Judith Wright was probably Australia's greatest poet; she was also an ardent conservationist and activist. She died in 2000, at the age of 85.
Over a long and distinguished literary career, she published poetry, children's books, literary essays, biographies, histories and other works of non-fiction.
Her commitment to the Great Barrier Reef began in 1962, when she helped found the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland. She went on to become a member of the Committee of Enquiry into the National Estate and life member of the Australian Conservation Foundation.
Judith Wright worked tirelessly to promote land rights for Aboriginal people and to raise awareness among non-Aboriginal Australians of their plight arising from the legacy of European settlement. She has written The Cry for the Dead (1981), We Call for a Treaty (1985) and Born of the Conquerors (1991).
Judith Wright was awarded many honours for her writing, including the Grace Leven Award (twice), the New South Wales Premier's Prize, the Encyclopedia Britannica Prize for Literature, and the ASAN World Prize for Poetry. She has received honorary degrees (D.Litt.) from the Universities of New England, Sydney Monash, Melbourne, Griffith and New South Wales and the Australian National University. In 1994 she received the Human Rights Commission Award for Collected Poems.
I bought this book because I was interested after reading a few quotes from Judith Wright in the past. I had no idea when I first started reading how involved Wright was in the Aboriginal Rights Movements of the 60s and 70s. The additional context added particular meaning especially to her early work. In all I most enjoyed the poems Flesh, Birds and For My Daughter.