Dear readers,
Alas! I have succumbed to the concept of being ‘too busy’ to run this publication. I write this on the back of finishing a year-long digital marketing contract… and in the interim of starting a new three-month gig in a similar field. Full-time work has gotten the better of me these past couple months, though given the dearth of job opportunities, it’s lucky I’ve found one that has sustained me both financially and personally. How often does one get to pursue their Tumblr girlblogging dreams through code and CMS?
With my laser-eyed focus on work, I’d reached a point where I wondered if running The Western was worth it. When I decided to rebrand and drive this platform, I envisioned the possibilities of running this website akin to an online literary magazine or arts platform. However, as I worked away at this month’s dispatches, I was also conscious about whether or not essays or criticism had staying power in the world of content and online journalism. Unless you’ve written a scathing piece for the London Review of Books, it seems impossible for essayistic works to take up virality in our culture of immediacy.
As a media platform, The Western fostered its own reputation as a music blog. Given the amount of music reviews and conversations with musicians and music producers, I’ve encountered readers who remembered us most for our music journalism above everything else — they often share with me that this website made them discover new music. Yet, here I was, steering The Western into a new direction and away from what made us popular to begin with. Although music content opened wider visibility to our platform, I was curious about why we didn’t review anything else, let alone write about anything beyond music. When migrating and archiving this website’s contents, I was particularly surprised to find out that none of us covered any book reviews written by Western Sydney authors. Publishers like WestWords Books and Giramondo have published a number of writers from the Area — there was a missed opportunity here to cover the breadth of our rich and full-bodied literary scene, especially as a team of writers and journalists.
I’m worried about whether publishing these writings will disappoint those who are exclusively looking for ‘new music’ from us, so to speak. This weight of reservation is especially felt in light of Acclaim Magazine’s announcement of its closure weeks ago; as a publication anchored on street culture, hip-hop and R&B, the news left a massive pit in the music journalism ecosystem, leaving readers raring and hungry for the next publication to sink their teeth into. I’d wondered if removing ourselves from our ‘music blog’ image is a liability in itself, especially when there are so many pockets to the Area that exists beyond music. If I can no longer retain our reputation as a ‘music blog’, am I betraying those who always looked up to us for new music? Or am I teaching them to be flexible to change?
My hope is that The Western can reach a place where readers can recognise the vast expanse of Western Sydney writing and perspectives — it’s no longer “You made me discover new music,” but “You made me discover new stories.” There’s a quote I often think about from the Substack blog Transtrender, where New York writer Chrissy Correa writes, “You’ll find more peace with an open-door policy rather than spinning your wheels on who is worth talking to.” I expand this to all readers of The Western. Instead of spinning your wheels towards what you want from us, I implore you to keep an open door to our writers.
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In this edition of The Western — and the first under my editorial wing — we’re featuring seven writers covering an incisive breadth of ideas and experiences: from the innate power of Filipina paintings, and sardonic stories about paraplegia, to climate change, interstate culture shocks and imaginary libraries. These essays, conversations and memoirs offer varied complexions to Western Sydney that I hope will bring new shape to what we think of the Area and its locals.
For those still fanging a music feed (or miss a taste of the old Western), fear not: we have exclusive profiles on two of Western Sydney’s biggest and brightest in the community. David Mansour chats to New Zealand-born Maori producer Johnny Bullz on his rags-to-riches story in the interview ‘Beatz, Community and Persistence,’ and the importance of uplifting the underdogs in the music scene. Quoting Bullz, he shares with Mansour, “Every single person is like a fingerprint, and you treat them as such. Everybody has a different way of living and has a different basis of thought, different creativity.” Meanwhile, Elijah Seto speaks with Filipino Australian singer-songwriter Chris Vincent on his behind-the-scenes insight into his EP Stars and Discontent*, released in conjunction with the interview documentary on the musician made by Seto himself. In this conversation, Chris describes the album as one that is reminiscent of “feeling like you’re on top of everything … You’re that guy, but there will always be moments of weakness and fear and humanity.”
Also part of our line-up are two Filipina Australian writers taking on new perspectives on the Filipino diaspora experience. Emerging curator and creative practitioner Arianne Bulanos engages with artist Marikit Santiago’s paintings in ‘Hallowed Be Thy Name,’ with cultural meditations on themes of motherhood and migration. “In a world that so often demands gratitude without rage,” Bulanos writes, “Hallowed Be Thy Name insists on both. It allows sanctity to coexist with struggle. It reminds us that holiness does not require purity, only presence.” And in the personal essay ‘Me, My Culture and I,’ digital journalist and Collider newswriter Erielle Sudario writes on finding home away from home, as she shares her greatest learnings during her move to Melbourne as a Plumpton-raised Filipina. “Western Sydney taught me what belonging looks like when it is built into the landscape,” Sudario reflects in her piece. “Melbourne taught me what it means to make it yourself.”
Finally, we’ve opened ourselves to more personalising memoir works that broaden the first-person “I” into the world. Climate activist Sanaa Shah’s ‘The Sweaty Summers of the West’ relates her experiences of heatwaves with present-day situations of urgency in Western Sydney. It’s always hotter out West — literally — and there’s more we can do to work towards cooling down our suburbia. Polish Australian artist Marnie Tomczyk revisits her childhood memories in ‘An Imaginary Library in Bringelly Road,’ as she explores the possibilities of a public library especially made for her Polish family and community members. “I believed that Kingswood was in Poland” she recalls from her younger years, an experience many second- and third-generation children face when migrant populations evolve the suburbs into a proxy of their homeland. Last but not least, Blacktown-based improv comedian Tom North chronicles his not-so-tender stories with paraplegia in his darkly comic essay, ‘Caught in the Wheels of My Chair.’ An offbeat collage of experiences and encounters as a wheelchaired individual, the work exposes itself with slivers of vulnerability beneath the dry cynicism. “Over and up and down and waiting,” North writes in one anecdote. “A lift to take me to another lift to take me to another lift. If one breaks down, what a day I’ll have.”
For now, stay safe and keep yourselves toasty in these final weeks of winter. I’ll see you on the other side.
Nicole Cadelina
Editor in Chief & Managing Editor
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The Western’s August 2026 dispatches will be released on Wednesday 12 August at 10:00am. We will also be opening applications for year-round contributing writers in the coming weeks — keep your eyes peeled!
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