G'day, Clayton! Traditionally, the 'poetry' of Indigenous Australians is their song language itself. The songlines. Not separate. Song, dance, country. I have a book of them, "Warlpiri Women's Songs from Yuendumu", with a CD of the singing, but it's not widely available, and I treasure it. What interests me most is that Indigenous song poetry is communal.
In recent years there's been a burst of contemporary Indigenous Australian individual poetry collections written in English, but I'm not aware of an anthology yet. I'm sure one is in the offing!
The best thing going, in my view is Australian Poetry Since 1788 ed. Geoffrey Lehmann & Robert Gray. And it includes some Indigenous songs!
There are also some great anthologies of Australian Short Stories. I'm not near my bookshelves at the moment, but I can get back to you on that if you're interested.
Are you planning to teach Australian Literature?
Cally
Last edited by Cally Conan-Davies; 07-06-2024 at 09:41 PM.
Reason: added a thought
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