Semper Floreat is the University of Queensland Union's free & independent student newspaper.
Time. It truly is crazy. Time passes in the blink of an eye as families gather, children play, communities indulge in frivolous activities and delicious food. Yet some – for almost two years – have been deprived of those very special moments. Deprived of basic human rights. Time, it truly is crazy. Days turned into […]
Continue Reading25th of March, 2025. It was a Tuesday morning, I was preparing to log onto my zoom lecture, I heard a ding. I checked my phone to see a text message. “Uncle Ismail was at Nasser hospital when they bombed it” It was from my mother. My heart stopped. I couldn’t breathe. I started sobbing. […]
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In two months, the genocide in Gaza will mark its two-year anniversary. Two years of schools, hospitals, shelters and breadlines being bombed. Two years of starvation and displacement. Two years of Gaza being razed. Israel has shown no signs of stopping, with Netanyahu intending to totally occupy the Gaza Strip. Thanks to the complicity of […]
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He came and left a rot inside her womb. She lay there naked curled around her blight that rotted till her famine would consume the ridges dug inside her skin that night. He told her he would build them both a home: A kitchen with a cross above the door. Then turned the bedroom to […]
Continue Reading‘ Burned leaf on the rubble cries EVACU language disintegrating Warnings from the Sky’ is a Senryu written in response to an image I saw of the remnants of an evacuation leaflet dropped by Isreal in Gaza. There was nowhere to evacuate to. The leaflet was torn by bombs from the very people that sent […]
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The following is an excerpt of a real journal entry I wrote in July, edited for publication and privacy. It is my attempt to word unspeakable violence, to mould the visceral with a vocabulary built for logic and softness. It is reflection, story, prose poetry, word vomit. I doomscrolled through videos of Gaza tonight and […]
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Asalam Alaikum everyone, may peace be upon you all today. My name is Shahzaib Farhan. I’m a member of BDS Youth Meanjin, and I stand here today as a student, a witness, and a human being grieving a genocide. Since October 2023, we’ve watched Israel’s colonial legacy subject Palestinian’s to an active genocide, a project […]
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I mourn for Palestine A land of peace and olive trees A land that has seen nothing but suffering for 75 years A land that welcomed everyone with open arms, only for their people to be murdered by ruthless bombs They steal our lands and steal our farms and swear it is their birthright Then […]
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Two weeks ago a photo was shared online of a family in Gaza. Mariam Al-Amassi and her four young children, Karim, Alma, Rima and Ramiz, are fighting to survive in Gaza. Their home was destroyed by the Israeli army in an airstrike. They have no shelter or safety, and are constantly struggling to find basic […]
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Mental illness has often been greatly misunderstood throughout history. Ignorance has fuelled stigma surrounding mental health conditions that sees its sufferers demonised, ignored, and shamed. Despite improvements in education and modern medicine, these damaging misconceptions continue to pervade modern culture and cause irreparable damage to those living with mental illness. However, art has long been […]
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