5 minute read
heart of poems
MEET AUTHOR, POET, EDUCATOR AND 2020 NSW ABORIGINAL WOMAN OF THE YEAR
Words Kate O’Mealley Images Sarah Tedder
For Kirli Saunders – award-winning author and poet, teacher and emerging artist – life is certainly full of creative pursuits. But it’s her love of sharing poetry in First Nations languages that has her heart, with her leadership helping to shine a light on indigenous poetry and storytelling across our region and Australia.
Proud Gunai woman and Port Kembla local Kirli Saunders has a long-held connection with the Illawarra. “I always loved the Illawarra as a kid – we spent a lot of time visiting my cousins and my uncle, Ian Russell, who was playing for the Steelers, and adventuring around the Illawarra. Then I studied at Wollongong University and started my teaching career at Fairy Meadow Demonstration School.”
After three years of teaching, Kirli decided to pursue language teaching, in particular poetry, when Red Room Poetry –a not-for-profit that aims to make poetry a meaningful part of everyday life – approached her to become their Education Manager.
“I led one workshop with them and that was it. I was just so in love with everything about their organisation,” says Kirli. “Every person there is living their poem, and it's such a beautiful collaborative, creative team to be alongside. At the end of2017, we piloted the first Poetry in First Languages project.”
The Poetry in First Languages project celebrates and preserves knowledge of First Nations languages and culture through poetry, music, dance and art.The projects are delivered by community members on country with First Nations students, supporting them to explore their cultural identities through language and by connecting to country, culture and community.
“Red Room is a national organisation but Poetry in First Languages spans mostly New South Wales, the Northern Territory and the ACT, and this year with a particular focus for people in the South East on Gundungurra, Gumea Dharawal, Jerrinja and Yuin country. And then we have our Dharawal program and preschool program as well.”
The program has been increasingly popular growing from five schools in its first year in the Southern Highlands to 13 schools across the southern Illawarra. “The reaction from kids is they get to see people celebrating their language and culture and they feel a little bit more safe to be able to do that as well in their school context, which is really cool. You see children walk into the workshops feeling shameful or worried or unsure, and by the end of the day, you see them laughing with kids from other schools that they've never met before, but who share the same cultural background or who live on the same country and are also First Nations.
“They've got a smile on their face. They can laugh and wrap their mouth around a new word, so I think kids are super excited by this. Research by BYG found that for 95% of the participants involved, this was their very first language learning opportunity.”
With over 250 First Nations languages and 650 dialects in Australia, the opportunities to learn and celebrate local language and culture is vast. “It is my hope that eventually, that the kind of world that we live in, is where all of our languages and all of our cultures are celebrated. That everybody is aware of the First Nations history in the town that they live in and is able to speak a few of those words,” says Kirli.
Kirli works at UOW Pulse Kids Uni as a Support and Inclusion teacher, she says, “I think preschools and early childhood centres are doing incredible things for reconciliation and supporting our First Nations students and all of our students to be more connected to First Nation's country and culture. I'm loving watching that space transform – I think in a lot of ways they're leading the educational sector in that area.”
In mid 2020, Kirli will hand Poetry in First Languages over to two poets mentored through the project. Kirli is focusing on her writing career as a highly-acclaimed author and poet. Her debut picture book The Incredible Freedom Machines was shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Literary Awards and CBCA notables and her poetry collection, Kindred was shortlisted for the ABIA 2020 Book Awards and FAB Booktopia Awards. Her latest book Bindi – a story about an 11-year old girl living on Gundungurra country – was the inaugural winner of the Daisy Utemorrah Award, part of the WA Premier’s Book Awards, and will be released in October 2020.
Alongside Kirli’s latest offering, the inclusion of First Nations languages is becoming more common place in fictional texts such as The Yield, the 2020 Miles Franklin Literary Award winning novel by Wiradjuri novelist Tara June Winch. “I adore The Yield. Tara June Winch is so generous with her words, she has an incredible knack of weaving the poetic with the inherent magic of being a Custodian in caring for country and language. She brings to life all that is ancestral in her writing and challenges preconceived ideas of identity,” Kirli says.
“The works of black writers are being consumed and supported now more than they ever have been. It's long overdue, but I'm loving watching this creative culture of our people not just being archived, or used as a talking point, or embedded in the curriculum, but enjoyed for its inherent power and perspective.”
Kirli is also adding another string to her bow as a playwright, co-creating Dead Horse Gap with MerrigongTheatre and South EastArts. Her first solo play, Going Home, has been supported by Playwriting Australia and will take the stage in 2022.
With her passion for creating, storytelling and community building, it is clear why Kirli was named the 2020 NSW Aboriginal Woman of the Year in March. “It was a big surprise and a huge honour. I’ve been guided by really wonderful Elders and Custodians and community to develop Poetry in First Languages and to follow my Dreaming and to become a storyteller and a teacher,” she says.
“It is exciting to be able to lay down the footstones for the young ones who will follow us and I think the future is really bright. It's a real privilege to be able to walk on this country and to add to the magic that's happening here.”
