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4.14 AVERAGE
4.14 AVERAGE
I must admit I had to read some of the poems in this collection 2 or 3 times, and still some are beyond my understanding as a poetry novice. Nonetheless I found them poignant and innovative, exquisitely evoking the beauty and suffering of this stolen land.
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
There were moments (poems, collections of poems) in this debut that stunned me. But ultimately I liked it less than I thought I would. Maybe there's good reason for that, since the book isn't (and shouldn't be) for me. But the moments where Araluen spoke with such brutal and concrete honesty about her people (in several senses) were so moving that I felt the allusive, collative, and intertextual aspects of the work became a little tiresome.
I think Araluen would, could and likely should, disagree with what l've just said, since the central theme of the book is a literary resistance to the literary inheritance that she, as a First Nations writer, has inherited--a rejection and recreation of the ways First Nations people have been written into and erased from the history of Australian writing. This project is of central importance. And to achieve its aim Araluen has to be allusive and intertextual; she needs material with which to work.
But maybe the reason I felt that these parts of the book fell flat was because when Araluen frees herself from this allusive project, when she speaks directly of and about her life, about the ways she has to (and has had to) find a place as a poet in a country whose language has caricatured and erased her and her people, she finds a voice so powerful and interesting that the reader has no choice but to accept this new distinctly Australian language that recognises its own history and places First Nations people at its beginning and centre.
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
medium-paced
Unsettling, thought provoking, must read collection of poems and prose. Thanks go to Evelyn Araluen for confronting me with her perspective in this astonishing collection.
Poetry that persuades, incites, educates and leaves your soul bleeding. Araluen has shared her poetic memoir with no holds barred, no subject taboo. She talks of grief and anger, beauty and family, country and colonialism, all the while bringing her personal journey to the world in a slew of brilliant and poignant prose.
I often had to sit with a piece for a while to let it take root from the seeds Araluen had planted.
An excellent read.
I often had to sit with a piece for a while to let it take root from the seeds Araluen had planted.
An excellent read.
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Firstly I want to acknowledge that I’m not great at reviewing poetry - I’m not someone who knows what makes poetry good or not, I just know whether I like it or not.
This one made sense to me, but I can’t say it was for me. I don’t know that it was meant to be though.
Some of the works in Dropbear moved me completely, while others I couldn’t make any sense of at all. I can acknowledge that Evelyn Araluen is a great poet though, and I’m sure there are many people out there who this collection would be better for.
I read this on Invasion Day, which I didn’t realise until writing this review, but seems fitting. Hearing first hand accounts of what it’s like to be aboriginal in this country, growing up and living in a place that has tried its hardest to erase their culture. We definitely need more of these works, or maybe I just need to try harder to find and read them.
Some of my favourites from this collection were:
- the ghost gum sequence
- PYRO
- acknowledgment of cuntery
- to the poets
- bad taxidermy
- moving day
- hold
- to the parents
- the inevitable pandemic poem
- THE INLAND SEA
- fern up your own gully
- breath
Wow wow wow. This is the epitome of a powerful debut. As intellectual as it is acutely crafted and wrought with righteous anger, Araluen guides the reader through Indigenous culture under colonisation in a clear-eyed work of tenderness and resilience. Unrelenting until the last page I closed the book teary eyed and gasping for air. I'm in awe of the talent and mastery displayed here and can't wait to see what else she conceives in the future.