BY RACHEL EVANS
Ngara is an Eora Indigenous word meaning "listening". At Ngara: the Fourth Australian Poetry Festival on September 3-5, 450 people collectively listened to readings, workshops and performances.
The 500-member-strong Poets Union, which was initiated in 1977, hosted this captivating weekend. Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal writers such as Henry Reynolds, Yvette Holt, Samuel Wagan Watson, Lisa Bellear and Jenny Nixon impassioned, lambasted and soliloquised their way into the audience's hearts.
Questions like "How might the non-Indigenous Australian be at home here?" and "What ... might Aboriginal people wish to take from the various settler cultures?" were given to all writers to comment upon, creating a great weekend of articulation and thought around Indigenous life, pride and future.
Peter Minter, editor of Meanjin, in his homage to the Eora nation "call(ed) on the spirit of the warriors to help in the fight against lying fascists". Queer voices were heralded in "Queer Ear Reading", where Kerry Leves gave a meandering, highly graphic poetry reading about the art of men loving men. There wasn't an uncomfortable squirm to be seen amongst the older poetry lovers!
Young poets were seen and heard, indicating the great tree of poetry being rejuvenated by green, sun-hungry, articulate young saplings. Young multi-medium poetic talent was showcased in the Leichhardt New Media Poetry Prize and youth energy shone in the Leichhardt Slam. The slam was a dazzling display of 14 young poets in a three-minute poetic slam-off. A $500 prize went to the audience-judged winner.
A courageous young woman showed that feminism is alive with her rave against misogyny. Adopting a sexist persona, she lauded: "Show me your hairy curtain and I'll fuck you till you bleed ... she burnt the dinner so I shoved her hand in the oven." Pieces about the horrors of anti-depressant drugs disabling creative expression featured prominently.
Anti-war raves by a Canadian guest had people in stitches; land-rights messages took the audience to a sand-scaped fight against cyanide mining; and a woman's struggle to ingest contradictory life messages "to be the best, compete, say yes, look after yourself, relax, unwind" left a resonating chord with most.
The Poets Union has also gathered 110 poets' work on war and sent it to PM John Howard. Visit: <http://www.poetsunion.com>.
From Green Left Weekly, September 29, 2004.
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