Writer and UQ Master of Arts student Hamish Sewell confronts unfinished business from his feminist upbringing in a Radio-eye program to be broadcast on ABC's Radio National at 1.05pm on March 4.
The son of prominent New Zealand feminist and women's health activist Elizabeth Sewell, Hamish reflects on his mother's life and explores the legacy of feminism in a 50-minute documentary The Interminable Son.
Elizabeth Sewell was a leader in the fight for abortion reform in New Zealand in the early 1970s, establishing the Sisters Overseas Service, a group which sent thousands of women to Australia for abortions when it was almost impossible to obtain them in New Zealand. She went on to become the first woman head of a New Zealand government department (Consumer Affairs) and died of cancer in 1988 aged 46.
Hamish spent months interviewing his mother's former colleagues and her long-time partner Vincent. The result is a deeply personal and often difficult journey which explores his own memories of his mother's work, his childhood and the philosophy that shaped him.
"Nothing was really hidden from me," Hamish said. "There was often talk of women who had tried to abort themselves and ended up in hospital. All that stuff was pretty powerful - I could see that my mother and her friends were very brave and strong in what they were attempting to do. There was an amazing sense of urgency and strength erupting, and for a young boy it was almost like growing up in a charismatic movement: that zeal, that crusade."
The documentary also deals with his adolescence and the issues raised when, at age 17, he fell in love and later lived with one of his mother's closest friends.
Hamish admits to struggling with the highly personal nature of much of his material. "In some ways I'd prefer it if it wasn't my story. It's revealing things which most self-respecting people wouldn't want revealed," he said. "It's hard to write about yourself because you can get very caught up in it; you can get lost in your own pain and it's very subjective."
Hamish said the documentary, part of the critical work for his MA (creative writing), was drawn partly from a novel he had been writing at UQ over the past five years.
He said he was grateful that the English Department and his supervisor had supported his radio project instead of insisting on a "dry, analytical" written piece. "Radio is very personal," he said. "It is much more a journey of thoughts."
For more information, contact Hamish Sewell (telephone 3365 3102 or s006680@student.uq.edu.au).
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