On Contested History and the Contemporary Social Order in Australian Indigenous Poetry Danica Čerče In the light of the recent emergence of the field of critical whiteness studies in Australia and its new perspective on issues that have occupied postcolonial literary studies over the last four decades, this article examines the impact of Australian indigenous literature on the white reader. In particular, it aims to show that, in its overt objection to institutional and historical processes which maintain the entitlement and disavowal of whiteness on the one hand, and the concomitant political, economic and cultural subordination of indigenous Australians on the other, the poetry of Romaine Moreton and Alf Taylor destabilises assumptions about the authority and entitlement of white colonisers. In this sense, the article provides additional evidence that works of art have the capacity to either reinforce structures of domination and suppression of ―inferior races and cultures‖ or produce critical disruptions and generate alternative worlds (Levine 2000: 383). Introduction As one of the traditions of the new post-colonial literatures in English that have been described as ―writing back‖ to the literary traditions of empire (Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin 1989), Australian indigenous literature challenges the concept of European literary subjectivity (Lipsitz 1995) and the concomitant positioning of indigenous people as ―colonial subalterns,‖ a category that - according to Walter Mignolo - refers to those positioned outside European categories of proficiency and identity, and foregrounds racialised oppression and exploitation (Mignolo 2004: 386, 381, cf. Brewster 2008). With Anne Brewster, this description of Australian indigenous literature suggests that a ―postcolonial liberal Australia maintains a dominance without hegemony in relation to its colonial AAA - Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik Band 42 (2017) · Heft 1 Gunter Narr Verlag Tübingen Danica Čerče 58 subalterns, a constituency that […] has never ‗ceded sovereignty‘‖ (2008: 60). It is true that Australian Aborigines were given civic rights in 1968, but the new legislation did not ―erase all inequalities‖ (Wimmer 2009: 113) and indigenous communities continued to suffer severe social and economic hardship. Their protest was manifested in the form of activism and writing. Indeed, with its political agenda focused on land rights and cultural self-determination, this literature, written in English in order to be heard in a form recognisable to British authority, has provided an important impetus for indigenous peoples' cultural and political expression (Heiss and Minter 2008: 2). However, as recently as the early 1970s, indigenous Australian authors were marginalised voices in Australian literary studies. With the exception of some critically acclaimed works such as those by prose writers David Unaipon and Sally Morgan, poets Oodgeroo Noonuccal and Lionel Fogarty, and playwrights Kevin Gilbert and Jack Davis, there were very few ―celebrated Aboriginals‖ (Wheeler 2013: 1). Although the success of these authors attained in the face of colonial pressure motivated several other indigenous Australians to share their thoughts and feelings, it was not until the Commonwealth Bicentenary celebrations in 1988 that the wider Australian public showed an interest in this literature and culture. 1 This resulted in a veritable outburst of indigenous Australians‘ expression in various genres, including autobiography, fiction, poetry, film, drama and music. Poetry has attracted more indigenous Australians than any other mode of creative expression. Poets like Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Lionel Fogarty, Kevin Gilbert, Mudrooroo Narodin, Jack Davis, Romaine Moreton, Alf Taylor, Lisa Bellear, Jeanine Leane, among others, have used this medium to forge new possibilities for conveying their political ideas. Drawing on Christopher Fynsk‘s 1991 observation that ―literature addresses an anonymous collective, but it convokes us as singular beings‖ (xxviii), this essay discusses the affective impact of Romaine Moreton and Alf Taylor‘s hard-hitting reflections on the political, economic and cultural subordination of Australian indigenous peoples. In this sense, and taking up George Levine‘s view that works of art not only had ―a deep implication in the politics of Western imperialism and the suppression of ‗inferior‘ races and cultures,‖ but also displayed a clear capacity ―to disrupt the exercise of power‖ (2000: 383-4), this discussion will show that the two authors‘ work, like the work of other contemporary indigenous poets, has played an important role in generating what Mignolo calls ―de-colonial thought‖ (2004: 391; cf. Brewster 2008) and contributed to improving the social and economic conditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia. 1 In that year, nationwide demonstrations led by indigenous authors and activists were held. Australian Indigenous Poetry 59 Adam Shoemaker is probably right to claim that ―if there is any ‗school of Black Australian poetry‘, it is one of social protest,‖ arguing that ―most Aboriginal poets reject the art for art‘s sake argument and feel that their work have at least some social utility‖ (1989: 201, 180). Indeed, in accordance with Michael Lipsky‘s definition of protest activity as a ―mode of political action oriented toward objection to one or more policies or conditions‖ (1968: 1145), much of contemporary indigenous poetry is characterised by ―political or social critique in objecting to the conditions of indigenous people‘s minoritisation‖ (Brewster 2008: 61), i.e. to cultural and political domination and disenfranchisement by white Australians. Another essential aspect of protest poetry is its capacity ―to offer revelations of social worlds […] to which readers respond with shock, concern, sometimes political questioning‖ (Coles 1986: 677). As this study will also show, Australian indigenous poetry and the poetry of Moreton and Taylor in particular, is capable of having the maximum effect on the readers. I will begin with Moreton, given that her poetry is more radical than Taylor‘s. On the Invisibility of Indigenous Australians in the Poetry of Romaine Moreton Addressing a multitude of pressing social justice issues by exposing the institutional and historical processes and logics that have maintained political, economic and cultural subordination of Aboriginal people, the poetry of Romaine Moreton figures perhaps among the most penetrating fictional indictment of colonisation in Australia (cf. Brewster 2008, 2009, Russo 2005, Čerče 2010). Moreton‘s angle of vision, coupled with the anger and generative urgency, has made her work very popular with a huge participatory audience. She achieves the maximum affective impact by employing various poetic structures, such as rhetorical questions, direct address to the reader, satirical antitheses and repetitions, which all invite the readers‘ active participation through emotional identification and their subsequent conversion. Her verse engages white and other nonindigenous publics in ―a reassessment of history, an enquiry into contemporary cultural and economic inequality, and a scrutiny of white privilege, entitlement and denial‖ (Brewster 2008: 68). Thus ―The first sin,‖ one of many poems that perform this function by pointing to the political, institutional and cultural reproduction of white privilege on the one hand, and the invisibility of indigenous people on the other, begins: He was guilty of the first sin - Being Black He was sentenced very early in life - Danica Čerče 60 At birth and only substances appeased his pangs of guilt. (Moreton et al. 2000: 3) 2 Clearly, Moreton sees black life in Australia as inherently political. As she puts it in one poem, ―It ain‘t easy being black / this kinda livin‘ is all political‖ (2004: 111). Despite her awareness of the general unappreciative attitude to engaged writing, she continues to view her verse primarily as a site of resistance: ―To create works that do not deal with the morbid and mortal effects of racism for one, and the beauty of indigenous culture for another, would be for me personally, to produce works that are farcical (Moreton 2001: 1). Moreton has shown her objection to the social and political marginalisation of Black Australians, and her Goenpul nation in particular, by writing poetry, performing her verse, and making films. 3 However, and despite the compelling nature of her work, she is not yet widely known in the field of indigenous literary studies. Perhaps this is because her output has been comparatively slight, speculates Brewster (2009: 109). Her poems are collected in three books, The Callused Stick of Wanting (1995), Post Me to the Prime Minister (2004), and Poems from a Homeland (2012). She is represented in several anthologies of Australian indigenous writing, such as Rimfire: Poetry from Aboriginal Australia (2000), Untreated: Poems by Black Writers (2001) and the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature (2008). Her performance poetry (or spoken word poetry) has been included in two compilations of Indigenous music, Fresh Salt (2002) and Sending a Message (2002). Protest is not the only dynamic of Moreton‘s poetry, but is the main one. Aroused by both her anger at those inflicting injustice on other people and her affection for those experiencing the inhumanity of racial subordination, Moreton unrelentingly exposes and condemns the brutalising effects of the Crown‘s acquisition of 1770, which made sovereign Aboriginal land terra nullius and Aboriginal peoples vox nullius (Heiss and Minter 2008: 2). The poet reflects on incarceration, deaths in custody, child removal, high infant mortality rates, low life expectancy, suicide, poverty and similar socio-economic issues concerning contemporary indigenous Australians. The poem ―You are Black,‖ for example, abounds in references to the injustices Black communities have had to endure under the white settlers‘ dominance. It begins in the manner of English mockepic poetry and proceeds by piling on fact after fact about flagrant viola- 2 All quotations from Moreton's collection The Callused Stick of Wanting refer to the anthology Rimfire: Poetry from Aboriginal Australia (Magabala Books, 2000). In addition to Moreton‘s collection (1-71), the anthology includes Alf Taylor‘s Singer Songwriter (72-137) and Michael J. Smith‘s Calling Through (138-171). 3 Moreton‘s film work includes Cherish (1997), Redreaming the Dark (1988), and A Walk with Words (2000), which won the 2000 award for the best international short film at the World of Women Film Festival. Australian Indigenous Poetry 61 tions of the native Australians‘ civil and human rights, and their loss of dignity through threats, reprisals and violence. If you are oppressed in any way, you are Black. If you are a woman who loves women or a man who loves men, you are Black. If it is that people do not accept you simply for what you do, you are Black. If they do not accept that their God is not yours or yours is not theirs, and would want to crucify, you are Black. (Moreton et al. 2000: 55) In very much the same vein, Moreton reflects in ―Genocide is never justified,‖ in which she signals her moral outrage and outright disapproval already in the poem‘s title. Her fusion of intimate narrative sentences with a set of rhetorical questions reinforces the symphonic quality of the poem, with voices overlapping, complementing or opposing each other. The opening part reads: And the past was open to gross misinterpretation. Why do the sons and daughters of the raped and murdered deserve any more or any less than those who have prospered from the atrocities of heritage? And why do the sons and daughters refuse to reap what was sown from bloodied soil? And why does history ignore their existence? (Moreton et al. 2000: 31) The poem is a powerful protest against the practices of white colonisers. Characterised by a direct manner of writing, which gains poignancy by the ironic subtleties of her statements, the poem exposes key social injustices, including the tyranny of oppression and abuse, arrogance of power, poverty, and wilful destruction of indigenous peoples. Although not an autobiographical confession, the poem is acutely personal; it is a harrowing cry against all the forms of suppression and victimisation of the people who lived in Australia for thousands of years before the white settlement. ―Who was here first is not the question anymore‖ (Moreton et al. 2000: 31), continues Moreton‘s hard-hitting exposure of social injustices, suggesting at least the recognition of oppression by majority Australians 4 : 4 In her 2003 interview with Andrew Ford, Moreton says that the most the indigenous population can hope for at the moment is that the emotional impact of colo- Danica Čerče 62 It is what you have done since you arrived, the actions you refuse to admit to, the genocide you say you never committed! ‖ (Moreton et al. 2000: 31) A startling effect is achieved by finally pointing to the indigenous peoples‘ spiritual and emotional depth. This inherent quality has not only helped them survive in a hostile, morally decayed and emotionally sterile white environment, Moreton suggests at the end of this deeply felt elegy, but also distinguishes them from it. Several other poems also humanise indigenous Australians and attack atrocities carried out in the name of ―civilising the uncivilised,‖ as Moreton ironically refers to the inhuman practices of those who ―elect[ed] themselves as the supremacist race‖ in the poem ―What kind of people‖ (Moreton et al. 2000: 45). ―What kind of people would kick the heads off babies / or rip at the stomach of the impregnated, / as would a ravaged wolf,‖ she continues in her disdainful address to apathetic readers, who repudiate any suggestion that their ancestors were capable of ―such murderous feats‖ (Ibid.). The poem proceeds in true Moreton fashion, compiling a catalogue of evidence to show the inhumanity of racial subordination. ―Are you beautiful today,‖ a poem included in Moreton‘s second collection (Post Me to the Prime Minister, 2004), mobilises the rhetorical strategies of argument and critique on the one hand, and poetic effects on the other. It opens: Are you beautiful today? Are your children safe and well? Brother, mother, sister too? I merely ask so you can tell. (Moreton 2004: 29) It is through such a conversational tone and direct address to the reader that Moreton establishes the textual illusion of a discourse and dramatises the inter-racial encounter (cf. Brewster 2008, 2009). With a series of satirical antitheses that elaborate a contrastive picture of the speaker‘s family, affected by the struggle to cope with difficult circumstances, and that of the addressee, a white woman with an apparent position of privilege and economic comfort, Moreton provides for an insight into the asymmetry of racial relationships and reveals the tensions underlying the relationships between white and black Australians. I laugh with my sisters and brothers at things that others wouldn‘t get nisation will be at least acknowledged by the non-indigenous population if it cannot be fully understood. Australian Indigenous Poetry 63 while talkin‘ ‗bout jail while talkin‘ ‗bout death. (Moreton 2004: 29) The repetition of a one-sided inquiry into the addressee‘s well-being foregrounds the absence of a response, pointing to the ―absence of responsiveness‖ in contemporary Australian culture and politics to the ongoing material deprivation and suffering of indigenous Australians (Brewster 2008, 66, cf. Wheeler 2013, Wimmer 2009, Heiss and Minter 2008). It has to be borne in mind that it was not until February 2008 that the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd opened a new chapter in Australia‘s relations with its indigenous peoples by making a comprehensive apology for the past policies, which had - in the Prime Minister‘s words - ―inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss‖ (Johnston 2008: 3) on fellow Australians. The indigenous response to the failure of multiculturalism‘s proclaimed mutual understanding is crying-laughter, established by the oscillation between the tonality of despair, anger and hilarity. Several forceful contrasts (e.g. ―complacency/ poverty,‖ ―health/ death,‖ ―peace/ distress‖) provide for a sense of farce. True to Andrew Ford‘s observation that Moreton‘s poetry ―packs a punch‖ (2003: 6), this can be found at the end of the poem, where the repetition of the catch phrase reminds us of the indigenous peoples‘ continuing poverty and neglect, resulting in high mortality rates. Are you beautiful today? your brother, mother, sister, too? are you well clothed and well fed? and are they alive and well not dead? (Moreton 2004: 29) Despite the seeming darkness of much of Moreton‘s verse, the poet‘s conception of art is not pessimistic, and her thorny plight is often brightened with instances of hope and optimism. In ―Time for Dreaming,‖ for example, she alludes to the passing of white supremacy by addressing the reader with the words: ―Do not wonder about the ways of the whiteman / for they have already run their course‖ (Moreton et al. 2000: 1). The poem ―My tellurian grandfather,‖ too, ends on an optimistic tone, pointing to the native Australians‘ capacity for survival in a hostile world: ―[…] you can put the flame out / […] but there will always be fire‖ (Moreton et al. 2000: 29). It is not hard by now to see that, despite her overt social criticism, which has had an important role in destabilising the white Australians‘ position of privilege, Moreton is a very ingenious and creative author who relies heavily on her Aboriginality for texture, diction and rhythm. Danica Čerče 64 The discussion that follows will show that the same applies to Alf Taylor, a Western Australian Nyoongah poet and writer. 5 His writing, too, functions to ―unsettle whiteness‖ (Brewster 2009: 118) or create what Wendy Brady calls ―a zone of discomfort around notions of what it means in contemporary Australia to be black‖ (Andrew 1998). The Indictment of Colonisation in Alf Taylor’s Verse Growing up in the Spanish Benedictine Mission at New Norcia, Taylor represents an older generation of writers, the members of the ‗Stolen Generation.‘ As a poet, Taylor has published two collections, Singer Songwriter (1992) and Winds (1994). His short fiction is collected in Long Time Now (2001). He seems to have turned to poetry for various reasons, including his desire to cope with the traumas of racial suppression and his painful upbringing: ―Only love / And / The pen / Can quell / This flame / That / Burns within,‖ he writes in the poem ―This Flame‖ (Taylor 1994: 39). For him, writing seems to have become a kind of sustaining addiction, a way of establishing his personal and economic identity and, above all, a necessary condition of existence. ―Now I can talk about the life of the child, and I‘m free of hurt, free of resentments, regrets […]. In other words, bearing a grudge,‖ he told Anne Brewster, when she interviewed him for the 2007 Aboriginal History journal (170). Although writing has made him comfortable in the social and emotional spheres of ordinary life and provided therapeutic value for him, it would be wrong to believe that he deals only with experiences of being Aboriginal. In addition to chronicling the suffering of his peoples and their capacity to survive in a hostile environment, Taylor examines the omnipresent themes of love, friendship, human joy and anguish. As Philip Morrissey notes in his introduction to Winds, ―Taylor presents us with an Aboriginal subject […] bound by a network of affective webs to family, lovers, places and strangers‖ (1994: vii). In contrast with his short fiction, which is tinted with humour, 6 his verse is often pervaded by a spirit of sadness and sometimes even despair. This is particularly true of poems dealing with such typical factors of Aboriginal life as solitude, isolation and loss. 5 I met Taylor at the University of Western Australia in 2007, while he was working on the manuscript of his life story ―God, the Devil and Me.‖ Excerpts from this manuscript were published in the anthology of indigenous writing, Those Who Remain Will Always Remember (2001), and in the literary journal Westerly (2003 and 2005). The first Westerly excerpt received the Patricia Hackett Prize (2003). The whole book has still not been published. 6 Despite the seriousness of their depiction, several indigenous Australian authors have addressed issues of social injustice and racism by employing double-edged humour, so that the ―tensions that are aroused can be released as laughter‖ (Rappoport 2005: 50). Australian Indigenous Poetry 65 In terms of structure, because of Taylor‘s accessible mode of writing, his lines often seem pedestrian, particularly if assessed by strict rules of formalism. Admittedly, and as indigenous poets are often reprimanded, Taylor indeed seems to feel comfortable in the short line lyric with a meter of four stresses or fewer, or in free verse which often lacks fluidity. 7 His poems are written in a colloquial language, and his evenly measured end-rhyming lines are sometimes less than virtuosic. Rather than because of aesthetic purity, Taylor‘s verse is impressive because of the directness and sincerity that springs from his deeply felt personal experience. In his poems, he returns to his painful childhood and adolescence, to his hardwon struggles with alcohol and an attempted suicide, reviving memories of his tribe, parents, friends, youthful love, and heartfelt yearnings. Compared to Moreton‘s poetry, which is by her own admission very often received as ―confronting and challenging‖ (Moreton 2001: 1), Taylor‘s poems are more lyrical, generated by his urge to effect a significant metamorphosis in his psyche, and as a means of reconciliation with his own past. Generally speaking, they are also less poignant. As the poet reveals in his interview: ―The pencil is my weapon […] But I try to write from a neutral corner and go between the centre of that uneasiness, because I don‘t want my readers to be uncomfortable when they read‖ (Brewster 2007: 175). However, as this discussion will show, in mobilising various strategies of indictment and advocacy in the service of social justice agendas, several of Taylor‘s poems stir strong feelings of guilt, shame and remorse in non-indigenous readers. In Taylor‘s collections, the search for any kind of arrangement or logical sequence of poems would prove unproductive; the poems follow one another like uncontrolled thoughts, moving back and forth from childhood to adulthood, and veering from public to private realms. Both collections start in medias res, bluntly exposing the brutalising effects of indigenous socio-economic subordination in Australia. The collection Winds opens with the poem ―People of the Park,‖ which begins and proceeds as an idyllic description of a tribal gathering. It is not until the end of the poem that the poet overturns this one-dimensional cliché and surprises the reader with the heart-breaking claim: People outside The circle Think 7 Several critics concur that a failure to achieve high standard of English, symptomatic of much indigenous writing, has to be attributed to the limited formal education of these authors and their lack of confidence when entering a field that was previously monopolised by whites. Another aspect is political: for many indigenous Australians, the English language is still synonymous with colonial authority, so they are reluctant to purify it of tribal and colloquial speech patterns (Maver, 2000; Shoemaker 1989). Danica Čerče 66 The people Of the park Have Got no tomorrow. (Taylor 1994: 1) A similarly embittered voicing of the miseries suffered by the Black community is characteristic of ―Black skin,‖ the opening poem in Singer Songwriter. Its tone oscillates between despair and anger. A sense of hopelessness is achieved by the overwhelming presence of the colour black, which has a negative connotation in colour symbolism, as it is linked with death and sorrow. The yoking of rhyming companions (tomorrow/ sorrow/ hope/ rope) establishes a feeling of farce. Several other poems also deal with the consequences of racial exclusion. In ―Sniffin‘,‖ for example, Taylor meditates on widespread drug use as a means ―to get away / from that shadow / of pain‖ (Moreton et al. 2000: 107). Many indigenous people seek refuge in heavy drinking, Taylor regretfully observes in poems such as ―The trip,‖ ―Dole cheque,‖ ―A price,‖ ―Last ride,‖ ―Hopeless case,‖ ―Ode to the drunken poet,‖ to mention only a few. It must be also because drinking used to be his own escape from the thoughts of his cruel upbringing that he writes, ―These are the people / of no life / and no hope‖ (Moreton et al. 2000: 125), unreservedly taking the side of those who disapprove of this kind of escapism. That these poems are highly illustrative of the poet‘s own problems with alcohol is also clearly evident from his confession: ―I was quite lucky to realise that alcohol does not solve any problems; it adds problems to problems‖ (Brewster 2007: 174-6). Similarly, Taylor lists the effects of drinking in ―Gerbah‖: The time he‘s forty body wrecked his life nearly done. Dead brain cells and a burnt out liver, lays in a cold sweat and starts to shiver. (Moreton et al. 2000: 128) 8 The poem proceeds as a deductively reasoned analysis, piling up arguments and exhortations, and closing with an appeal to youngsters to learn and acquire an education. 9 Very much in the same vein regarding both theme and structure (both poems are written in six evenly measured four- 8 All quotations from Alf Taylor‘s first collection Singer Songwriter refer to the anthology Rimfire: Poetry from Aboriginal Australia (Magabala Books, 2000). 9 As discussed by Adi Wimmer (2013), until the 1968, the sale of alcohol to indigenous population was banned. With the 1967 referendum, through which indigenous Australian communities became autonomous, the ban had to be repealed. The real dimensions of alcohol abuse and its direct connection with violence and death did not become collective awareness before the turn of the millennium, which saw the publication of several studies by anthropologists, including Peter Sutton (2001, 2009), Louis Nowra (2007) and some others. Australian Indigenous Poetry 67 line stanzas, with rhyming end-stressed syllables), Taylor reflects in ―Leave us alone.‖ Unlike several of the poems characterised by pessimistic tonalities, and despite an undercurrent of satirical bitterness, ―Leave us alone‖ offers an optimistic view. In addition, articulating an indictment of injustice and ―advocating change‖ rather than merely ―interpreting‖ the situation, as proposed in the eleventh of Marx‘s Theses on Feuerbach 10 and later embraced by the Subaltern Studies group, the poem can also be regarded as an exemplary instance of protest poetry: Challenge problems, not running away, Forget about the booze and family fights, Let‘s stand up as individuals and make it right. (Moreton et al. 2000: 134) A rallying cry to his peoples to jointly strive for their rights, which underlies the recurrent themes of alcoholism, unemployment, poverty, and deaths in custody, is also heard in the poem ―We blackfellas.‖ Structured as sustained argument and exposition, it criticises the debilitating role of the media in their portrayal of indigenous peoples and concludes with the conviction: ―We blackfellas must stand / as one / as the fight still goes on‖ (Moreton et al. 2000: 129). In an accusatory and disconcertingly direct poem in clipped line lengths, ―No names,‖ Taylor reveals his deep concern about numerous deaths in custody. He is critical of non-indigenous Australians, who are aware of the shocking statistics, but do not react to them. Taylor hints at their passivity with a set of rhetorical questions underpinned with sardonic bitterness: ―Who is / to blame? / Who is / to blame? / Lots of questions / but no names (Moreton et al. 2000: 110). The poet‘s experimentation with language‘s syntactic markers, such as direct address to the reader, rhetorical questions, and satirical antithesis to establish the point of view and evoke emotional and cognitive states in the reader, ensures the maximum participatory effect of his verse. In ―Why,‖ for example, Taylor employs rhetorical questions to lay bare different aspects of contemporary cultural and economic inequality and to stir intense feelings of guilt and shame: ―Why / Is he / Living / In this room / Infested with / Alcohol, drugs / And pills / […] he just can‘t / take it / No more / But why‖ (Taylor 1994: 20). Reading this poem is certainly not a passive process: despite its technical weaknesses, it deeply engages nonindigenous readers and evokes moral indignation, anger and empathy tinged with guilt and remorse. By articulating the multiple forms of trauma within the indigenous community, and advocating the indigenous peoples‘ unconquerable spirit in the face of adversity and loss, Taylor has had an important role in documenting the situation of the indigenous minority in contemporary 10 https: / / www.marxists.org/ archive/ marx/ works/ 1845/ theses/ Danica Čerče 68 Australia. And more than that; writing out of the intense presence of his whole self and embracing a poetic mode that allows an apprehension of and participation in the quality of his experience, Taylor has produced verse that evokes strong feelings of culpability in non-indigenous Australian readers. At the same time, it stimulates readers all around the world to draw parallels across national lines and consider the critique in the context of their own national traumas. Conclusion Both Moreton and Taylor owe their fame and recognition more to the fact that their verse embodies the shape of their faith and devotional posture than to the technical perfection of their expression. This quality of their writing places them in the league of poets who have considered verse as a ―verbal discourse in which message is dominant and the aesthetic function is subordinate,‖ as Narodin Mudrooroo defines Australian indigenous poetry (1990: 35). Given the increasingly wider public and scholarly interest in their message, which culminated in the Prime Minister‘s apology to indigenous Australians for past mistreatment and in the subsequent process of reconciliation, Moreton and Taylor have provided additional evidence that works of art are an important site for negotiating change. Destabilising white readers‘ assumptions about the authority and entitlement of their race, their poetry can be seen to contribute to what Mignolo describes as the ―undoing of the coloniality of knowledge‖ and a ―genealogy of de-colonial thought‖ (Mignolo 2005, 391, cf. Brewster 2008: 74). Despite articulating the Australian scene, their verse addresses larger experience of human disenfranchisement and evokes emotional and cognitive reactions everywhere, where belonging still means ―endur[ing] with suffering,‖ as Michael Smith writes in his poem ―Belonging‖ (Moreton et al. 2000: 153). All things considered, and although - in Gayatri Spivak‘s words - ―what is called history will always seem more real to us than what is called literature‖ (1988a: 243), it is probably safe to claim that the creative imagination of indigenous Australian authors deserves to be brought into the global exchange of values and messages; judging by the increased interest in ―all Others, marginal, minority, and peripheral literatures,‖ as proposed by Steven Totosy de Zepetnek (1999: 15), among other postcolonial critics that have stressed the need to expand Westerners‘ knowledge of non-Western literature and culture, this process has already come a long way. Australian Indigenous Poetry 69 References Andrew, Brook (1998). Blak Babe(z) & Kweer Kat(z). Chippendale: Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative. Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths & Helen Tiffin (1989). The Empire Writes Back. Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures. London, New York: Routledge. 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