Creative Resistance: A Conversation about A Tale of Two Trees

Join authors Anthony Bertini and Margrete Lamond in conversation with writer, teacher and editor Astrid Lorange for a discussion about A Tale of Two Trees.

A Tale of Two Trees is a picture-book allegory written in response to the atrocities in Gaza and conceived as an act of creative resistance. Through the seemingly simple story of a playground dispute, the book opens onto much larger questions of power, inequality, resource distribution, displacement, environmental destruction, exclusion and the possibility of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Bertie is the new boy at school. Used to getting whatever he wants, he decides he wants all the shade for himself. As divisions emerge in the playground, Maryam and her friends respond with resilience and, ultimately, an offer of forgiveness that Bertie struggles to understand. Beneath this deceptively simple narrative lies a much bigger story about who has access to resources, who gets to belong, and what happens when power is unequally distributed.

The conversation will explore picture books as political allegories and acts of resistance, asking what seemingly small books can hold and what they can make possible. What does it mean to address big issues for small people — or to put big issues in small packages? Can a picture book function as what has been described as a kind of “micro-philosophy”: a compact form capable of opening up profound questions about ethics, politics and our shared world?

With Gaza as an important context for understanding the book, the discussion will consider the possibilities and responsibilities of creative work in times of political violence, and the role that storytelling, art and picture books can play as forms of witness, reflection and resistance.

This is an event about much more than a new book. It is a conversation about politics, power, children, storytelling and the possibilities of creative resistance.

Astrid Lorange is a writer, teacher, and editor who lives and works on Wangal country. She lectures in contemporary writing at UNSW and co-edits Rosa Press.

Anthony Bertini has been an investor and entrepreneur over the past 35 years in new technologies that have the potential to have a global impact. He also writes for children. His first book, Things My Pa Told Me was published in numerous countries including Australia, America and China. Where Happiness Hides was translated into nearly 30 languages. A Tale of Two Trees is his second book co-authored by Margrete Lamond. Anthony divides his time between Australia and Europe.

Margrete Lamond is an award-winning author, publisher and art director who has worked with government, multinational and independent book publishers, and is currently publisher at Gilded Snail, an independent micro-imprint. Margrete has published hundreds of books written and illustrated by others, many of them award-winning. As an author, she has had more than 20 of her own works published by a range of publishers, the three most recent of which were short-listed or honoured for prestigious literary awards, including the NSW Premier’s Literary Award and the CBCA Picture Book of the Year. Margrete mainly lives and works on Wiradjuri Country.