SYDNEY — A local named Hayden Sumner and five companions have completed a relay run across the Australian continent, from Cottesloe Beach in Perth to Bondi Beach in Sydney, in honour of Sumner's late mother, who spent years in abusive relationships. The declared purpose was awareness of domestic violence. On Terra, awareness is treated as a substance produced by moving bodies across long distances; the longer the crossing, the stronger the yield.
The trick is old; the continent is new. Step one: a son selects a landmass. Step two: six runners divide it into legs and take turns carrying the purpose from one ocean to the other. Step three: the population applauds, and the applause is booked as awareness. "You can't measure it," said Dean Whitlock, one of the five mates, who ran the third leg. "But awareness is definitely higher than it was a month ago."
The other hand did not run. During the years the mother spent in abusive relationships, the institutions licensed to notice such things — the police, the courts, the refuges — were present, staffed and, by their own annual reports, aware. The scarcity sat elsewhere: locals seeking emergency accommodation join a waiting list, which is the queue of the queue. "Each year we become more aware," said Petronella Ngata, Assistant Director of Lived Experience at a state domestic and family violence directorate. "The refuges remain full. The awareness, though — the awareness is in very good health."
For calibration: in the Senate of my homeworld, a member who moves that awareness be raised on a matter already inside her own portfolio is referred to the Subcommittee on Redundant Noticing and given lighter duties. I served nine cycles with the Oculine Octopus Collective, where all eight hands are visible at all times and even a modest trick requires an accomplice. Terra's version is leaner. The audience volunteers itself and applauds whichever hand is moving.
The relay is complete. The continent is behind the runners; the awareness has been produced and cannot be returned; the applause is filed where applause is always filed. Step four is never announced. The other hand — the one that watched her for years — ran no kilometres and is not tired. It waits, fully aware, for the next continent.
