Meanjin’s #MeToo snafu: journal editor apologises, contributors donate fees

Meanjin’s editor has been forced to apologise for a cover which obliterates an indigenous word in favour of the #MeToo hashtag.

The cover of Meanjin that forced its editor to apologise. Picture: Supplied

It’s arguably the most woke literary journal in the country, but Meanjin’s editor, Jonathan Green, has been forced to apologise for the latest cover, which obliterates an indigenous word, in favour of the #MeToo hashtag.

Green, who is also an ABC presenter and former Sunday Age editor, says it was his “blindness” and “carelessness” that resulted in the word Meanjin — an indigenous word for the land upon which Brisbane now sits — on the June cover being crossed out, in order to make way for a hashtag, which in turn promotes an essay by the feminist writer, Clementine Ford.

“I regret it. It’s a reminder of my privilege to not see what now seems so obvious,” Mr Green said yesterday.

Ms Ford, and two other writers whose work appears in the issue, have also apologised for not seeing a problem with the cover when it first went to press and, in acknowledging the “ongoing trauma of whiteness in this country” have pledged to donate their fees to services for indigenous women.

Indigenous writer, Amy McQuire, was among the first to see, and draw attention to the offending cover on Twitter, saying: “Given the destruction of land, cultures and language is fundamentally tied to violence against Aboriginal women … it feels weird to see (the word) Meanjin crossed out in this way.”

Green responded immediately, saying: “I should have seen that … there’s a carelessness there that I didn’t intend.”

He quickly posted a longer note to Meanjin’s website. Such was the traffic, the website momentarily crashed.

“As Amy McQuire and others have pointed out, there is a problem with the cover of Meanjin’s winter edition,” Mr Green wrote.

“This blindness to the subtext of obliterating the word Meanjin with the hashtag #MeToo was mine. I wanted to give the most arresting treatment I could … I was wrong to do it.”

Given the destruction of land, cultures and language is fundamentally tied to violence against Aboriginal women... it feels weird to see Meanjin crossed out in this way. https://t.co/dNstyrEgdW

— Amy McQuire (@amymcquire) June 4, 2018

Mr Green’s apology acknowledged that Meanjin — the Turrbal word, which has been the magazine’s title since its foundation in 1940 — “shouldn’t have been mine to obliterate in a design flourish.”

He added: “Compounding that error was the complex story of the #MeToo movement, a movement created a decade ago by American woman of colour Tarana Burke.

“In Australian context, where violence against indigenous women should be a source of national soul searching, anger and concern, the casual obliteration of a proud indigenous word with the hashtag of a movement dominated latterly by white women was a gesture of unthinking clumsiness.

“I should, therefore, have known better. We work with words: the power of this erasure should not have been lost on us.”

Writer Anna Spargo-Ryan, whose essay is blurbed on the cover, also put a note of remorse out on Twitter, on behalf of herself, and Ms Ford, who is “currently on a Tweet ban, but this statement comes from us jointly.”

Clementine Ford.

Their statement said: “We want to acknowledge the deep hurt caused by the Meanjin cover … we are ashamed to know we didn’t immediately spot the problems.

“This was a massive fail on our part, and it’s simply unacceptable that we have to rely on the work of Aboriginal women to realise this.”

As white women, and writers whose names featured on the cover, they wanted to acknowledge “this is part of ongoing trauma of whiteness in this country.”

Both have decided “not to profit” from the hurt they believed they caused, and will donate their fees to services that assist Aboriginal women.

Writer Harry Saddler, whose work also appears in the June issue, likewise apologised, saying: “I need to hold my hand up & say that in promoting my piece in this issue I also failed to notice the obvious problem with the cover until indigenous people pointed it out. I should have seen it.

He added: “I’ve seen that a couple of contributors to this issue have said they’ll donate the payments for their pieces to indigenous (organisations) and I really wish I could do the same … but I’m having wisdom teeth surgery this month & it’ll cost me $1000, so to be honest I really need the money.”

Indigenous writer Karen Wyld said she was hurt by the “white out” of the Aboriginal word in favour of “white feminism” and asked white women not to contribute ideas for how donations could be spent, saying: “A donation to an Aboriginal women’s organisation has been mentioned as a way of righting a wrong — and random white women are already tweeting suggestions where this money should go. Can you just f?&^g not?”