Ballad of the Totems single work   poetry   humour   "My father was Noonuccal man and kept old tribal way,"
Issue Details: First known date: 1966... 1966 Ballad of the Totems
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Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Dawn Is at Hand Kath Walker , Brisbane : Jacaranda Press , 1966 Z195819 1966 selected work poetry

    A collection of thirty poems by Kath Walker (Oodgeroo Noonuccal) exploring race, loneliness, Aboriginality and Country.

    Brisbane : Jacaranda Press , 1966
    pg. 39-40
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon My People : A Kath Walker Collection Kath Walker , Milton : Jacaranda Press , 1970 Z1325109 1970 selected work poetry essay

    'Oodgeroo's writing is often a provocative and passionate plea for justice. My People is a collection of poetry and prose and a reminder of Oodgeroo's contribution to indigenous culture and the journey to reconciliation.' (Source: Reading Australia website)

    Milton : Jacaranda Press , 1970
    pg. 24-25
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Jindyworobaks Brian Elliott (editor), St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1979 Z354916 1979 anthology poetry criticism extract St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1979 pg. 298-199
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon My Country : Australian Poetry and Short Stories, Two Hundred Years Leonie Kramer (editor), Sydney : Lansdowne , 1985 Z1067493 1985 anthology poetry short story Sydney : Lansdowne , 1985 pg. 552
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Anthology of Australian Religious Poetry Les Murray (editor), Blackburn : Collins Dove , 1986 Z212505 1986 anthology poetry Blackburn : Collins Dove , 1986 pg. 40-41
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Penguin Book of Australian Women Poets Susan Hampton (editor), Kate Llewellyn (editor), Ringwood : Penguin , 1986 Z406355 1986 anthology poetry Ringwood : Penguin , 1986 pg. 90
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Sting in the Wattle : Australian Satirical Verse Philip Neilsen (editor), St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1993 Z375066 1993 anthology poetry correspondence extract satire humour war literature St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1993 pg. 109-110
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Oxford Book of Modern Australian Verse Peter Porter (editor), South Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1996 Z397894 1996 anthology poetry extract South Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1996 pg. 54-55
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Family Ties : Australian Poems of the Family Jennifer Strauss (editor), South Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1998 Z115299 1998 anthology poetry South Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1998 pg. 100-101
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon 50 Years of Queensland Poetry : 1940s - 1990s Philip Neilsen (editor), Helen Horton (editor), Rockhampton : Central Queensland University Press , 1998 Z893557 1998 anthology poetry Rockhampton : Central Queensland University Press , 1998 pg. 36
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon My People : A Kath Walker Collection Kath Walker , Milton : Jacaranda Press , 1970 Z1325109 1970 selected work poetry essay

    'Oodgeroo's writing is often a provocative and passionate plea for justice. My People is a collection of poetry and prose and a reminder of Oodgeroo's contribution to indigenous culture and the journey to reconciliation.' (Source: Reading Australia website)

    Milton : John Wiley and Sons , 2007
    pg. 24-25
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature Nicholas Jose (editor), Kerryn Goldsworthy (editor), Anita Heiss (editor), David McCooey (editor), Peter Minter (editor), Nicole Moore (editor), Elizabeth Webby (editor), Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2009 Z1590615 2009 anthology correspondence diary drama essay extract poetry prose short story (taught in 23 units)

    'Some of the best, most significant writing produced in Australia over more than two centuries is gathered in this landmark anthology. Covering all genres - from fiction, poetry and drama to diaries, letters, essays and speeches - the anthology maps the development of one of the great literatures in English in all its energy and variety.

    'The writing reflects the diverse experiences of Australians in their encounter with their extraordinary environment and with themselves. This is literature of struggle, conflict and creative survival. It is literature of lives lived at the extremes, of frontiers between cultures, of new dimensions of experience, where imagination expands.

    'This rich, informative and entertaining collection charts the formation of an Australian voice that draws inventively on Indigenous words, migrant speech and slang, with a cheeky, subversive humour always to the fore. For the first time, Aboriginal writings are interleaved with other English-language writings throughout - from Bennelong's 1796 letter to the contemporary flowering of Indigenous fiction and poetry - setting up an exchange that reveals Australian history in stark new ways.

    'From vivid settler accounts to haunting gothic tales, from raw protest to feisty urban satire and playful literary experiment, from passionate love poetry to moving memoir, the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature reflects the creative eloquence of a society.

    'Chosen by a team of expert editors, who have provided illuminating essays about their selections, and with more than 500 works from over 300 authors, it is an authoritative survey and a rich world of reading to be enjoyed.' (Publisher's blurb)

    Allen and Unwin have a YouTube channel with a number of useful videos on the Anthology.

    Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2009
    pg. 670
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Puncher & Wattmann Anthology of Australian Poetry John Leonard (editor), Glebe : Puncher and Wattmann , 2009 Z1674214 2009 anthology poetry (taught in 16 units) Glebe : Puncher and Wattmann , 2009 pg. 244
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon I Am Proud and Other Poems Oodgeroo Noonuccal , Warners Bay : Picaro Press , 2010 Z1824441 2010 selected work poetry Warners Bay : Picaro Press , 2010 pg. 6-7
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon 100 Australian Poems of Love and Loss Jamie Grant (editor), Prahran : Hardie Grant Books , 2011 Z1758937 2011 anthology poetry Prahran : Hardie Grant Books , 2011 pg. 144
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Australian Poetry Since 1788 Geoffrey Lehmann (editor), Robert Gray (editor), Sydney : University of New South Wales Press , 2011 Z1803846 2011 anthology poetry (taught in 1 units) 'A good poem is one that the world can’t forget or is delighted to rediscover. This landmark anthology of Australian poetry, edited by two of Australia’s foremost poets, Geoffrey Lehmann and Robert Gray, contains such poems. It is the first of its kind for Australia and promises to become a classic. Included here are Australia’s major poets, and lesser-known but equally affecting ones, and all manifestations of Australian poetry since 1788, from concrete poems to prose poems, from the cerebral to the naïve, from the humorous to the confessional, and from formal to free verse. Translations of some striking Aboriginal song poems are one of the high points. Containing over 1000 poems from 170 Australian poets, as well as short critical biographies, this careful reevaluation of Australian poetry makes this a superb book that can be read and enjoyed over a lifetime.' (From the publisher's website.) Sydney : University of New South Wales Press , 2011 pg. 497
Alternative title: Ballata dei totem
Language: Italian
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon My People : A Kath Walker Collection Kath Walker , Milton : Jacaranda Press , 1970 Z1325109 1970 selected work poetry essay

    'Oodgeroo's writing is often a provocative and passionate plea for justice. My People is a collection of poetry and prose and a reminder of Oodgeroo's contribution to indigenous culture and the journey to reconciliation.' (Source: Reading Australia website)

    My People. La mia gente
    Milan : Mimesis , 2022
    pg. 150-153

Works about this Work

Long Memoried Women : Oodgeroo Noonuccal and Jamaican Poet, Louise Bennett Angela Smith , 1994 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , vol. 16 no. 4 1994; (p. 77-91)
The Poetry of Oodgeroo Geoff Page , 1993 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Island , Summer no. 57 1993; (p. 4-5)
Long Memoried Women : Oodgeroo Noonuccal and Jamaican Poet, Louise Bennett Angela Smith , 1994 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , vol. 16 no. 4 1994; (p. 77-91)
The Poetry of Oodgeroo Geoff Page , 1993 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Island , Summer no. 57 1993; (p. 4-5)
Last amended 18 Jan 2022 10:22:40
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