End-of-year Writing Retreat

From 4 to 9 December, 18 students from the Australian Centre’s Interdisciplinary Graduate Research Program in Indigenous Settler Relations gathered for a writing retreat at Seacroft Estate on the Great Ocean Road. It was a wonderful 5 days of productiveness, co-working, cohort and community building, workshops and work-in-progress sessions, beach walks, games around the fire in the evenings, and rejuvenating dips in the freezing ocean.

One participant wrote: I got so much out of the writing retreat! The serene location was perfect for getting into the writing zone and having the chance to discuss my work with others and learn from their work really helped to develop my argument. Whenever I needed a break, I went for a long stroll along the beach (which was literally across the road), and the food was amazingly delicious and plenty. I highly recommend attending.

Another student said one of the things they liked best about the Retreat were discussions with people from different disciplines with similar interests and topics. It felt like we were having truly inter-disciplinary conversations. I think the organisers struck a perfect balance of programmed and unprogrammed time and giving us agency to get to know one another of our own accord while also facilitating a collegial atmosphere. I really liked doing the accountability buddy thing because it actually did motivate me to set daily goals and meet them and it was lovely to get to know another person through sharing how we were going with things iteratively.

The album from the 2022 EOY Writing Retreat is available on the Australian Centre’s Facebook page.