First Nations

Hayley Scrivenor reviews Benevolence by Julie Janson

June 5, 2020

Benevolence by Julie Janson ISBN: 9781925936636 Magabala Books Reviewed by HAYLEY SCRIVENOR ‘I have a duty to speak the truth as I see it and share not just my triumphs, not just the things that felt good, but the pain, the intense, often unmitigated pain. It is important to share how I know survival is survival and […]

Caitlin Wilson reviews Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko

August 11, 2019

Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko University of Queensland Press ISBN: 978 0 7022 5996 8 Reviewed by CAITLIN WILSON Talking Back: Too Much Lip, Melissa Lucashenko If this book were a sound, it would be the roar of a motorcycle down an empty road; bold, and for the moments when it’s in your […]

Nadia Rhook reviews Finding Eliza by Larissa Behrendt

September 7, 2016

Finding Eliza by Larissa Behrendt St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press ISBN 978-0-702253-90-4 Reviewed by NADIA RHOOK “She took a long great breath, lifted her petticoats, and ran headlong into the greatest adventure ever told!”[i] – The Rollicking Adventures of Eliza Fraser, film poster, 1975 Larissa Behrendt’s latest work is a profound lesson for the gullible. Finding Eliza […]

Pip Newling reviews Dirty Words by Natalie Harkin

August 23, 2016

Dirty Words by Natalie Harkin Cordite Books ISBN 978-0-994259-63-9 Reviewed by PIP NEWLING ‘Consider this words like lives have histories actions like knives cut-deep’ (p.23) Natalie Harkin’s first collection of poetry, Dirty Words, illustrates the effects of words down the generations of white […]

W. Les Russell

August 17, 2016

William Russell, born in Victoria, has been published in journals and anthologies in Australia and overseas, including: This Australia; Meanjin; Borderlands; Antipodes; and Paintbrush—and Inside Black Australia; Spirit Song; and The Sting in the Wattle. Poems like Red, God Gave Us Trees To Cut Down, Blackberrying and Tali Karng: Twilight Snake have been included in […]

Brenda Saunders reviews Yimbama by Ken Canning

October 3, 2015

Yimbama by Ken Canning Vagabond Press ISBN 978-1-922181-43-5 Reviewed by BRENDA SAUNDERS The poetry in this collection covers the full range of social and cultural conditions facing Aboriginal people today. Burraga Gutya writes of imprisonment, mental illness, domestic violence, dislocation and the injustice due to racism or ignorance. On the back cover notes to […]

Christine Regan reviews Heat and Light by Ellen Van Neerven

September 21, 2015

Heat and Light by Ellen Van Neerven UQP ISBN: 978 0 7022 5321 8 Reviewed by Christine Regan In Heat and Light Ellen Van Neerven tells us stories exploring ancestry and identity and the experiences particularly of Aboriginal women and girls in small Australian towns or dwelling on the metaphorical fringes of Brisbane and the […]

Ali Cobby Eckermann in conversation with Jaydeep Sarangi

April 12, 2015

Writer, Ali Cobby Eckermann was born in 1963 at Brighton, Adelaide, on Kaurna Country, however, she grew up on Ngadjuri Country. She has travelled extensively, living most of her life on Arrernte, Jawoyn and Larrakia country in the Northern Territory. When she was 34, Eckermann met her birth mother Audrey, and learnt that her birth […]

Graham Akhurst

October 18, 2014

Graham Akhurst is currently in his last semester of a Bachelor of Creative Arts in writing at the University of Queensland. Prior to this he completed an Advanced Diploma of Performing Arts from the Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts where he studied music, and wrote and co-created several performances that were held at QPAC. […]

Lionel Fogarty

June 13, 2013

Born on Wakka Wakka land at Barambah, which is now known as Cherbourg Aboriginal Reserve, Lionel Fogarty has travelled nationally and internationally presenting and performing his work. Since the seventies Lionel has been a prominent activist, poet writer and artist; a Murri spokesperson for Indigenous Rights in Australia and overseas. His poetry art work and […]

Ellen van Neerven

May 5, 2012

Ellen van Neerven is a descendant of the Mununjali people of the Gold Coast area. She is a recent QUT graduate in Fine Arts and lives in Brisbane. Cousins Taking a break from my usual weekend warfare I drive with my mother through the shifting rain into Mununjali country a roo bounds across […]