This seminar explores the power and potential of First Nations poetry in Australia to contribute to conflict resolution by healing unreconciled relationships in the present and unreconciled narratives of the past as well as imagining futures of peace. In the aftermath of the failed 2023 referendum for constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the political silence about alternative roadmaps to peace, First Nations poetry has become an increasingly significant site for peacemaking.
All storytellers are invited to participate in a poetry workshop facilitated by First Nations poet Elfie Shiosaki. In the workshop, we will learn about the collective power of poetry to imagine futures of peace and hope. We will perform a series of writing experiments to draft poems. The workshop aims to support the development of poetry writing skills and to build connections within the local writing community.
Associate Professor Elfie Shiosaki is a First Nations Noongar and Yawuru academic and storyteller from the southwest region of Australia, leading community education about human rights through her award-winning Indigenous storytelling practices. She is the Director of the Centre for Indigenous Policy Research at the Australian National University. She is the author of Refugia (Magabala Books 2024) and Homecoming (Magabala Books 2021) and co- editor of maar bidi: next generation black writing (Magabala Books 2020).
