AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'It is not lost on me that the name of this journal tugs against the current issue's dedication to Indigenous poetries - the rabbit is a pest, an interloper, on Australian soil; a signifier of colonisation. I grew up with rabbits all around: big white bunnies with brown spots that were our pets, dragging the hutch across the lawn to mow another patch of grass; wild rabbits in the paddocks that had to be controlled; Nanna’s rabbit stew; Nanna saying KFC was actually rabbit meat; rabbits in the headlights with myxo-eyes; a hind leg and two kidneys deposited by a fox beneath the car. When I was born, my sister gifted me her toy rabbit, and he is still a constant companion.’ (Jessica L. Wilkinson : Editorial introduction)
‘What is Indigenous nonfiction poetry?
In short, it is Indigenous poetry. There is no need for the nonfiction qualifier. Peoples so vast and unalike tongue accounts at the common wound of colonisation, and turn that tongue inward to map their mouths. A global tradition that is so nebulous it’s difficult to pin down, and yet clarifies the closer you zoom – continent to region to nation to clan to person. (Alison Whittaker Poetry Editorial introduction)
Notes
-
Epigraph: ‘All is not lost or hopeless when there is poetry.’ – Natalie Harkin, Rabbit 21
-
Only literary material by Australian authors individually indexed. Other material in this issue includes:
Novice / Scribe by Jose Trejo Maya
Change and My Niagara by Janet Rogers
Off-Island Chamorros and During Your Lifetime by Craig Santos Perez
Saba Breeze by Anwer Ghani
A Native American Poet to a Palestinian One by David Groulx
from The 21st Century New World Poetics by Nyein Way
Contents
- Millad Mob Da Best!i"we likem dat Borroloola Rodeo", single work poetry (p. 8-10)
- Gangguyi"hold still", single work poetry (p. 12-13)
- Bury Your Owni"i ask him", single work poetry (p. 14-16)
- My Alphabet of Terrorsi"We would lie on the floor for a spell, the voices of parents and grandparents", single work poetry (p. 18-19)
- Fisherman's Bayi"Shopping centres like the bay", single work poetry (p. 24-25)
- Pictures of Country, sequence poetry (p. 32-34)
- Arthur Boyd. Australia Spring Landscape, 1959. Shown at Weird Melancholy : The Australian Gothic at Ian Potter Museum of Art at Melbourne University, 2015i"see here how each silvery gum", single work poetry (p. 33)
- Nicole Foreshew, Unceremonious, 2016. Exhibited at First Draft, Sydney, January 2016i"at first glance this was just seven or eight", single work poetry (p. 33-34)
- In Response to Sydney Nolan's Years in the Wimmerai"here is not a familiar landscape", single work poetry (p. 34)
- Skini"mirage", single work poetry (p. 42-43)
- Birdsi"I dream of brother's broken", single work (p. 44-45)
- Out of Choicesi"Tucked away on a back", single work poetry (p. 46-47)
- Dirty Me, Bloody You : The Fight Backi"Life packed inside a pocket.", single work poetry (p. 48-49)
- Conflicti"When I say: I am made of red soil, pressed in with welcomed footprints of our", single work poetry (p. 50-51)
- What They Wore at the Races Todayi"Mum and Dad dressing for the races this year.", single work poetry (p. 52-53)
- Grew Together; Knuckle Downi"Our paths they have crossed and intertwined", single work poetry (p. 54-55)
- Gumba Thaluni"I fought the thought of leaving her behind", single work poetry (p. 58-60)
- Black Ducksi"I used to watch dad hunt", single work poetry (p. 72-74)
- I Grew Upi"i grew up on suburban streets, teetering on edge of a city with bright beaches and", single work poetry (p. 76-77)
- Mimicking the Otheri"Synchronised we dance", single work poetry (p. 78-79)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Speaking Country as Self : Indigenous Poetry
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: TEXT : Journal of Writing and Writing Courses , October vol. 21 no. 2 2017;'Indigenous non-fiction poetry brings forward questions of readers’ expectations that most often are thoroughly formed and bound by Euro-western genre expectations. It is probably a bit late to challenge the nomenclature and the claim that this is ‘a journal for nonfiction poetry’, but I do find it an oxymoron – since poetry, however diverse, often offers a personal narrative that is clearly non-fiction.' (Introduction)
-
Speaking Country as Self : Indigenous Poetry
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: TEXT : Journal of Writing and Writing Courses , October vol. 21 no. 2 2017;'Indigenous non-fiction poetry brings forward questions of readers’ expectations that most often are thoroughly formed and bound by Euro-western genre expectations. It is probably a bit late to challenge the nomenclature and the claim that this is ‘a journal for nonfiction poetry’, but I do find it an oxymoron – since poetry, however diverse, often offers a personal narrative that is clearly non-fiction.' (Introduction)
