“West of the Sun and Sea”

2020 Mako, CB. “West of the Sun and Sea.” Collisions: Fictions of the Future. A Liminal Anthology. Ed. Leah Jing McIntosh, Cher Tan, Adalya Nash Hussein, and Hassan Abul (Neutral Bay, NSW, Australia: Allen & Unwin, 2020), 112-116. PSt

The story is set in a future Australia that has embraced equality for the disabled. The Protagonist is a young woman with Down Syndrome. AUSLAN (Australian sign language) is compulsory in both primary and secondary school. The Positive Behavioural System has eliminated bullying from schools. The National Disability Insurance Scheme has provided her with a custom-made tricycle with battery power for hills that she rides to school on along roads that are truck free. She has an assigned teacher aide in each grade in school. Her family is moving in to a “sustainable community for disabled people, the homeless, low-income earners, and carers of disabled children” (114). Technical and Further Education courses are free and her mother is taking courses on bicycle maintenance and to become an AUSLAN interpreter. All this was brought about as part of the government’s response to climate change that emphasized degrowth. The Australian author is a founding member of Disabled QBIPOC Collective.