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Pokun the Little Black King single work   short story  
Issue Details: First known date: 2021... 2021 Pokun the Little Black King
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'I look over at the children of all ages laying out on their long thin wooden planks and riding the waves. They look like kings riding their horses. I smile at those little Black kings who are enjoying life away from the outside world. No television, no smart phones, and not even board games like chess. It may seem strange but they are cheerful. Pokun, this cheerful boy, wearing just long white shorts down past his knees. He runs towards me as soon as he sees me. He is excited to see me. He asks me to ride the waves with them. I resist, I did not want to go and tell him I cannot swim very well. But he keeps insisting to go wave riding and so I follow him.' 

 (Introduction)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Southerly Writing Through Fences – Archipelago of Letters vol. 79 no. 2 2021 23374465 2021 periodical issue

    'The island continent has created an archipelago of incarceration spanning from South East Asia, Micronesia and Melanesia in the Pacific, the Indian Ocean and across mainland Australia. This issue of Southerly, titled Writing Through Fences, is devoted entirely to the work of past and present refugees in these detention centres.

    'The records of their experiences are devastating; their creative responses, across genres and media, are astounding. The issue also includes responses from Australian writers, activists, essayists and students, who engage with refugee writing as well as the practices and consequences of refugee incarceration.

    'Writing Through Fences is guest edited by the writer-activists Hani Abdile, Behrouz Boochani, Janet Galbraith and Omid Tofighian. Two of these editors have direct experience of Australian refugee detention. Three have been displaced and exiled. All four have worked for years with refugees as translators, enablers and publishers to bring the creative voices of refugees into public view and circulation. This issue presents the greatest range of new refugee writing assembled to date in Australia.' (Publication summary)

    2021
    pg. 165-172
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Long Paddock Writing through Fences vol. 79 no. 2 November 2021 23555999 2021 periodical issue

    'The island continent has created an archipelago of incarceration spanning from South East Asia, Micronesia and Melanesia in the Pacific, the Indian Ocean and across mainland Australia. This issue of Southerly, titled Writing Through Fences, is devoted entirely to the work of past and present refugees in these detention centres.

    'The records of their experiences are devastating; their creative responses, across genres and media, are astounding. The issue also includes responses from Australian writers, activists, essayists and students, who engage with refugee writing as well as the practices and consequences of refugee incarceration.

    'Writing Through Fences is guest edited by the writer-activists Hani Abdile, Behrouz Boochani, Janet Galbraith and Omid Tofighian. Two of these editors have direct experience of Australian refugee detention. Three have been displaced and exiled. All four have worked for years with refugees as translators, enablers and publishers to bring the creative voices of refugees into public view and circulation. This issue presents the greatest range of new refugee writing assembled to date in Australia.' (Publication summary)

    2021
Last amended 6 Dec 2021 11:33:52
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