Charmaine Papertalk-Green



Yamaji Kin Songline

I am kin to the Bimarra creation line Snaking across country into bloodlines Creator of Yamaji life and culture Sustaining very old ancestor our old country Nganajungu Bimarra is our medicine I am kin to the old people now sand …

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Yamaji Kin Songline

I am kin to the Bimarra creation line Snaking across country into bloodlines Creator of Yamaji life and culture Sustaining very old ancestor our old country Nganajungu Bimarra is our medicine I am kin to the old people now sand …

Posted in 104: KIN | Tagged

This is my storytelling!

This is my data, and This is my Sovereign right. No more whitewashing Let Truth be told Dear Australian Whitewasher, Why do you find it difficult to understand ‘my kind’ and ‘my people’? Is it because of a whitewashed Australian …

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Introduction to Charmaine Papertalk Green’s Nganajungu Yagu

Since Charmaine Papertalk Green’s poetry was first published in The Penguin Book of Australian Women Poets in 1986, her voice on the page has been consistent: eloquently powerful, respectfully challenging and true to her role in life as a Yamaji Nyarlu.

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Tea Leaves Stains

Café sitting teacup drinking Tea leaves tell a story You know slavery Poured through generation eyes Swirling into existence With each teaspoon stir Stirring memories not forget Wadjbella’s took something Society slavery here Like domesticating a cat Or breaking in …

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Review Short: Charmaine Papertalk-Green’s and John Kinsella’s False Claims of Colonial Thieves

False Claims of Colonial Thieves weaves together two disparate voices, Charmaine Papertalk-Green and John Kinsella, in a demanding collection that reaffirms the troubling environmental era we are living through. Structurally, the book shifts between traditionally oppositional views – an Aboriginal woman and a white man.

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न्हानानग्गु यागु | Nhananggu Yagu

Translated from the English to the Hindi by Subhash Jaireth न्हानानग्गु यागु: मेरी मां जो मेरी अपनी मां है, हमेशा कहा करती थी कि माथा उठा कर चलो मेरी साहसी छुटकी निअरलु, यानि की मैं न्हानानग्गु यागु: मेरी मां, जो …

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Don’t Want Me to Talk

You don’t want me to talk about Mining or its impact on Country You don’t want me to talk about The concept and construct of ‘whiteness’ Its dominance and power in society You don’t want me to talk about The …

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OBSOLETE Editorial

‘Obsolete’ can only be neutral or pejorative; it is never a compliment. Even those who value the old, the superseded object or mode, are reinstating it so as to deny that the object or mode is obsolete. I can still use it.

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Blinding Loyalty

The Yamaji didn’t see it coming Having taken over from their fathers Working as farm hands Mullewa side The seasonal work welcomed Getting to drive the equipment Preparing the land for wheat Driving in circles and squares Late at night …

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A White Australia Mindset

When do you know it has become obsolete? When can we be certain it has become obsolete? Take the White Australian Policy abolished on paper yet The mindset was to keep Australia for the descendants Of the British and to …

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