"This deeply personal book is also an important historical record. Written from the heart and covering a period of time working on Christmas Island with asylum seekers until her return to Australia with an urgency to bear witness, Pettitt-Schipp's steady eye is levelled at a facade of Australian inclusivity and openness "this land's edge /has always been an invitation/a white-toothed smile/ to walk on". To those denied entry, those white teeth become menace, exclusion, shark, crocodile. In a book filled with heart-breakingly tender portraits, borders and bodies, sanctions and sanctuary are held close to each other in ways which articulate the space but also, the common ground between "us"."--Amanda Joy **"These beautiful Christmas Island poems capture both the despair of asylum seekers imprisoned by rock and sea and their ancient will to continue."--Gillian Triggs (Series: UWAP Poetry) [Subject: Poetry]' (Publication summary)
Dedication:
To my father, Bill Pettitt,
for his difficult love,
and to my mother, Jan Little,
for coming on the journey
of forgiveness with me.
'Australia has a strong history of poetry, albeit largely white and male. Henry Lawson, Banjo Patterson, Adam Lindsay Gordon, CJ Dennis, AD Hope and Dorothea Mackellar are all notable figures in Australia’s colonial history and literature. Why is it, then, that poetry collections are largely ignored by our major literary prizes?' (Introduction)
'Anne Elvey’s White on White and Reneé Pettitt-Schipp’s The Sky Runs Right Through Us both offer ideas of unsettlement in contemporary Australia; Elvey’s is the unsettlement brought by the arrival of colonists, whereas Pettitt-Schipp explores the unsettlement associated with denying arrival. In White on White, Elvey explores the limitations and downfalls of colonialism, and the paradoxical act of ‘building a falling’ that settlement represents. Despite its title, the collection is about the co-existence of whiteness and colour, as in the line, ‘On my desk the whiteout / is shelved beside the pens’. This line is also telling as it is about imprints and markings existing beside modes of erasure. In the prose poem ‘School days’, readers are introduced to the speaker’s skin that is ‘peach and cream with a blue undernote […] the colour of my soul’, which a ‘drop of ink’ would mortally stain. Here, Elvey invokes a thread running through the collection: the potential for ink, the medium for writing and textuality, to be fraught with sin and moral complications. At these moments, readers may reflect on the fact that it was white settlers who brought written language to Australia, with all of its blessings and burdens.' (Introduction)
'I approach this review not as a poetry expert, a poetry writer, or even (particularly) a poetry reader. Instead, I come to this review of Reneé Pettitt-Schipp’s book, The Sky Runs Right Through Us, through the eyes of a development practitioner. And perhaps also, an ashamed Australian.' (Introduction)
'The Sky Runs Right through Us, by the award-winning poet Reneé Pettitt-Schipp, traces a journey from Christmas Island, where she taught asylum-seekers, to the Australian mainland where she cared for her dying father, then to the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and to suburban Perth. Of course, the politically-charged poems form a major part of this collection but they are in dialogue with the poems that speak of her father’s decline so that this collection feels quite cohesive.' (Introduction)
'The Sky Runs Right through Us, by the award-winning poet Reneé Pettitt-Schipp, traces a journey from Christmas Island, where she taught asylum-seekers, to the Australian mainland where she cared for her dying father, then to the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and to suburban Perth. Of course, the politically-charged poems form a major part of this collection but they are in dialogue with the poems that speak of her father’s decline so that this collection feels quite cohesive.' (Introduction)
'I approach this review not as a poetry expert, a poetry writer, or even (particularly) a poetry reader. Instead, I come to this review of Reneé Pettitt-Schipp’s book, The Sky Runs Right Through Us, through the eyes of a development practitioner. And perhaps also, an ashamed Australian.' (Introduction)
'Anne Elvey’s White on White and Reneé Pettitt-Schipp’s The Sky Runs Right Through Us both offer ideas of unsettlement in contemporary Australia; Elvey’s is the unsettlement brought by the arrival of colonists, whereas Pettitt-Schipp explores the unsettlement associated with denying arrival. In White on White, Elvey explores the limitations and downfalls of colonialism, and the paradoxical act of ‘building a falling’ that settlement represents. Despite its title, the collection is about the co-existence of whiteness and colour, as in the line, ‘On my desk the whiteout / is shelved beside the pens’. This line is also telling as it is about imprints and markings existing beside modes of erasure. In the prose poem ‘School days’, readers are introduced to the speaker’s skin that is ‘peach and cream with a blue undernote […] the colour of my soul’, which a ‘drop of ink’ would mortally stain. Here, Elvey invokes a thread running through the collection: the potential for ink, the medium for writing and textuality, to be fraught with sin and moral complications. At these moments, readers may reflect on the fact that it was white settlers who brought written language to Australia, with all of its blessings and burdens.' (Introduction)
'Australia has a strong history of poetry, albeit largely white and male. Henry Lawson, Banjo Patterson, Adam Lindsay Gordon, CJ Dennis, AD Hope and Dorothea Mackellar are all notable figures in Australia’s colonial history and literature. Why is it, then, that poetry collections are largely ignored by our major literary prizes?' (Introduction)
