Dirrangun

by Roland Robinson

An Aboriginal story of Dirrangun, a powerful old woman. Some people say she is a witch who is mean and cunning, but others say that she is friendly. Which is she really?

Hardcover

First published March 1, 1998

About the author

The son of Irish migrants in Sydney, Robinson started work as a farmhand in his teens, where he developed a love of radical and romantic poets. A conscientious objector during WWII, Robinson began publishing poetry while working his long-term day job as a groundskeeper for a Sydney golf course.

Robinson was fiercely active in the Jindyworobak movement, a group of white poets born during the 1910s who wanted Australian writers to reject British trends and focus instead on their own country, especially inspired by Australian Aboriginals. Although many of the Jindyworobaks were interested in the idea of Aboriginals rather than the reality, Robinson developed a true interest in Indigenous cultures, and published collections of myths and stories he learned from visiting native communities around the country.

By middle-age, Robinson was a highly respected poet who served as editor of Poetry Magazine and was awarded the Patrick White Award and the Christopher Brennan Award. A library in Lake Macquarie, New South Wales, is named in his honour.