ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Mawukura, Walmajarri from Paruku
(c)2006 - Manfred Vijars

very ,very enjoyable Manfred

Bill the old Battler

Thanks Bill ... This bloke (currently in Fitsroy Crossing) is in his nineties, mostly blind and has some really beautiful artworks ... His 'Anglo' name is Jimmy Nerrimah ...

Love the poem Mannie - wonderful story. Have you recorded that one???

His artwork is terrific and I especially liked 'Boonarra' with those fabulous strong Australian colours in use. Noticed it is for sale for USD $4750 - bet Mawukurra never got even 10% of that...have heard that Art dealers go around the communities buying up big often paying as little as $100 for a painting and then bring them back to the city, frame them up and sell them off for a fortune.

I have bought a couple of pieces of aboriginal art recently myself but buy online direct from the communities websites. Doubt mine are famous though they do have certificates of authenticity - but I just love the colours

Cheers

Maureen

Maureen, the Government has enacted legislation to require payments to the original aboriginal artists from re-sale profits.

On reading your piece Manfred I had some thoughts.

Just my musings.

Several people have posted verse with aborigine content, yourself, Maureen, Bill. I was wondering how many people of aboriginal descent take part in the bush poetry scene.
I wonder if anyone here knows of an aborigine person who has produced bush poetry. That would be interesting I think.

I know Oodgeroo Noonuccal wrote one called "Ballad of the Totems" about the resident carpet snake at their place, a bush poem in rhyming ballad form.

And I like the one by Yvette Holt called
" Storyteller" ....that starts off ....
Hey girl
Who your mob
Where you from

Who's your mother
What's your father's name
You not from round here eh

Not conventional bush ballad form but recognizable as authentic contemporary aboriginal experience.

Winner of the Scanlon Prize 2008 for a book of Indigenous poetry was Yvette Holt for her collection 'Anonymous Premonition but I think she writes mainly free/blank verse

http://www.foame.org/Issue4/poems/holt.html

Anita Heiss is another aboriginal author who also writes poetry Token Kooris and Sacred Cows are two of her books - she has more and a great poem of hers I'm not racist, but ...... but nor R and R and Bicultural blackfella - getting close to R and R

Sure there are more but these two are the only ones I am somewhat familiar with. Anita writes a terrific kids story about a dog called Demon which was great fun. Can't remember the full title of it though but remember the dog

'Day All,
Some years ago when my wife and I were in The Alice for the Honda Masters Games we went through a gallery with the intention of buying a painting. One that was not too large - it had to fit inside our luggage - or too expensive, about a hundred or so and after many trips around the gallery looking at all of the beautiful stuff it came down to a difficult choice between three paintings. The lady in charge of the gallery who was standing by to help gave us a very nice smile and said that the three paintings that we had selected were all done by the one artist! Our final choice 'Bush Banana Dreaming' by Janet Nola Forrester from Oodnadatta still hangs on our wall, sadly my wife is no longer here to enjoy it but I can still look at it and remember the good times.
Ian.

how lovely Ian that your beautiful painting captures you wife's spirit for you whenever you look upon it. You may not think she shares it with you any more but I am sure she does.

You are in good company with your painting as Janet's work has sold and been shown in lots of places and it is a lovely painting
http://aboriginalartpaintings.com/adc/t ... ster-ngala

Cheers

Maureen