Friday, 14 July 2023
PHIVE, Parramatta
Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC

Thank you, Michael[1]; and thank you, Aditya[2] for that wonderful reading.

I too acknowledge the Dharug, Traditional Owners of this land and pay my respects to their Elders, past, present, and future. I extend that respect to the Elders from all parts of country from which you have travelled. In paying that respect, I pay tribute to the tradition of First Nations storytelling, which embodies culture and knowledge passed from generation to generation through the ages.

Deputy Lord Mayor[3], Councillors[4], WestWords Executive Staff and supporters, friends, family, and, most importantly, contributors to Living Stories 2023: The Other City.

One of the jobs of a patron is to declare an event, a building, an exhibition open. In thinking about the launch of Living Stories 2023: The Other City and being a lawyer – my mind always goes to questions – I asked myself: is it really a job or is it a joy?

And then, I had to ask myself whether that was even really a question, or was I simply looking for a rhetorical flourish, and an alliterative one at that? 

Giving a speech, which is an imperative of doing an opening, hardly involves the art of creative writing: it is quite a structured exercise: dignitaries have to be acknowledged; sponsors have to be thanked; organisers have to be thanked; and participants have to be congratulated.

At this point, it will be obvious to you that putting things in such prosaic terms makes the job sound pretty dreary. Which brings me immediately to the use of words: the power they can have; the beauty they can convey; the imagination they can stimulate.

Power. Beauty. Imagination.

As I said, I come from the law, where words are tools that cut, slice, probe, used to analyse. Elected representatives need words to explain and persuade. In short, words are the means by which the exercise of power is communicated. But words have power in other senses and in ways that remind us that, like any form of power, they can be used for good or ill; to praise or to wound.

Sometimes words are used simply to convey something of sheer beauty and joy: there to absorb for our enjoyment; to express something which is so precious, something not tangible but so real it is as though you can reach out and touch it. 

And then there are the words that take us into the world of the imagination. And when words are used in this way – perhaps in a fantasy tale, perhaps in pure escapism which we all need at times – the bottom line is that imagination is at the heart of invention and innovation of every kind. 

When I read this secret anthology: The Other City – because it was still secret when I read it – I felt all these things: power, beauty, imagination – words which made me feel something as they flowed across the page. 

And so, it is time to congratulate the authors. Your stories are works of art. In them we glimpse the jarring, the familiar, the future, the past. We are offered joyful escape, lyric reflection, and cautionary forewarning.

Never lose your love of words – never lose your love of writing – because it is your words which will nourish a generation of readers and expose them, and you, to worlds unimagined.

Thank you, Michael and the WestWords team and your supporters, including Create NSW, WestLit Libraries, Booktopia, Arab Bank Australia, Australian Catholic University, James N Kirby Foundation, and PHIVE.

The Living Stories Western Sydney Writing Prize, is a gem.

Since 2021, it has been building social connection through written expression, all the while shining light on and supporting the incredible talent and creativity deeply embedded here, in Western Sydney.

This was recognized in this year’s Western Sydney Community Forum ZEST Awards, at which Living Stories was announced as the inaugural winner of the Outstanding Project – Community Arts and Culture award, recognizing programs that achieve significant social impact in their local area.

So, with my words out of the way, now is the moment to celebrate and revel in yours, and, as Patron of WestWords along with my husband Dennis, we officially launch Living Stories 2023: The Other City.

[1] Michael Campbell, Executive Director WestWords

[2] Aditya Paul, 2022 10-12yrs Category Winner Living Stories Western Sydney Writing Prize.

[3] Cr Cameron McLean, Deputy Lord Mayor of Parramatta

[4] Councillor Dr Patricia Prociv, City of Parramatta; Councillor Henry Green, City of Parramatta