Denis Kevans was a songwriter, actor and poet, commonly referred to as 'Australia's Poet Lorikeet'. He was well known for his commitment to Aboriginal issues, Irish political prisoners, the labour movement, environmental causes and republicanism.
Kevans attended schools in Canberra and Sydney and enrolled, initially, in medicine at the University of Sydney. After working for a time with the Department of External Affairs in Canberra, Kevans returned to the University of Sydney where he completed an arts degree and a teaching certificate. Kevans worked for many years as a teacher and a journalist while also writing poetry (frequently with anti-war or environmental themes). Many of Kevans's poems were set to music and recorded by Australian bands and musicians.
Kevans was chairman of the Sydney Realist Writers in the early 1960s. After he moved to Wentworth Falls in 1982, he wrote poems and songs for the Blue Mountains, two of which were chosen for the World Heritage Stones at Echo Point in Katoomba. He has also appeared in Reedy River for the New Theatre. He recited at the New South Wales Parliament Dinner for Gerry Adams (three times elected Member for West Belfast) in February 2004.
At the age of sixty-six Kevans died suddenly following complications from heart surgery.
