AustLit

'Postmodern ecocriticism, given its broad range of perspectives, offers an agreeable platform for articulating a new, advanced and inclusive framework for a decolonising theorisation of literature and the environment. This article seeks to identify Australian Western decolonising poetry that sits in harmony with Indigenous aural and literary versions of communicative engagement with Country. The concept of human embeddedness in ecological relationships and biological processes as part of a complex matrix of interdependent things is embraced. In particular this article focuses on inclusivity and interconnectedness of all life forms to illustrate aesthetic and conceptual interfaces between Aboriginal Australia and Western poetics. Ethnic and national particularities are recognised but attempts are made to transcend cultural and national boundaries. I am suggesting that present-day neo-colonialism can be resisted if we find common ground upon which all humans and other-than-humans can coexist, cooperate and flourish.' (Publication abstract)

“This a stunning late debut, a memorable cache of poems of mature, quiet and numinous power that has waited a lifetime to be written. They draw their inspiration and insights from the deep earth, from the artesian well of time and memory, and map ways of connection with the land, and with the forgotten places within the soul. Poems like ‘Driving Inland’ and ‘Touch and Flow’ simply took my breath away, their journeys through brilliantly observed landscapes answering the question that the poems pose so beautifully and heartbreakingly: ‘The tiny dash between birth and death / is all we have on this earth. / Where do I go from here?’” - Kim Cheng Boey'  (Publication summary)