I await Utopia too as Pilgered but fear it will get short shrift from this government and be dismissed as
bleeding heart stuff. In my experience of teaching Kooris in Victoria in secondary schools, i saw the full gamut
from ultra-talented, in sport, art and poetry through to uninterested in formal education. The most consistent
attitude was a love of stories.
We had an elder who asked all staff before he addressed a school-wide assembly, to put something they cared
about from our pockets into a box. While we lined up to do this, he said don't worry about the (800 or so) kids -
Kooris will look after them. And 20-30 strong, scattered throughout with puffed chests, they did. At the end of
his address, he invited us to take back our somethings we cared about and imagine what it felt like for him and
many others, whose cared about thing was a child from the family and you never got to take it back. This was
Kutcha Edwards, 2010. Powerful stuff.
Bill
On Tue, Dec 24th, 2013 at 9:33 AM, Jill Jones <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Patrick,
>
> Plenty Indigenous poets yea, Fogarty, Eckermann, Watson, etc, of course.
>
> Some non-Indigenous, either directly or indirectly. There are, however, a
> lot of issues around respect, appropriation and how to do avoid that, and
> a lot of white poets don't because they feel they are treading on black
> territory, culture, etc, or will be accused of such. But John Mateer has
> done so, extensively, in poetry, and others will do/have done so. In
> fiction white writers such as Kenneally, Herbert and Gwynne have been
> taken to task by black critics because they have, in some views,
> appropriated black experience and written it through white eyes. Part of
> the problem was that there had been a lot of ignorant and patronising
> white writing around.
>
> A student I am supervising has had some stick from such quarters because
> she is writing a series of poems about her experience living in a
> predominantly black town in WA. She isn't going to stop completing the
> manuscript and writing about what she was trying to do - it is about her
> experience, she's not pretending to be aboriginal - but she has had to
> jump through numerous hoops to ensure she has respected certain language
> issues, issues about one can say and not say about country. Thus, a lot of
> white writers stay out of the area. Too many issues about permissions,
> etc.
>
> Cheers,
> Jill
>
>
> On 24/12/2013, at 5:42 AM, Patrick McManus wrote:
>
> > Hi Doug I have actually read quite a lot of first nation poets and of
> course
> > Jack Davis Oodgeroo Noonuccal - and various novels
> > I was wondering about the 'second nation' writers -their reactions etc
>
> > Cheers Patrick
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On
> > Behalf Of Douglas Barbour
> > Sent: 23 December 2013 16:00
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: Utopia
> >
> > And in response to Patrick's original question, there certainly are
> > aboriginal poets, & quite a lot of poetry that engages various
> > questions/problems surrounding the continuing situation...
> >
> > Doug
> > On Dec 22, 2013, at 5:01 AM, David Bircumshaw
> <[log in to unmask]>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> All very strange. I suppose a film like Utopia is intended to be
> 'present'
> >> for some time.
> >>
> >> Have you see the article in today's Guardian/Observer about Happiness
> >> Island and the involvement of the Louvre, the Guggenheim and even the
> >> British Museum?
> >> http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/22/abu-dhabi-migrant-workers
> >> -conditions-shame-west
> >>
> >> best
> >>
> >> Dave
> >>
> >>
> >> On 22 December 2013 10:56, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >>
> >>> yes, and the media here have holiday quiet in Canberra to permit
> >>> something like Pilger to 'blow up'.
> >>>
> >>> On 22/12/2013, at 9:51 PM, David Bircumshaw wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> Sorry I got the timeline confused by the tenses being used - Utopia
> >>>> was previewed here in late Sept and went on general release in
> > mid-November.
> >>> I
> >>>> thought the conversation was about something just happening here. Is
>
> >>>> it
> >>> not
> >>>> likely, Max, that the timing of the showings around Australia Day is
> >>> meant
> >>>> to underline the film's 'message'?
> >>>>
> >>>> best
> >>>>
> >>>> db
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> On 22 December 2013 09:48, David Bircumshaw
> >>>> <[log in to unmask]
> >>>> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>> I don't know much about the policies of general release there are
> >>>>> at
> >>> least
> >>>>> screenings in the main Aus cities next month though:
> >>>>> http://utopiajohnpilger.co.uk/showings
> >>>>>
> >>>>> best
> >>>>>
> >>>>> dave
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> On 22 December 2013 08:55, Patrick McManus <
> >>> [log in to unmask]>wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>>> Max thanks -The film release It does all seem a bit odd especially
>
> >>>>>> as
> >>> here
> >>>>>> we have hardly an unblemished record!!!
> >>>>>> Cheers P old grumper
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> -----Original Message-----
> >>>>>> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics
> >>>>>> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> >>> On
> >>>>>> Behalf Of Max Richards
> >>>>>> Sent: 21 December 2013 20:59
> >>>>>> To: [log in to unmask]
> >>>>>> Subject: Re: Utopia
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Australians will have to wait three months before they are allowed
>
> >>>>>> to watch it. By the time Utopia is released here next Australia
> >>>>>> Day, it will
> >>> have
> >>>>>> already screened on free-to-air British TV.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Is is hardly unreasonable to expect a film that asks such enormous
>
> >>>>>> questions of Australia to open on our shores at the same time it
> >>>>>> does in Britain.
> >>>>>> Pilger and his producers seem essentially to be saying:
> >>>>>> "Australia,
> >>> we've
> >>>>>> got something awfully important to tell you. But you're not
> >>>>>> allowed to join the conversation just yet."
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> More than the head-scratching release strategy, is London really
> >>>>>> the
> >>> best
> >>>>>> place to start a debate about Indigenous equality in Australia?
> >>> Utopia's
> >>>>>> cinematic premiere, held in a place far removed from its eponymous
> >>> region,
> >>>>>> seems - well - rude.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/nov/12/john-pilgers-utopia
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Australia Day - late Jan is when most of Australia is at the beach
>
> >>>>>> or watching the tennis all hours on tv.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> so we shall see how Pilger fares here...
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> On 22/12/2013, at 5:27 AM, Patrick McManus wrote:
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Hi all esp Oz folk has there been reaction in the poetry
> >>>>>>> community to John Pilger's 'Utopia' a film dealing with the
> >>>>>>> continued treatment of the first
> >>>>>>> nation- there must be poetry around the situation
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Or is poetry in an ivory tower?
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Patrick
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> --
> >>>>> David Joseph Bircumshaw
> >>>>> Website and A Chide's Alphabet
> >>>>> http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
> >>>>> The Animal Subsides
> >>>>> http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
> >>>>> Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw
> >>>>> twitter: http://twitter.com/bucketshave
> >>>>> blog: http://groggydays.blogspot.com/ Leicester Poetry Society:
> >>>>> http://www.poetryleicester.com
> >>>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> --
> >>>> David Joseph Bircumshaw
> >>>> Website and A Chide's Alphabet
> >>>> http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
> >>>> The Animal Subsides
> >>>> http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
> >>>> Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw
> >>>> twitter: http://twitter.com/bucketshave
> >>>> blog: http://groggydays.blogspot.com/ Leicester Poetry Society:
> >>>> http://www.poetryleicester.com
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> David Joseph Bircumshaw
> >> Website and A Chide's Alphabet
> >> http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
> >> The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
> >> Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw
> >> twitter: http://twitter.com/bucketshave
> >> blog: http://groggydays.blogspot.com/
> >> Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.com
> >>
> >
> > Douglas Barbour
> > [log in to unmask]
> >
> > http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
> > http://eclecticruckus.wordpress.com/
> >
> > Latest books:
> > Continuations & Continuations 2 (with Sheila E Murphy)
> > http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=962
> > Recording Dates
> > (Rubicon Press)
> >
> > Swept snow, Li Po,
> > by dawn's 40-watt moon
> > to the road that hies to office
> > away from home.
> >
> > Lorine Niedecker
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
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