Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Thursday 07 May
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
Location
wheelercentre.com
not in Aus, mate
bad things don’t happen here
our beaches are open
they are not places where bloodied mattresses burn
Ellen van Neerven writes fiction, poetry, plays and non-fiction. An award-winning Mununjali Yugambeh writer and editor, their highly celebrated books include the experimental fiction collection, Heat and Light, and a book of poems, Comfort Food. This month, they released their second poetry collection, Throat, which explores love, language and land, and interrogates the colonial impulse.
Maxine Beneba Clarke is also a critically acclaimed writer and poet, whose work – including her award-winning 2016 poetry collection, Carrying the World – is known for its intensity and inventiveness, and for speaking truth to power.
Both writers bring humour and heart to critical questions of who we are, where we come from and the burden of Australia’s unreconciled history.
Broadcasting on this page in May, these two poetic powerhouses will discuss their shared passion for the form, and consider ways in which poetry can help us process what’s happening in the world today.
Stream the event live from this page.
Presented in partnership with Australian Poetry with the support of the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.
Featuring
Ellen van Neerven
Ellen van Neerven is an award-winning writer of Mununjali Yugambeh (South East Queensland) and Dutch heritage. They write fiction, poetry, plays and non-fiction. Ellen’s first book, Heat and Light, was the recipient of the David Unaipon Award ...
Maxine Beneba Clarke
Maxine Beneba Clarke is the author of the acclaimed memoir The Hate Race, the award-winning short fiction collection Foreign Soil, the poetry collections Carrying The World and How Decent Folk Behave, and many other books ...
N'arweet Carolyn Briggs
N'arweet Dr Carolyn Briggs AM is a Boon Wurrung senior elder and is the chairperson and founder of the Boon Wurrung Foundation. A descendant of the First Peoples of Melbourne, the Yaluk-ut Weelam clan of the Boon Wurrung, she is the great-granddaughter of Louisa Briggs, a Boon Wurrung woman born near Melbourne in the 1830s.
Carolyn has been involved in developing and supporting opportunities for Indigenous youth and Boon Wurrung culture for over 40 years. In 2005, she established the Boon Wurrung Foundation, which has been responsible for significant work in cultural research, including restoration of the Boon Wurrung language. The Foundation also helps connect Aboriginal youth to their heritage.
Carolyn has worked across numerous communities for over 40 years and is currently completing her Doctorate in Philosophy researching assisting urban indigenous youth to understand indigenous knowledge.
Her cultural knowledge and experience has been recognised by communities throughout Australia. These achievements have been recognised by:
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Being Awarded the National Aboriginal Elder of the Year in 2011 by the National NAIDOC Committee;
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Being inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2005;
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Being entered into the 2012 and 2013 'Who’s Who Australia';
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Being appointed an Elders in Residence at RMIT University 2017;
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Being inducted into the 2017 Victorian Aboriginal Honour Roll;
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Receiving the Member of the Order (AM) of Australia for significant service to the Indigenous community 2019;
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Elected member of inaugural First People’s Assembly of Victoria 2019.
She is the author of Journey Cycles of the Boon Wurrung: Stories with Boonwurrung Language, Bundjil Creation Story and Barraeemal Story.