Digging through history – the making of ‘Underground: Marsupial Outlaws and Other Rebels of Australia’s War in Vietnam’

What does making a historical gaphic novel for five years look like? In this talk Mirranda steps through the making of her book ‘Underground: Marsupial Outlaws and Other Rebels of Australia’s War in Vietnam’. After her extensive interviews with local Melburnians who experienced the war from different perspectives, these stories were woven into a 272 page graphic novel. The talk explores the meeting of people’s memories and the author’s imagination, the technical process, surrendering to new directions, and why looking at history is important for our national and global conversation.

Topics

* Australia’s war in Vietnam 1965–75 *Protest, military service, refugees *Research for graphic story telling *Interviewing people *The power of visual metaphor