitments. We have purchased snacks from Mabu Mabu and Bunji Catering. We have also purchased craft beers from Henry Street Brewhouse, wines from Mt Yengo wines, and Sobah beers.
- In the latter half of 2022, the AISN Book Club moved towards sourcing copies of the chosen text from Indigenous-owned booksellers or, alternatively, from sources that generate the most benefit for the author or creator.
There has been strong attendance at Book Club meetings this year. On average, 20 people expressed interest in attending each meeting of the book club in 2022 (though not all attended, and attendances were not always specifically recorded). In 2023, the AISN Book Club will implement a formal method of recording attendance for reporting purposes. Attendance so far has included both AISN members and non-members, and in the July meeting of the Book Club included four seasonal clerks.
Caroline Conan-Davies, 2022 Seasonal Clerk, provided the following reflection:
On Wednesday evening I attended the AISN Book Club event at Arnold Bloch Leibler. The chosen book was ‘Flock: First Nations Stories Then and Now’, a collection of short stories curated by Ellen van Neerven that roams the landscape of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander storytelling. We reflected together on the layers of meaning that we encountered and were invited to share any personal insight or impact that we had felt reading the stories. It was great to genuinely connect with new people at the firm and share our thoughts over the delicious Torres Strait catering from Mabu Mabu. I purchased a copy of the book to share with my sister to continue the conversation and further extend the evening’s impact. As a seasonal clerk, I am so grateful to have been invited to be a part of the book club and look forward to more opportunities with the AISN.