Poems
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Alight
By Jennifer Kemarre Martiniellowhat lies behind
my forehead
is my Grandmothers’ Law
her women’s wisdom -
A HAUNTOLOGY OF TRACES
By Ellen van NeervenSit but don’t
sit. Live but don’t
live. This is beyond discomfort
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Muriyira Dreaming
By Elizabeth Luland'Muriyira Dreaming' written and performed by Elizabeth Luland. Videography by Tad Souden and sound by Syd Green.
garuga-ngayawanj muriyira lore
mudjingaal ceremony has begun
ngarawan barra barra warmth -
Welcome
By Ziggy RamoI’d like to acknowledge
the lack of knowledge.
We renamed the Frontier Wars -
ganma-li
By Rudi BremerYour memory of my love is longer than mine
It reaches back to days when I could lose you
Simply by closing my eyes
Or letting go of your hand in a crowd -
The Water Talks
By Rob WatersLet me start by saying that I do not claim to be an academic.
But I know what it’s like to sit by a river.
What it feels like to watch water pass by, maybe never to be seen again.
Water lost around the bend -
Heat Sink
By Evelyn AraluenWhat was it you said on the phone that time
the line hissed from the missile’s radiation
I could hardly hear from the code spluttering
binaries of last night’s undeliverable lullaby -
No Gentle Good Night
By Debra DankSeeming anodyne and inert, coal and gas burn beds fouled rivers cannot extinguish
as if paper and pencil jottings, as if a careless mistake
taken care of with a precise slash to mark
as worthless dust like Them. -
the bleed
By Dakota Feirernested in the hollows of a long silence
birdsong lament the felled
singing new growth
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Burri Burri
By Emma StewartThe whales call to us.
Like an umbilical cord
Stretching through salt water,
our sacred connection -
Born to Fight
By Kaitlen WellingtonBlak curly hair
Brown skin
Brown eyes
Broad shoulders -
Whale Wattle Sonata 1 For Two Violins
By Eric AveryOn the intersection of Poetry, dance and music
When I was young I remember being taken by my mother to the South Coast and seeing the ocean and playing my violin and how it spoke to each other - the notes and just hearing.
I didn’t know that world but I must have heard it - so it was there in the Country. -
Mother of Pearl
By Tais Rose WaeThe shell, the deity, the mother. Mother of pearl, of
justice, of freedom. Dancing herself into the silk of the
seaweed with a torso full of apologies, of oysters. How
do you speak the unnamed origin or remember the -
Miscommunication Style
By Maggie Knight-WilliamsI’d talk about it, tell you a story, but I’ve got this
god-awful communication style;
this inner-north therapise, insta protest televised, don’t bottle it up that’s masculinised, -
Palmistry
By Tyson YunkaportaAmazing green aura the medium said
Rising out from me and above us all round
Radiant she held my hand and ancestors help me
I liked it -
Grind
By DOBBYThey’re bout to set me off, you better not get involved
Trynna keep me silent, it’s high time that I talk
Hide behind smiles while thunder storms in my thoughts
The images of evil I never seen it before -
Makinti, Me
By Nardi SimpsonI went to see you, eager to sit amongst your hair string tassels swaying pink and soft, orange waving at me from bones waiting to spread into hips.
I hoped you’d remember, I readied for the warmth glowing from your ochre powered glow, igniting knowledge in danced steps, flicking up the dust.
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BUYIMA YUURAAYUURAA - BREATHE SLOW
By Kara TuckDALIGA NGALUWIGA
Beneath the waves
GAAN BURRUGIYN BINDIGUWA -
Junuy Garruja Lullaby
By Lay MaloneyGiinagay to the world, it’s far and wide
Wunaa worry, I’ll be by your side
Every day is different, new things to ngaaga
Every nguunmarr I’ll hold you in my arms tight
