Turn to any page of journalist and radio presenter Daniel Browning’s first book and you’re hooked. This man can write.
A self-described ‘black gay man’ who pays respect to Bundjalung, Kullili and South Sea Island ancestors, Daniel Browning is one of Australia’s boldest journalists and public intellectuals. He currently hosts ABC Radio National’s The Art Show and Arts in 30 and leads the ABC’s Indigenous Radio Unit.
Daniel Browning. IMAGE: Supplied by ABC Radio
Close to the Subject’s cover portrait is a photo that perhaps reflects his seaside childhood. A teenage Daniel peers calmly and unflinchingly into the distance, perhaps contemplating his grandmother’s warning to beware of wolves in the wider world.
The book itself is something of a stocktake of the best of Browning’s journalism to date.
It consists of short (mostly) published works showcasing his talents as a presenter of Indigenous people’s stories and a commentator on contemporary Indigenous artists. The book also invites the reader to lean in and get closer to Browning himself as subject, beginning with his introduction and ending with the short memoir ‘I Grew up at Porpoise Point’ (Tweed Heads).
A roughly chronological assemblage of writings since 2007, reveal the bones of his biography: studied painting in Brisbane, scored a job with Triple J Radio then a role with ABC Radio. He appreciates a close family network, has survived some not-so-great love affairs and is now building an international profile as an art critic.
Many will have heard Browning as host of Radio National’s Awaye! Program. Some episodes made such deep impressions on me as a listener that I experienced the shock of recognition encountering them on the page — a powerful indication of Browning’s ability to present stories of enduring resonance.
Stories of ‘enduring resonance’.
Magabala Books is to be congratulated for bringing some of Awaye!’s best stories to the page. There is the tragic Fernando’s Ghost (2007) about an Aboriginal man whose outrage at the treatment of his people made him a lone truth-teller in Europe in the early twentieth century. Other memorable Awaye! profiles include Rabbit-Proof Fence author, Doris Pilkington (2008) and jazz and blues singer Miss Georgia Lee (2010).
Dear Brother, The Harrowing Life Journey of Archie Roach (2019) is another memorable and defining portrait of survival and agency.
Many will relate to a friend’s description of Browning’s mellifluous voice as ‘warm honey trickling over a granite rock next to a rainforest stream’. His incisive journalistic voice works just as well in print.
Browning has simultaneously built a reputation as an art critic. Close to the Subject collects profiles of artists such as Vernon Ah Kee, Richard Bell and Judy Watson first published in journals like Artlink, Artlines, Art Monthly Australia and in gallery exhibition catalogues nationwide.
In all his storytelling, Browning uses a no-holds-barred, full-throated voice, committed to countering colonial mistruths: one riveting, well-researched story at a time. He’s also outspoken on Queer identity and sexual expression.
All this makes Browning a public intellectual of similar status to Bundjalung novelist Melissa Lukashenko (who, incidentally, wrote the Foreword).
As the book draws to a close, there are more creative writing pieces where Browning turns the focus on himself. He contemplates Queer. He venerates his grandmothers. He shares health challenges. He reveals the pain of lost love: ‘I got stuck in the river of hurt.’
I’m not convinced the self-revealing poems and exploratory drama excerpts add to the book. I would rather have seen images of the paintings Browning discusses.
What binds the disparate genres together is the force of Browning’s intellect and passion.
‘I’m in a permanent state of confrontation with the past,’ he writes.
‘Australia is a schizoid, self-loathing country.’
‘What do I love … the brutalities…?’
Despite Browning’s claim that ‘I am simply a storyteller — nothing more’, he demonstrates a real astuteness for choosing pivotal stories of importance to the national culture. He knows stories are everything when there is a ‘cult of forgetfulness’, as anthropologist WEH Stanner described Australia’s relationship to its history.
In this context, a warrior storyteller can change the world if they can convince the listener to absorb new narratives.
For sophisticated, discerning, punchy and intimate commentary on contemporary Australia, Close to the Subject is unmissable.
The book won two awards in 2024: the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for non-fiction and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing.
Close to the Subject is published by Magabala Books and retails for $34.99. This reviewer’s copy is from Berkelouw Books Eumundi.
