The first article is by Doug Amarfio of Canberra Meeting which is a wonderful exploration of the Dreaming associated with Silver Wattle and Muliyan the Eagle Totem watching and protecting the landscape. Doug’s poetic and mythic writing captures the spirit of Silver Wattle and draws attention to how it has been a place of transformation and healing reaching back through generations. Situated next to the great lake Weereewa that breathes in and out like a living being, it is a place that continues to transform the lives of those who visit there.

Doug’s article is followed by a piece by the new chair of the Silver Wattle Board, Lisa Castanelli. Lisa in her recollections of the gathering at SW in January 2026 celebrates the 16 years that SW has been a Quaker place for spiritual renewal, learning, land care and community. Her article promotes the centrality of Silver Wattle to Quakers in Australia as a whole.

Lisa’s article is followed by Bruce Henry’s reflection on the decision at this January gathering to establish a Quaker library on the premises with a particular focus on rare early Quaker texts. These could provide the basis for research into Early Quakers nationally and internationally. Bruce’s article is especially valuable for his description of how waiting on the spirit works in shaping Quaker decisions. He also draws attention to the miraculous appearance of several Eagles towards the end of our gathering.

This article leads into Liz Field’s poem ‘On Seeing a Wedge-tailed Eagle at Silver Wattle’.

Liz’s poem is followed by an extraordinary painting by Matt Lamont Transfiguration is an Emu Feather which was painted at Silver Wattle from the top of the ‘scarp that Lisa mentioned in her description of the Gathering in January. The painting speaks for itself, but Matt’s vivid commentary powerfully reveals his experience of the integration of Quaker, Christian and First Nations spiritual traditions.

Continuing with poetry, Michael Griffith has an article on ‘The Healing Power of Poetry’ in which he draws attention to the ways in which poetry can lead us into a deeper experience of our own inner world and how it can also engage us with the miraculous qualities of the world around us. Both these directions are essential to the growth of the soul and are deeply in harmony with the core vision of Quakerism.

There then follow two articles that challenge our conventional ways of viewing scientific perspectives on human experience.

Rae Litting in ‘A Non-Scientist Ponders Evolution’ explores an age-old debate between scientists and theologians from a new contemporary Quaker perspective. Rae offers a powerful new reading of Darwin’s Origin of Species from the perspective of Jesus’ declaration that ‘no sparrow fell to the ground without God knowing it’.  She argues persuasively that the scientific emphasis on the species and especially on the reductive phrase ‘survival’ of the fittest, devalues the experience of the individual.  She concedes that we are richer for the insights that the Theory of Evolution has brought us, but she also reflects ‘My main worry is that it has given us a rather narrow view of the world’.

Reg Naulty, in his ‘The Light at The End of The Tunnel’ reflects on the work of Frederic Myers, a Cambridge classicist, who conveyed his after-death experience to a group of colleagues. The article draws on Arthur Ford’s book The Life Beyond Death (1974). While the ideas in this article on first reading may seem anomalous and challenging to scientific views, they are infused with references to the Light, a central, unifying idea in Quaker belief. Reg is also keen to draw attention to the extent to which these ideas are part of a wider Christian context of experiencing life and Light after death. St Vincent de Paul and St Simeon the New Theologian are key figures that are brought into this conversation.

The issue concludes with two beautiful book reviews. The first, by Dorothy Scott is a review of Celia Brayfield’s Writing Black Beauty, Anna Sewell and the Story of Animal Rights. Dorothy brings into focus early Quaker activity against animal cruelty, especially towards horses.  She takes us back to John Woolman’s role in this in the late 18^th Century and celebrates Anna Sewell’s powerful imagery in the mid 19^th Century which depicted the heart-wrenching account of Ginger’s reduction ‘to a skeletal, ill-treated beast of burden on the streets of London’. Dorothy has forwarded her own passion for animal welfare in bringing Black Beauty into the life of her granddaughter.

David Purnell, former editor of The Australian Friend has written a powerful and convincing review of a Mark McKenna’s The Shortest History of Australia, which details Australia’s ‘racist past’ which has been obscured by ‘The rapid transformation of Australia from an outpost of the British race into one of the most eclectic multicultural societies on earth’. David’s review underlines McKenna’s detailed account of the many ways in which our Indigenous citizens have been so unjustly treated over the last 200 years. The title of this book parallels the ironic title of the recently published 65,000 years A Short History of Australian Art (Marcia Langton AO & Judith Ryan AM); McKenna’s book The Shortest History of Australia intentionally and ironically  focuses on the ‘last page’ of  the long timeline of Australia, the questionable British presence.

This issue concludes with the QSA Notes for the first part of 2026. There is a final important reminder from Isaac Brady co-convenor for the Yearly Meeting for our YM26 Mid-Year Online Gathering. Please read the details below.

Michael Griffith (Editor)