Poems
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Murmuration
By Luke Patterson'Murmuration' is a musical poem inspired by and written for Baraya Barray - Whale Song by Luke Patterson. Reflecting on this piece, Luke says:
Poetry and music are like perceptual magic tricks. They’re very good at readjusting the way we perceive space, time, memory, even ourselves. For the most part, I’m only a respectful observer of Whale… -
Gadhu Burri Burri
By Nicole SmedePoetry comes in many forms. It is found in a beautiful sunset, in the melodies sung by whales and whispered in wind, in feet stomping Country in dance, in the colours and patterns across a canvas and in the relationships with have with eachother and Country.
'Gadhu Burri Burri' is a sonic poem inspired by and written for Baraya Barray - Wha… -
Berrara
By Gary WatlingPoetry comes in many forms. It is found in a beautiful sunset, in the melodies sung by whales, in feet stomping Country in dance, in the colours and patterns across a canvas and in the relationships with have with eachother and Country.
'Berrara' is a musical poem inspired by and written for Baraya Barray - Whale Song by Gary Watling - a pr… -
Changing Tides
By Zachary Bennett-BrookFrom a First Nations perspective poetry is not just written or spoken word, it is found in all creativity - song, dance, art, breath, Country and relationship.
Zachary Bennett-Brook's work is a visual poem on how he sees and feels Country, its meaning, shape, pattern and colour. It is a map of our connections to each other, to our kin and to C… -
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 -
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 -
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 -
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 -
Desert is a body
By Judith Nangala CrispinI’ve walked here before, in the shadow of old Limbunya Station,
Lingiari’s heartland, where Wickham River veers toward the western sea
but never makes it—fraying instead to threads that vanish in blue clefts,
where the desert lifts in scrub and towering sandstone cliffs, then drops -
sand classroom
By Lulu HoudiniI speak an endangered language
when stories were taught in sand
it too, has been displaced
but the grains -
a poem in which two indigiqueer hotties definitely do not overshare about anything featuring big-fish, big-birds, and revolutionary violence
By Raelee Lancaster, essa may ranapirithe bleeding sky &
the boiling earth
the call from my dad i left to go to nothing
but a missed notification -
nhariya bubarawulali (there are mountains)
By Nicole SmedeDharawal translations provided by Aunty Jodi Edwards
nhariya bubarawulali there are mountains where I was born
where ancestors welcomed new life -
Tadra / Buar (To Dream)
By Bebe Backhouse-Oliver, Peter SipeliI write to you my brother
I am weary
I write from the liquid salted landscapes
I write from within the confines of colonial borders -
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 -
Mangrove Girls
By Lulu HoudiniPotato scallops from the takeaway that always smells like a camel station
but that my sisters and I can't get enough of.
Pimples show up on our faces because of it.
Tell Mum there was a price increase and that's what happened to the change. -
The stars
By Melanie MununggurrAppeared out of nowhere
They came from every direction
Erupted through surfaces
And dove from blackened skies -
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Lost in Translation
By Teela ReidI’m bewildered by you
You’re bewildered by me
The difference is
not the colour we see.
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