Always Will Be: Stories of Goori sovereignty from the futures of the Tweed

by Mykaela Saunders

From the 2022 David Unaipon winner comes an outstanding and timely collection of speculative fiction imagining futures where Indigenous sovereignty is fully reasserted.

In this stunningly inventive and thought-provoking collection, Mykaela Saunders poses the what might country, community and culture look like if First Nations sovereignty was asserted?

Each of the stories in Always Will Be is set in its own future version of the Tweed. In one, a group of girls plot their escape from an institution they have no memory of entering. In another, two men make a final visit to the country they love as they contemplate a new life in a faraway place. Saunders imagines different scenarios for how the local Aboriginal community might exercise their sovereignty – reclaiming country, exerting full self-determination, or incorporating non-Indigenous people into the social fabric – while practising creative, ancestrally approved ways of living with changing climates.

Epic in scope, and with a diverse cast of characters, Always Will Be is a forward-thinking collection that refuses cynicism and despair, and instead offers captivating stories that celebrate Goori ways of being, knowing, doing – and becoming.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Australia, Speculative Fiction, Indigenous

321 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 27, 2024

Reviews

[Oboza · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection is a bulldozer through the antique heap of tired sci-fi tropes and boring futures imagined by generations of racist writers who would inevitably, one way or another, 'creatively' annihilate Indigenous people from their tomorrows. Not here.

But where others have attempted this feat but produced only heavy-handed didacticism and corny competing cliches of their own, Saunders unveils a fount of new ideas.

I never thought there could be this many different alt futures, all of them refreshing and groundbreaking to the reader in one way or another. Where others might obsess over robots and spaceships, here we get insane future wellness influencers and heavy metal ocean bikies. Where other collections would replicate the same old dystopias and post-apocalyses, here we see a stubborn persistence of thriving Goori communities through futures near and far.

These stories are admirably hopeful on the matter of sovereignty, while also unfailingly creative. Genius work.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is an awful lot of miserable, or vengeful, spec fic around at the moment, and Saunders' anthology, deliberately imagining futures centered around Bandjalong persistence in the Tweed, are a welcome breath of hopeful air (and occasionlly water). The dazzling strength here is the variety of imagined futures. Most involve catastrophic climate change, but they are stories of human, Indigenous, survival, ingenuity, joy and connection set within an ecosystem which shifts, but whose Country persists.
The tales include those set in a world with a drowned Tweed valley, a near-future with drone delivery, a flee to the stars and a return, a divided Tweed where rich wellness influencing has turned into an isolationist wealthy cult. Some stories focus on a low-tech, return to traditional knowledge lifestyle and others revolve around futuristic technology. Saunders has arranged the volume so that the stories can be read as a series in a continuously evolving future, or as variant futures. The difference may not be material.
One downside of the ordering is that the volume starts with several stories that feel similar in tone, centered around a single persons thoughts. However the variety quickly picks up, which is important in an anthology with such a strong central theme.
As you would expect, not all the stories work equally well. Some stories - Tweed Sanctuary Tour comes to mind - work more as idea essays with a lightly fictionised edge. Others, like Cultural Immersion Program or Fire Bug, have a really compelling story but which feels overshadowed a little at the end by the idea that underpins it, sitting uneasily between point and character. But occasionally - Our Future is in the Stars was my absolute favourite - Saunders's storytelling and ideas come together in breathtakingly good ways and it just feels transcendent in looking at who we are, and what we could do.

[Tiffany Barton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review for Artshub


A much deserved winner of the David Unaipon Award and a Queensland Literary Award, the book is a speculative fiction that takes us on a remarkable journey into a decolonised future in which Goori people from the author’s Tweed homeland live positive, meaningful lives informed by Aboriginal sovereignty.

These stories are imbued with a sacred sense of connection to Country and culture. The characters live in loving communities, working hard to reverse the effects of capitalism and colonisation on their land and people.

In ‘River Story’, Saunders takes us on an exquisite journey through the otherworldly consciousness of the recently departed Juna, who is now part of the Dreaming, interconnected with all of creation and reaching out to her grieving daughter. In her final death throes, Juna casts a fishing net over the river in her mind, in order to prepare a meal for her daughter Gracie.


When Gracie arrives, ‘Unspoken words of regret and sorry business dance in the space between their faces.’ Their roles reversed, Gracie is now carer while Juna has reverted to babyhood, ‘baby hairs are stuck to her damp forehead forming spit curls … her fragile neck and small, round skull’. Juna passes over, her final moments of consciousness with the river and moments later her grieving daughter goes to the river, remembering the story of her birth as told to her by her mother.

This is a stunning, visceral birth scene on the banks of the river – natural and primal, harking back to the days of Dreaming. Juna squats in the water with crows and midwives cheering her on, births Gracie, bites the umbilical cord and, after feeding the placenta to the crows, says, ‘That’s us you’re eating. You’re responsible for her now too.’ The midwives pass baby Grace around, telling her stories of ‘resistance and triumph’ and ‘sing her myriad connections to an intimate community rooted deeply in this country in all-time’.

This is an incredibly profound, spiritual story of the cycle of life, of death and birth, mother and child, renewal and the Dreaming. When Juna dies, ‘A new star is born in the sky and ancestors around the campfires welcome their radiant daughter home.’ Some writing is so celestial, so sacred, so infused with light that it appears the writer must have been channelling a higher intelligence. I had to reread this story three times, such was the hold its beauty and power had on me. After losing my son three years ago, its message was a soothing balm that brought me great comfort.

‘Cyclone Season’ is a fantastical tale that could easily replace Mad Max as Australia’s next great post-apocalypse story. It imagines a future after the ice caps have melted and the ocean has risen and colonised the land. We meet a community of “ocean bikies” called The Stingrays. They’re a ragtag bunch of eco-pirates, surfers and activists who travel around on jet skis and live in boats stolen from “the colonisers”. Their aim is to claw back their territory, reverse the damage capitalism has wreaked upon the Earth and teach their kids “warrior ways”.


The wonderfully militant main protagonist “The Blacksmith” is a formidable grey-haired elder who collects scrap plastic from the ocean and converts it into ‘reef, tools and weapons’. She surfs colossal waves that dangerously hurtle towards submerged skyscrapers and harpoons expensive yachts as a warning to colonisers to stay away from her waters. This wonderful story of resistance, repair and renewal centres on a group who dare to fight back, who revel in their strength and autonomy, the preservation of their culture and restoration of their waters

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inventive, significant speculative fiction stories about the future told from a uniquely indigneous Australian viewpoint.

Even though Mykaela Saunders has written a work of speculative fiction, the stories all reinforced for me my understanding of the elements, which are the cornerstones of the culture of Australia's indigneous people. All the stories, no matter - where in the universe they take place, when they take place, be it in contemporary times, or in another eon, if they feature some protagonists who are like no others we have ever read about - are imbued with a recognition of the power of Storytelling, the connection both spiritual and corporeal to Ancestors and Elders and the recognition of the absolute need and right for indigneous Australians to have a viable, meaningful connection with Country.

Recommended.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

“They ride (their jet ski) up to the high-rise closest to the break”

In one story in this collection we are transported to the 2400s, The Tweed is a sovereign nation for the Bundjalung people, the water level has risen high above the old city and riding a wave between the buildings during a cyclone is the start of imitation.

Always will be is a collection of short stories set in the Tweed ranging from the near to the far far future imagining a range of different scenarios with sovereignty returned to the local aboriginal people.

The collection stands apart in its positivity for many possible futures.

Such stories could feel like those long advertisements presenting a new housing estate slash retirement home as the utopia you’ve been dreaming of. And some come close to feeling a bit twee. But most avoid this fate by acknowledging that life can still be tough in a sovereign future. But positing that it could still be better than what they have.

“Evie learned from all stories, even the hard ones, because together they taught her that all times were just as important as each other. “

What it doesn’t cover is how they got from here to there. Perhaps that could be covered in a future collection?

“Country transforms everything to its will eventually”

[louis]

such a unique, creative, and stunning collection of stories. i implore every australian to read this. all of them were good, but “our future in the stars” was completely exceptional.

[Larissa Conolly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a whole new experience- thought-provoking and fresh. I really enjoyed it and will be thinking about these stories for years to come

[Aimee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked: this collection of possible futures within a specific place that build on each other. An imagined future in which colonisers escape to space and inadvertently leave Goori people on Earth to wait out the environmental disruption and care for Country until it is healthy again. Story about getting rid of clock time. What I learnt about Goori culture. Poetic language.

Disliked: some of the stories were more like cultural lessons with a light narrative framing, which was interesting but not the speculative stories I expected. Some of the dialogue was heavy on the moralising.

"You lie in bed and listen to a guided meditation for motivation and metamorphosis, waiting for sleep to come. The space between who you used to be and who you want to be is so vast that you can;t see how many steps it will take to close the distance. You are in the middle, the fulcrum that holds the balance. It's a waiting game, to see which version will win."

"She holds Juna's feet and keens, rocking herself for comfort, and tears are swimming down her face - grieving the absence of her Mum now, the heartache between them in the past, and a never-to-exist future where they might make new memories, a future where hurt and heartache is old stormwater under a bridge, and the bridge between them is well-used and sturdy."

"these nourishing, ancestral technologies of connection and healing and renewal that have stood the test of time."

"I haven't written history, I've imagined futures, and so the cultures in these stories are just as made up as the rest of the world building is."

[Ken Richards · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title of this collection of short stories comes from the Land Rights slogan attributed to activist Uncle Jim Bates 'Always was, always will be Aboriginal Land'.
In it, Mykaela Saunders explores the future sovereignity of the Goori Peoples in her beloved Buljalung Country (aka the Tweed and its hinterland, from the sea to the guardian volcanoes).
There are 17 stories imagining the future, from near to far distant. Many are focused on the effects of the Anthropocene, and the adaptation of the traditional inhabitants who have seen themselves as custodians of the land to those challenges.
From their experience of change and trauma since foreign colonisation these peoples might well be ones who could have insights into how to cope with future human induced catastrophes.
There is also a resonant voice of First Nations in the dialog and descriptions. The primacy of family and community, of cuz, of sis, of bub and of bro shines through. Likewise an acceptance, though cautious through experience of interloping orphans and ones in need of assistance and who could find a home.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of stories is phenomenal. They offer hope, and speak to the enduring nature of culture, kinship, relationship to land. So many beautiful stories in this collection. It is speculative fiction, set in different iterations of the future, and convey the power and strength of Aboriginal people. They range from sad to tongue in cheek and also vary in form, but all are connected to today's time and the past and depict a rightful sovereignty. I loved many of the stories but I think possibly my favourites were the one of the men taking mushrooms and conversing about the devastation of capitalism on the planet, and the story of a man newly released from prison. Mykaela Saunders has written some absolutely wonderful stories and we all can benefit from the experience of reading them, but also from taking their lessons and ideas to heart. All is not lost, not quite, and this book feels like a call to change and a hopeful vision of the future.

[James Whitmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of short stories begins by introducing us to the Tweed, Bundjalung Country, "until recently ... green and wet and teaming with all sorts of life". This is the land where the Tweed River flows through the remnants of the enormous volcano that now sits on the border of Queensland and New South Wales, centred on the pinnacle of Wollumbin. It's land that's "in pretty good nick ... because the Gooris are still here." Note that idea, it's the connective tissue of the collection. In these stories, Mykaela Saunders, who did her doctorate in Indigenous speculative fiction and recently edited the spectacular anthology This All Come Back Now, imagines the futures of the Tweed and her people. Read more on my blog.

[Natasha (jouljet) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of speculative fiction First Nations knowledge and truths. A world in the not too distant future where the colonisers have ruined the world on their path of dominance and suppression, excess and greed, and the people who have already been here are living, thriving, doing as they always have.

Short stories of different forms, voices and settings. From trying to stay out of prison, to returning to Earth from exile in space orbit. Death, life, grief and love. Living culture ways, caring for each other and country. Passing of knowledge and stories.

A collection to spark thoughts about First Nations knowledge, care of land and ways of living, sustainable practices, and the need to listen, learn and understand from the longest living civilisation.

[Alma · Rating 3 out of 5]

War in Ordnung, ich fand die Geschichten schon ganz schön und nett, aber teilweise war die Message sehr oberflächlich. Es war irgendwie nicht genug Platz, um Dinge zu zeigen und stattdessen wurden sie halt wörtlich gesagt oder erklärt. Z.B. unterhalten sich dann Charaktere, die das vermeintlich schon alles wissen, darüber, wieso und auf welche Art und Weise Kolonialisten die Umwelt zerstört haben. Und da wirkten dann die Dialoge oft nicht sehr natürlich, sondern als ob sie nur stattfänden, um dem Leser alles zu erklären. Dadurch ging mir teilweise der Lesespaß verloren. Hab mich teilweise sehr bewusst daran erinnern/much dazu zwingen müssen, weiterzulesen.

[Soaliha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Equal parts cynical and optimistic, this novel has completely changed the way I think about the future and made me re-evaluate what exactly we mean when we talk about the world “ending”. During a time of climate chaos and fraught politics, it distills a sense of hope in the ability we as humans have to turn this ship around — and I think it’s one of those book that everyone should read, regardless of background. Definitely add it to your “must read” list of 2024 — I suspect this might end up being one of my best reads of the year.

(This review was originally published in PEDESTRIAN.TV)

[Tim Arundell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mykaela Saunders included many stories in this book which gave me many entertaining stories about indigenous people and how especially they belonged to their worlds and how involved they were in living in nature and how connected they were to plants, animals, weather and places such as rivers, oceans and hills.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always find it harder to connect with short stories but still enjoyed this. Loved that the connection across all the stories was the place, with the characters’ connection with land a resounding theme. It was also really interesting to have the combination of futuristic scenarios and traditional Aboriginal culture, something I’ve never even considered before.

[Danaë Paternoster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved these short stories and how it all ties together at the end.
This dystopian world makes me think of the planets future, and I loved how the stories brought different parts/aspects of human survival.
It reminds us to respect Country instead of destroying it and embracing our connection with it.

[Cheryl Hamblyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unusual but fascinating book. A collection of short stories on the same topic - our future. An Australia writer gives very clear view from First Nation people on how to manage the future their way. Some chilling stuff but also some hope.

[Kate Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written with such care and beauty. A must read.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional writing and generous storytelling.

[Kate Whitfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hopeful, original, beautiful, unforgettable.

[Graham · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly, I couldn't finish. I just wasn't engaged in the stories.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this series of speculative fiction! I enjoyed learning more about time, land, and Goori ways of being. Really easy to read and beautiful.

[Liat M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always Will Be is a collection of short stories, a variety of ways that our future could pan out if we don’t take care of our country. Told with a uniquely Aboriginal point of view, Mykaela Saunders does a great job of taking us on a journey where Indigenous land practices are upheld in order to protect and save the earth we live on.

Honestly this was like nothing I’d read before and I loved reading and learning about the connection to country and the differences in the way sustainable practices are taught.

Can’t recommend this enough!

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the #stellaprize longlist, and while still fairly fresh on my shelf — ALWAYS WILL BE. In a similar fashion to my previous read, it’s short, loosely connected fiction, set in the region of South Tweed Heads where the Goori people are the land’s traditional owners. The stories canvas the evolution of that area, foretelling a future with a distinctly apocalyptic feel.

ALWAYS WILL BE starts off fairly unassumingly; the messaging being that, as current inhabitants, the need to maintain a symbiosis with nature is imperative. It goes beyond sustainability in that we all have an inherent responsibility for the land’s restoration, its regeneration and its renewal. Each story emphasises the importance of this Indigenous sovereignty; that laws are derived from the spiritual and historical connection to the land first and foremost, and secondly, to community.

The collection is varied and inventive, and progressively evoke the trauma of times past. A digitally altered reality simulates a senseless imprisonment in order to determine the resilience potential of the next generation. A kidnapping of an Aboriginal man by a high priestess who, despite wellness rituals, cosmetic surgery and fad dieting, still recognises that genetic diversity is the only way to ensure survival.

It’s speculative fiction but with a distinctly Indigenous take. The entirety expands across hundreds of years, and reassuringly, the old ways are still very firmly alive in this reimagined future, overcoming threats of unfettered capitalism and the ensuing intensity of natural disasters from said capitalism.

There is a certain appeal to ALWAYS WILL BE, particularly in its reassertion of Indigenous culture to reclaim and repair our world. Imaginative, critical but also optimistic — a worthy contender in the list and a timely read given the very recent ex-cyclone damage to this part of our country.

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