Parramatta’s poetry scene is being shaped by women who don’t necessarily look like traditional poets. They are scientists, social workers, marketing assistants, models, actors and performers, building creative lives alongside jobs and careers in other industries, increasingly finding their way to the stage through unconventional routes.
Among them are Helen Latukefu, a Tongan-Australian scientist, beauty pageant winner and actress, and South Sudanese sisters Atoc and Amuor Malou, who work across social work, publishing, modelling and performance. Their professional lives may take them in very different directions, but poetry gives them a shared language: one they use to experiment, perform, tell stories, and carve out space for themselves in Western Sydney’s creative landscape.
None of them arrived at poetry through a single, straightforward path. Family, theatre, writing, performance, sensory experiences, and community spaces shaped their creative practices, often long before they considered themselves poets. Now, while juggling multiple jobs and creative pursuits, they bring those influences to the stage and make poetry their own.
Helen Latukefu’s beloved grandmother and namesake played a fundamental role in introducing her to poetry. She encouraged Helen to create art and read her poetry aloud, further developing her writing skills through email exchanges in which she made gentle corrections. “I grew up learning to enjoy these things,” she recalls.
While poetry helped Helen express herself, watching spoken word artists on YouTube inspired her to connect more intimately with the artform. She attended her first slam event in Inner West Sydney in her teens and went on to win the Australian Poetry Slam (APS) youth category in 2018, performing at the Sydney Opera House. Recently, she won the APS Southern Highlands heats, securing a place in the upcoming state finals. Her poetry is inspired by her surroundings, nature and creation.
For Atoc Malou, poetry is an experimental tool. She incorporates tactile and sensory experiences through props, soundscapes, and movement into her dynamic performances, including with artist-led collectives like OurVerse in Western Sydney.
One concept Atoc likes to explore is ‘bizarre’ situations. Inspired by personal interactions, she uses costumes to portray different characters. The theatrical element caught Atoc’s interest as a student. “When I was in high school, we did drama classes, and using costumes to play different characters elevated everything,” she recalls. “I always try to be immersive like theatre and bring my poetry outside of the page and the voice.”
Her twin sister Amuor’s poetry is similarly spirited, especially when performing onstage with Atoc (in one of Atoc’s live poems, Amour hilariously dresses up like their uncle with a briefcase). Amuor’s poetry skills were nurtured in high school through her involvement with Story Factory, the NSW-based creative writing centre. In 2021, she published her novella, Devil’s Spawn, with them. “Story Factory helped to develop long-form writing for my novella, as well as characters and narrative,” she recalls. “Even without knowing that I was going to get into poetry, I was able to use skills that help me now.”
Amuor’s poetry explores the peculiar and wonderful moments in life, such as death, grief, nature and joy. She has performed at the National Youth Poetry Slam and won the People’s Choice Award in 2024.
As storytellers and women of colour, the trio also occupy spaces where cultural representation and creativity intersect. Amuor and Atoc have consistently woven their South Sudanese identity into their poems, having featured in Red Room Poetry’s Young Gifted and Black: Africa in Australia showcase, and more recently in the African Youth Poetry Slam presented by African Caribbean Writers’ Festival and African Youth Initiatives Centres at Parramatta’s Arts and Cultural Exchange Centre (ACE). Helen’s lead role in the upcoming Tongan short film Puletaha, directed by Unaloto Funaki, similarly weaves and represents her identity on the screen.
Amuor sees representation as something that naturally comes with being a Black creative. “I don’t feel the weight of representation, because I’m doing something I like. When people see me, they see I’m Black. Even though they may not know I’m South Sudanese, I’m automatically representing Black people.”
Her twin takes a more deliberate approach to incorporating culture. “I always try to include my culture, including some words in my language, rhythm and music,” Atoc says. “I even discuss it in my poems, through identity and cultural expectations and South Sudanese pride.”
In Helen’s experience, representing culture through Puletaha became a way to celebrate Tongan women. “I loved that this was an opportunity to showcase Tongan female beauty, Tongan females who are strong-minded,” she says. “I love that we could honour our people in a different light. ”
For all three, cultural identity is an important part of their storytelling, but so is place. Parramatta has provided a creative home where they have honed their craft, found community and grown into confident performers.
In 2024, Atoc performed in an installation called The Path, conceptualised by Parramatta Artists Studio artist Fei Gao and presented at the Parramatta Lanes Festival. Additionally, Helen attended APS youth poetry slams held at Riverside Theatres. Nowadays, she is part of the Pacific-led writing group Tagata Moana Writers, where she performs her poetry at ACE and has used the space to rehearse for Puletaha, set to be released at the Pasifika Film Fest this year.
As for Amuor, Story Factory’s Parramatta centre was crucial to her creative writing development under the mentorship of Bankstown Poetry Slam co-founder and renowned spoken word artist Bilal Hafda. She predicts that the local arts community will see more of this kind of in-person learning and networking in the future. “People will want to be out more, share their work and connect, because they are lonely,” she says. “If people want a hub for entertainment and culture, they won’t need to go far and wide – it will be here in Parramatta.”
This article has been commissioned in partnership with Diversity Arts Australia’s Creative Pathways Parramatta project, supported by the City of Parramatta. Diversity Arts Australia receives core funding from Creative Australia and Create NSW.
