Fire Front: First Nations poetry and power today

by Alison Whittaker (Curator)

Curated and introduced by Alison Whittaker, Fire Front is a ground-breaking anthology of First Nations poetry showcasing some of the brightest new stars, as well as leading Aboriginal writers and poets including Bruce Pascoe, Ali Cobby Eckermann and Tony Birch.

Genres: Poetry, Indigenous, Anthologies, Australia, Nonfiction, Politics, Anti Racist

192 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 2020

About the author

Alison Whittaker is a Gomeroi poet, life writer, and essayist from Gunnedah and Tamworth north-western New South Wales. She now lives in Sydney on Wangal land where she studies a combined Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws at the University of Technology Sydney. Her work has been published in Meanjin, Vertigo, Colouring the Rainbow: Blak Queer and Trans Perspectives. She is author of the award-winning poetry collections Lemons in the Chicken Wire and blakwork.

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poetry is personal. Period. End of review!
This anthology of Blak Australian writing is impressive.
I read 53 poems.
I read about each poet before opening the poem.
Each poem was a gift tied up with a ribbon
…never knew what I was going to get.
38% of the poems were excellent…
Favorite? It has to be Melanie Mununggurr - Williams
2018 SLAM champion.
You can enjoy her poem “I Run”… on You Tube.
I was speechless, so beautiful!
I almost forgot to mention the introduction by editor
Alison Whittaker…don’t miss it!
She reveals that poets are holders of the “fire”.
Each poet has his or her own style to let the language “burn”.
Title: Fire Front
— how the fire (poetry) keeps moving responsibly
— with the threat of reckoning….and the offer of restoration.
#MustRead anthology
…you won’t regret it!

[Kobi]

So incredible! I really loved this collection. I would argue that this is written by Indigenous Australians for Indigenous Australians, but there's so much to be learned and taken away from this. What made this so special is that it's completely unapologetic. And it's proud. Just as it should be.

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lately I've started reading poetry again in the form of collections by a single poet, usually a collection which works as a volume, echoing through. Fire Front is a great reminder of how wonderful compendiums can be - collections of just truly great poems. There are lots of familiar great poets here, as well as new and emerging ones. The organisation does the poets proud, the themes are tied together with intent, and the five essayists explore the poems in their section. The sublime Alison Whittaker explores all aspects of the fire theme in the introduction and explains the importance of the volume far better than I could.
The poems I hadn't read before that really stood out for me included Luke Patterson's Darkingjung Burning, Paul Collis' Cult-charr Jammer and the impossible-not-to-read-aloud-again-and-again Millad Mob Da Best by Diwurruwurru. Ellen Van Neervan's Expert made me laugh out loud. And if Dylan Voller's Justice didn't make you cry with fury, I'm not sure I know you.

[Brona's Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fire Front: First Nations Poetry and Power Today is an anthology of poems and essays from many well-known and emerging First Nations writers and thinkers. It is powerful and confronting stuff. It is very contemporary, yet every piece is embedded in the history of our traumatic past. Truth-telling is the heart and soul of this collection.

Alison Whittaker’s Introduction prepares the reader for the powerful nature of Indigenous poetry. She believes that some of that power comes from the way that Indigenous poets challenge and subvert the English language to highlight or emphasise other ways of thinking.

The five sections of the book deal with relationships to ancestors and Country, direct resistence to the colonist narrative, speaking back and to each other, stories of loss and repair with a final section dedicated to intergenerational nurturing storytelling and new voices.
Full response here - https://bronasbooks.com/2022/03/12/fi...

[Ely · Rating 4 out of 5]

Young people are going to discover our poetry in the archives, along with the other Aboriginal brothers and sisters from around the world who are writing and winning awards. And you know: we're quite a force.

This is such a wonderful collection of poetry. I loved getting to see so many of my favourite writers in here, as well as a whole bunch of new people to follow. I also really enjoyed the essays at the start of each section—it really added to the enjoyment of the poems for me. I really hope we'll see more collections like this going forward.

[Caoimhe · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible collection of poems from a wide range of amazing Aboriginal writers. Read the entire thing with a highlighter to hand, picking out gut-punch lines and making copious notes in the margins.

[pantea]

"All land on this land, since the landing of the white man has been haunted"

my favourite works:

- haunted house
- the new true anthem
- nana emily’s poem (mount isa cemetery 2014)
- are you beautiful today?

[cass · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly powerful collection of words from First Nations Australian writers.
A must-read for insight into the importance of language and power of storytelling!

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

'The relationality of Fire Front is also not only good ways - but fundamentally addresses the question of the coloniser, how to tussle with the settler colony, and to account for just what both have wrought on us. The fire is as much a threat of reckoning with what is improperly imposed, as it is an offer for restoration. It is insurrectionist.'

This anthology of poetry from Australian indigenous writers is asking us to be quiet... shhh! 🤐... and listen. Don't listen simply with your peripheral ear but be still on the inside. Allow your spirit to comprehend the deep pain and knowledge of the custodians of a land that was brutally taken from them.

'Sand ground feet sand reunite connect
Still wind still ancestors come to visit
Gentle kiss giving to young spirits
Reassuring for the onward journey
Right here on this land right here'
From 'Honey to Lips Bottlebrush' by Charmaine Papertalk Green

'we sit around our lounge rooms,
discussing jail and suicide as though asking
one lump or two?
and all of this makes me laugh,
and I laugh
till I am blue, '
From 'Are You Beautiful Today?' by Romaine Moreton

'I run to the hills and sing my praises to my inner child cos
she reminds me of the beauty of a rainbow in the rain,
The excitement of mud between my toes, the happiness of life's simplicity, she is the first pearl in my ocean '
From 'I run,,,' by Melanie Mununggurr-Williams

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic collection.

[Grace Woolley · Rating 5 out of 5]

stunning

[Magdalena]

In her introduction to Firefront, Gomeroi poet and academic Alison Whittaker talks about the power of language to change the shape of the world. Whittaker has taken this as an axiom in the structuring and careful choices of work in Firefront: First Nations Poetry and Power Today. The collection, which contains 53 previously published poems, is wonderfully balanced, with each of the five sections prefaced with an essay by notable writers and scholars Bruce Pascoe, Ali Cobby Eckermann, Chelsea Bond, Evelyn Araluen and Steven Oliver.  The essays frame the sections, providing cohesion and context for the poetry and are rich pieces of work themselves, addressing many of the issues which this book explores  including notions of ancestry, connection and what it means to be, what Chelsea Bond calls the "latest living Ancestor" - or being an elder before time, about the impact of the Colonial canon from Dorothea Mackellar to Joan Lindsay and Peter Weir (Picnic at Hanging Rock).  

Many of the poets included are vey well-known, but Whittaker has taken care to include a broad range of poets and poetry styles from the prosaic to classically lyrical, slam, dialogues, lists, visual poems, songs like Archie Roach's "Took the Children Away" and Briggs' "The Children Came Back", narrative pieces, and multi-lingual, visual work. Elders that will be familiar to most readers include Lionel Fogarty, Oodgeroo Noonuccal, and Kerry Reed-Gilbert and not only are these works included, the poets are referenced and threaded through the works of emerging poets. The variety included here, and the way in which the work is grouped together amplifies the impact of the individual poems which become informed and enriched by proximity and collective meaning. 

These are poems that chart a history of trauma and oppression, with blood soaking into the earth repeatedly - reminding us of the pervasive and ongoing destruction of colonialism, as in Lisa Bellair’s “Beautiful Yuroke Red River Gum”:

Not too long and there are
fewer red river gums, the
Yarra Yarra tribe’s blood becomes
the river’s rich red clay

A number of the poems make use of the rhythms and tonal inflections of First Nation languages, incorporating and subverting English elements in ways that resonate as much in the body (particularly when read or listened to aloud) as in the head, as in Deborah Doorlak L Moody’s “Bilya Kep”:

Nitya null bilya-kep korrliny
Ngank Kirra Yaaginy,
Shimmering silver in the morning
Koorliny down through the bilya
in the deep moon kep.

These are defiant, beautiful and resilient poems that are always imbued with a rich sense of place, and an inherent connection to the natural world. In “Honey to Lips Bottlebrush” Charmaine Papertalk Green reclaims “decolonising respacing” into “Wattle seeds eating tasting time ago” which feels almost like a remediation of the land.

Arualuen, whose essay "Too Little, Too Much" opens the second section, 'Despite what Dorothea has said about the sun scorched land', speaks about “callers to collaboration” and “communal acts of voice and inscriptions”, which is very much in evidence throughout the work, especially in Araluen's own piece "Dropbear Poetics", which tackles literary appropriation head-on (“for making liar the lyrebird/for making mimetic”) Araluen references Samuel Waagan Watson, while Lionel Fogerty invokes Kevin Gilbert and Oodgeroo Noonuccal (“pregnant us again”).  This sense of community and mutual support is evident throughout the book, in repeated refrains, from the stolen generation, Invasion Day, false anthems, death in custody, and dispossession, through the reclaiming and restoration of country through old and sacred knowledge, love, mutual respect, and the power of art to recreate the future:

could you take
your broken heart,
and paint
the most magnificent masterpiece
the world has ever seen (from Romaine Moreton’s “Are You Beautiful Today?”)

In the final section, 'This I would tell you', Eckermann talks about the oral tradition and the many poems she’s heard around a campfire that were not able to be anthologised here ("Medicine In, Obligation Out").  We can, however, sense a kind of reverberation from what isn’t included in the work that is. There is very much a sense of that even the missing poems - those that were thrown into the campfire "vessel that holds many of our stories" are part of a  collective voice that seems to reverberate throughout the book, even when, as is often the case, the individual poem is exquisite. Though there is much to keep the reader engaged in this superbly structured, beautifully designed collection, reading and reflecting is only a part of the work.  As Ali Cobby Eckermann puts it, Fire Front includes a call to action:

Sadly, I think that a lot of people who come to listen only listen and don’t respond. When you’ve read these poems, also act. (147)

There is so much to learn from Fire Front.  Not only about “the pain, the indignity, the sorrow, the humiliation, the frustration that white people were deaf and blind to the beautiful planning of a culture over 120,000 years old.” (from Bruce Pascoe’s “Bleat Beneath a Blanket”), but also to what will be lost to everyone if we don’t right these injustices, change our paradigm, and amplify these voices we need to hear if the human race is to survive into the next century. Fire Front is critically important reading - not just for the messages it contains, though they are timeless and relevant to the world we’re living in right now, but also because this is work that is urgent, astonishing, beautiful, and heart-rendering, with the power that Whittaker illuminates in her introduction, to change the shape of the world for the better.

[Underground Writers]

This review was first published on the Underground Writers website: http://underground-writers.org/review...

“Our legacies become futures, written from and for anywhere.” Evelyn Araluen, Too Little, Too Much

“When non-Indigenous people tell us to move on, they assume we want to be stuck in a painful place. That we love having to constantly get angry, annoyed, upset, political or any of the other words they love applying to us when standing up for ourselves.” Steven Oliver, Lead You to the Shore

Fire Front: First Nations Poetry and Power Today is a timely and brilliant example of the creative talent that has emerged from First Nations communities throughout Australian modern history. Alison Whittaker has collated an extensive collection of previously-published pieces from Indigenous authors, including Alexis Wright, Claire G Coleman, Ellen Van Neerven and Dylan Voller. Each poem is as powerful as the next, touching on subjects such as colonialism, ancestry, racism, and familial relationships.

The anthology is split into five sections, each beginning with an essay from a prominent Indigenous author addressing the poems in the section and providing context to the theme. I really liked that there were some names that I recognised, followed by a slew of new authors that I can make note of and research further. Indigenous literature is woefully underrepresented within the publishing industry, and yet the culture of storytelling is so rich and expansive within these communities. I think Whittaker has done an amazing job of putting these resources into one book, allowing readers to immerse themselves in the culture and storytelling experience. Poetry lends itself to thoughtful, emotional prose and I was impacted by the themes presented. Given the current political climate, acknowledging Australia’s own history of racism and violence is incredibly important, and to hear the impact from those directly involved is especially informative.

Standout pieces for me include the following:

Unearth by Ali Cobby Eckermann
Eckermann explores how the bloodshed of our Indigenous ancestors will result in lasting change in society. The language was deeply evocative, and I particularly loved the line “boomerang bones will return to memory”.

Domestic by Natalie Harkin
Harkin’s poem draws on the past descriptions of Aboriginal women as housemaids/servants, and the language used to describe them. It is particularly confronting to read the belittling language used by Helen Coleman in 1926 (Harkin uses Coleman’s account to flesh out her poem and effectively set the scene), and it is an example that there are so many things that need to change within our society. It is an excellent juxtaposition of past and present.

Expert by Ellen Van Neerven
Van Neerven portrays the so-called ‘experts’ within the debate surrounding race and discrimination/violence, using the example of a non-Indigenous girlfriend stating all of these facts and figures she has gleaned from the media and stating to the subject of the poem that they are “closed to other sides of the debate”. It shows the bias and ignorance of some non-Indigenous people and how they don’t fully understand the extent of life as someone who is subjected to prejudice constantly.

Nanna Emily’s Poem (Mount Isa Cemetery 2014) by Declan Furber Gillick
Furber Gillick’s poem tells the story of his grandmother Emily Furber and her experiences being taken by the government during the Stolen Generation. A few of the poems depict the Stolen Generation in some iteration or another, but this one was so beautifully written and detailed that it affected me emotionally and educated me on the personal experiences of some victims. What I really love about this poem is the final note, stating that you should take some quiet time and read this poem aloud to yourself and just bask in the magnitude of the subject it is portraying. I think it is an incredibly poignant poem.

I am the Road by Claire G Coleman
I haven’t read any of Claire’s fiction works (yet!) but my goodness her poetry is outstanding. The imagery was rich and intense, and the language was expertly crafted. It depicts the author’s relationship with Country and her family, describing facets of her father’s identity in a way that captures his sacrifices to Australia (he served in WWII) despite the horrific mistreatment of his people at the hands of White Australians.

Justice for Youth by Dylan Voller
This poem stood out to me in particular, because of Dylan Voller’s backstory. I think most Australian’s know Voller at this point, especially as the image of him tied to a chair with a hood over his head is burned into a lot of people’s memories. The bravery it took for him to write this poem and address the atrocities that he faced is immense. I think the addition of this poem in the anthology is an incredibly powerful example of how the arts can be used to tell raw, unforgettable stories.

If you are wanting a resource to educate yourself on Australian history and racial discrimination and also want to support Indigenous authors, I highly recommend this book. I would also encourage you to seek out the further work of the authors featured in this anthology.

[Blair · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like there's a real flowering of Indigenous Australian (or First Nation) literature at the moment (that has been emerging over the past 20 years or so). In novels and short stories there's the likes of Kim Scott and Alexis Wright and Melissa Lucashenko winning the Miles Franklin Award and this year's prize sees Tony Birch and Tara June Winch both on the shortlist. In poetry I've been reading terrific work recently from Alison Whittaker, who has edited this book and Charmaine Papertalk Green, who collaborated with John Kinsella on the eye-opening False Claims of Colonial Thieves.

This collection has a title that imagines this movement as an inexorable force that is sweeping across the country, something that is confirmed by the mention of power in the subtitle as well (and that resonates with my recent reading of Victor Steffensen's non-fiction book about indigenous fire management, Fire Country). Right from its title and its vibrant cover this is a book that is coming at you and is not waiting for your permission to speak.

The collection combines the poems with essays from the likes of Bruce Pascoe and Ali Cobby Eckermann, who introduce thematic sections that are organised under a quote from one of the poems in that section (such as 'Ancestor, you are exploding the wheelie bin' or 'I say rage and dreaming'). This works very well and keeps you on your toes as you switch between the essays and the poems.

The poems themselves are incredibly diverse and also include works that were originally released as songs (such as 'Took the Children Away' by Archie Roach and 'Behind Enemy Lines' by Provocalz and Ancestress). They range over many decades, as highlighted by the juxtaposition in the final section of two poems addressed to the indigenous rights activist Denis Walker, one of them, 'Son of Mine,' written by his mother Oodgeroo Noonuccal in 1986 and the other, 'Grandfather of Mine,' written by his granddaughter Elizabeth Walker in 2018.

Many of the poems highlight indigenous language and mix it in with English, something that in itself is an assertion of power, a refusal to be subjugated to the language of the coloniser even as the writers show great mastery of that language. Good examples of this are 'Bilya Kep' by Deborah Doorlak L. Moody, 'Yilaalu-Bu-Gadi (Once Upon a Time in the Bay of Gadi)' by Lorna Munro and 'Ngayrayagal Didjurigur (Soon Enough)' by Joel Davidson. Conversely, other poets such as Mojo Ruiz de Luzuriaga ('Native Tongue') lament their inability to speak the language of their ancestors.

There are, of course, a lot of poems that focus on the injustices faced by Indigenous Australians over the centuries of colonisation, poems that seethe with anger and that are suffused with despair, but there is also a lot of humour and especially a lot of pride, whether it's Baker Boy telling us we "are now witnessing the power!" or Laniyuk writing a tribute to Indigenous Matriarchs such as Barangaroo, Truganini and her own ancestors and commenting that "their strength [is] emblazoned in [her] DNA."

[Marles Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Liberating words where we have half the times don’t need words”.

Fire Front is a poetry and essay anthology presented by Gomeroi woman Alison Whittaker, bringing together the treasured words of many Aboriginal and First Nations poets and writers. There is so much more power and wisdom that the English words used in the poetry and essays give credit to. You can feel the hearts of a thousand years beating to the rhythm of each piece of poetry and prose. You can feel the pain, and we need to, in order to heal, and acknowledge the past, the present and the future.

 “Our words … speak to the kind of always that isn’t threatened by words spinning on around it”.

This was my Australia Day reading this year: to reflect, to learn, to understand, to acknowledge, to pay my respects.

#alwayswasalwayswillbe
 

[Eleanor · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Aboriginal poetics have always been caught within the gaze of too little, too much”
“As Fogarty reminds us, Aboriginal poetry is here: Liberating words where we have half the times don’t need words”
“These poems push, comforted in the knowledge that our words are more important than the grammars that restrain them”
“Aboriginal poetics always have, and always will be here - extending the land and waters into air. Our poetries will grow as we grow, as we remember and return. Our words bear with them more than scholars like myself know what to do with them. They speak to the kind of always that isn’t threatened by worlds spinning on around it.” - Too Little, Too Much (intro by Evelyn Araluen)

[Amy Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

.....📚 𝑩𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝑹𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 📚.....

Fire Front: First Nations poetry and power today, edited by Alison Whittaker, is my final book of May, and my Reconciliation Week read.

A collection of poetry by First Nations authors arranged over five thematic sections. This collection brings together some of my favourite authors and has introduced me to many more. This anthology was the perfect read to sit with and reflect on through Reconciliation Week, which this year is themed 'be a voice for generations'.

It was hard to pick standouts from this collection, but there was more than one that caught my breath, and I needed to reread or even put the book down to give space for what I had read. Highly recommend this one.

[Rob Nicholls · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very high impact book for me. I 'enjoyed' hearing the honest voices of first nations poets and realised the importance of listening carefully to those voices and the emotions being expressed and, sometimes, hidden behind the words. I appreciated the advice by the author to read one poem aloud and found that could be applied across a number. The use of language seemed very important as it conveyed meaning beyond the commonly used english words. So much to learn and this book was very helpful because poetry often conveys so much more that prose.

[David Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Showcases the power of words, and the strength of First Nations poets. It was a diverse range of poems from many poets, songwriters, and speakers. The essays introducing each section also drew the thematic grouping together and gave context, which I really appreciated.

There are some poems I loved more and will return to a lot, but I took something away from all of them. It was a powerful reading experience.

[Roxana Sabau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apart from the absolutely raw and moving poetry here's a beautiful excerpt from the book: ,,the Boorong clan of the Wergaia at Lake Tyrell used the flat surface of the lake as a mirror to view and fathom the stars and the universe. Think of that image: a people gathered about a lake and looking down to contemplate the night sky above. It is the instinct of the poet, the habit of a philosophical spirit."

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5 stars*

Poetry anthologies are always difficult to rate. A thoroughly engaging collection, though heart wrenching. I’ve included a few of my favourites below…

Hey Ancestor! - Alexis Wright
The Grounding Sentence - Samuel Wagan Watson
Darkinjung Burning - Luke Patterson
Many Girls White Linen - Alison Whittaker
Dropbear Poetics - Evelyn Araluen
Are You Beautiful Today? - Romaine Moreton
Chocolate Wrappers - Pauline Whyman

[Child960801]

Some times I really like poetry and writing by oppressed people, to get a sense of the world from their perspective and to learn more about the issues facing them. This is not one of those time. I think I need to admit to myself that I'm just not going to finish this book right now. Hopefully I'll come back to it later. We'll see.

[Amy Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite poem of the whole collection is Nanna Emily's Poem by Declan Furber Gillick. I really enjoyed all of the essays as well.
Other favorite poems:
Domestic by Natalie Harkin
A Letter to the Shade of Charles Darwin by Jack Davis
Say My Name by Meleika Gesa-Fatafehi
Custodial Seeds by Yvette Holt
Haunted House by Raelee Lancaster

[Mali Hermans · Rating 5 out of 5]

It would be an enormous challenge to sit down and give every poem or piece of story in this collection the attention, reflection and love it needs. For now, I am grateful for the love it gives us - what a gift.

[Heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

As part of the boys two year long poetry unit study, I chose this compilation of Aboriginal poetry. It was an experience that I'm glad we had. I will caution that I had to do some heavy editing on a few of the poems, and this book is NOT meant for primary school students.

[Ellen O'Brien · Rating 5 out of 5]

<3

[Shannon McLeod · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this. How powerful is poetry? I had to read some of these out loud to hear the true beauty of these words. Will be a book that I will dip in and out of in future.

[Wendy Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

While some of the poems were difficult for an old white lady reader of poetry in more traditional forms, I really enjoyed this collection and found it moving, challenging and inspiring.

[Brenda Rosser]

For book club, stunning

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compulsory reading for all Australians.