Writing Country: Indigenous Ecopoetics (KOCR3605)
Koori Centre - University of Sydney
2012

Texts

form y separately published work icon Shadow Sister : A Film Biography of Kath Walker, M.B.E. Shadow Sister: a Film Biography of Australian Aboriginal Poet Kath Walker Jenny Baird Nussinov , ( dir. Frank Heimans ) Crows Nest : Cinetel Productions , 1978 Z823497 1978 single work film/TV (taught in 1 units)

This documentary shows the well-known Aboriginal poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath Walker) living on Stradbroke Island, Queensland, the place that was once the home of her native tribe. She welcomes visitors, particularly Aboriginal children, hoping to imbue them with pride in their own culture.
y separately published work icon Carpentaria Alexis Wright , Artarmon : Giramondo Publishing , 2006 Z1184902 2006 single work novel (taught in 47 units) Carpentaria's portrait of life in the precariously settled coastal town of Desperance centres on the powerful Phantom family, whose members are the leaders of the Pricklebush people, and their battles with old Joseph Midnight's tearaway Eastend mob on the one hand, and the white officials of Uptown and the neighbouring Gurfurrit mine on the other. Wright's storytelling is operatic and surreal: a blend of myth and scripture, politics and farce. The novel is populated by extraordinary characters - Elias Smith the outcast saviour, the religious zealot Mozzie Fishman, leader of the holy Aboriginal pilgrimage, the murderous mayor Stan Bruiser, the ever-vigilant Captain Nicoli Finn, the activist and prodigal son Will Phantom, and above all, Angel Day the queen of the rubbish-dump, and her sea-faring husband Normal Phantom, the fish-embalming king of time - figures that stand like giants in this storm-swept world. (Backcover)

Degrees

Bachelor of Arts

Description

The representation of nature has been central to human expression for thousands of years. Contemporary transnational ecopoetics situates nature and culture amidst present-day ecological catastrophes and political environmentalisms. This unit examines a uniquely Australian contribution to this field - “Country” - which for Australian Indigenous peoples denotes special cosmological, filial and custodial relations to land. Surveying a range of Indigenous and non-Indigenous works of poetry, non-fiction and art, “Writing Country” defines an Indigenous poetics of nature and explores its broader ecopoetical promise.

Assessment

Participation(10%), presentation(20%), short essay(30%), exam(40%)

Other Details

Levels: Undergraduate
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