A Suite of Poems by 2023 Fellow Charmaine Papertalk Green
Below are a suite of poems from 2023 Red Room Poetry Fellow Charmaine Papertalk Green's project Jugarnu Wangga Migamanmanha (Older woman making talk), which she worked on while in residence at Bundanon, on Wodi Wodi and Yuin Country. Read the full suite of poems, and excerpts from Charmaine's reflection below.
Poems from 'Jugarnu Wangga Migamanmanha'
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Nyarlu Malga (Strong Woman)
By Charmaine Papertalk GreenABA a women’s daily dance for good BARNDIMANMANHA
JUGARNU Spirits move within the memory ground NHANGANHA
JURDU Country bush broom stirs dust and land WINDI-WINDIN
NYARLU Universe sweeping with grandmothers hand JUNDANMANHA -
Batha Batha Winjarnu
By Charmaine Papertalk GreenBATHABATHA; incompetent
Assimilation Policy
What a name!
Government should be ashamed -
Etched in My Mind
By Charmaine Papertalk GreenI am still thinking about you mother
Slapping me awake 40 years on
New space time moving thataway -
We Not Strangers or Visitors
By Charmaine Papertalk GreenFirst Nations peoples connecting to land they are not strangers or visitors.
Yamaji nyinayugundi
Old ground our country with ancient ones deep within
Winja barna -
What Pathways and Songlines?
By Charmaine Papertalk GreenIn this country of milk and honey
Contemporary mechanical dreamtime mine time animals
Land stolen from traditional owners
Vomiting our precious earth on foreign shores -
Nyuwili (tears)
By Charmaine Papertalk GreenI am kin to colonial archive violence
Ngayamanmanha; Ngayamanmanha; Ngayamanmanha flogging
Family stories of removal, genocides, and social experiments of eugenics
Bumanha; bumanha; bumanha; bumanha; bumanha killing
The Red Room Poetry Fellowship provided valuable respite from the daily grind of Western Australian rural life. A space where we Yamaji women have to navigate everyday through the stressful fog of living in the cultural interface where our existence is challenged at every corner. We are strong Yamaji women, but we are exhausted and wanting to write poems and our truths is challenging. So being gently pushed back into the writing world surrounded by forests, fields of wombats and kangaroos in daily bush life conversations came at exactly the right time.
Bomaderry High Workshop at Bundanon
