Abstract
In this personal essay, Harkin does not set out to describe Indigenous poetry in definitive ways. Like the inspirational Indigenous Conversations About Biography project (Te Punga Somerville et al., in Biography 39: 239–47, 2016), she recognizes infinite other starting-points, and diverse voices and emphases not represented here. The essay provides hope of yet another “starting space of possibility” (Te Punga Somerville et al., in Biography 39: 239–47, 2016, 242): to further stimulate conversations on the vibrancy of Indigenous poetry, and its significant contributions to literature of the world (Heiss and Minter, in Macquarie Pen Anthology of Aboriginal Literature, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2008); to better understand those entangled past–present–future contexts and theoretical strengths from which texts emerge; and to consider the counter-narrative potential of poetry to collective memory, shaping national consciousness, and identity.
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This work was supported by the Australian Research Council (grant number DE180100559).
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Harkin, N. (2021). Our Poetic-Justice. In: Disney, D., Hall, M. (eds) New Directions in Contemporary Australian Poetry. Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76287-2_2
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