Nature: Always was and always will be
How do indigenous Australians understand nature?
How can non-indigenous Australians write creatively about this?
Listen to this podcast from Wiradjuri man Assoc. Prof Michael Shawn Fletcher who explains how 'Everything is Country' and promotes the obligations of humans to care for nature and the ecosystem of which they are a part. He argues for indigenous management of country. He says of 'wilderness' (landscape in absentia of humans) that it essentially denies the role of people in it and how they have shaped it and managed and maintained biodiversity. He explains that indigenous people are often denied humanity and the knowledge of environment. https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/podcasts/everything-is-country
Municipal Gum by Oodgeroo Noonuccal
Gumtree in the city street,
Hard bitumen around your feet,
Rather you should be
In the cool world of leafy forest halls
And wild bird calls
Here you seems to me
Like that poor cart-horse
Castrated, broken, a thing wronged,
Strapped and buckled, its hell prolonged,
Whose hung head and listless mien express
Its hopelessness.
Municipal gum, it is dolorous
To see you thus
Set in your black grass of bitumen--
O fellow citizen,
What have they done to us?
'Municipal Gum' by Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Poetry Analysis Video)
30 authors in a day
The Yield
Read an extract from Australian indigenous author Tara June Winch's award-winning novel, The Yield.
The Yield
New Shoots - poems inspired by plants
Wurrungwuri, Royal Botanic Garden Sydney by Eileen Chung
I
bedrock. we forget: under
this city lies yellowblock,
sweep of sandstone –
restless buckle, shards
and monoliths this side
of the sea – bolted into
dry movement, tossed heads
and abrupt angles, a people
compressed, filtered histories
II
imagine:
cupping pebbles
in both hands –
sun-weighted, complete
to bore through the heart
of each quartz stone:
strung on steel – a giant’s plaything
the emptiness within:
spiralled hives
for upside-down life by night
Snugglepot and Cuddlepie
Snugglepot and Cuddlepie in the Ghost Gum by Evelyn Araluen on the pastoral (Sydney Review of Books)
Gurrumul Yunupingu
Read about Gurrumul Yunupingu, an indigenous Australian singer songwriter
Listen to his song:
Wukun which addresses storm clouds in his native language
Read the lyrics to Wukun
Y.o Wuku?? al? alyunmin. dharayirryirryuwan Dharapinda
Dhawal mukthuwan Gayku Mawuymana Watharrakarr Djunuu? gu? u
Waywayyuwan Djarrara? Milbu? ou?. Yarawarrtji Yarrawar? ura
Ga? tjurrwan? u Wurrumba.? uku? uku Mämin? u
Wuku?? al'? alyunmin. wuku? dhu dhawal galmuwan
Mayawungarri Mayawuku Galapunbarri mala-wu? kthuwan wuku?
Yä m? uwana, y? märiwana
Nhalpiyan wuku? mala-wulkthuwan. dharayirryirryuwan Dharapinda
Waywayyuwan wuku? dhu wirilgalapuwan
Dhawal rakaran Ga? apaltjiwa
Ga? apal? ura Yiwur? a, Gawun? ura? ambawili
Waywayyuwan Mali-Wotjawuynha, Gapinynha Dharrapa? annha
Bulurruma Galtha? ikpa. Milmari Ganambarrnha
Yä m? uwana, y? märiwana
Nhalpiyan wuku? mala-wu? kthuwan. Dharayirryirryuwan Dharapinda
Yä
[english]
Y.o Storm clouds rising, storm clouds forming
The country is still, Gayku Mawuymana Watharrakarr Djunu? gu? u
Heading to Djarrara? Milbu? pu?. Yarawarrtji Yarrawar? ura (Gälpu nation seas)
Ga? tjurrwan? u Wurrumba.? uku? uku Mämin? u
Storm clouds rising, storm clouds covering the land
Storm clouds Mayawungarri Mayawuku Galapunbarri separating
Oh my fathers, on my grandparents
Storm clouds why do you separate, why do you form?
Storm clouds covering the country, heading towards
Saying, to the country of Ga? apaltji
Ga? apal? ura Yiwur? a, Gawun? ura? ambawili
Heading towards the Mali-Wotjawuy, Gapiny Dharrapa? an
Bulurruma Galtha? ikpa. Milmari Ganambarr nations
Oh my father, on my brandparents
Storm clouds why do you separate, why do you form?
O.h
From <https://genius.com/Geoffrey-gurrumul-yunupingu-wukun-lyrics>
Read about how non-indigenous Australians might write about Aboriginal connection to Country here: https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/media/how-to-write-about-aboriginal-culture
