Alf Taylor – March 20 2016

World Poetry Day – March 21 2016

“Poetry reaffirms our common humanity by revealing to us that individuals, everywhere in the world, share the same questions and feelings. … One of the main objectives of the Day is to support linguistic diversity through poetic expression and to offer endangered languages the opportunity to be heard within their communities. The observance of World Poetry Day is also meant to encourage a return to the oral tradition of poetry recitals, to promote the teaching of poetry, to restore a dialogue between poetry and the other arts … so that the art of poetry will no longer be considered an outdated form of art, but one which enables society as a whole to regain and assert its identity.” [UNESCO]

Alf is a Nyoongah man and a member of the Stolen Generations. He and his brother were removed from their family as infants and placed in the Spanish Benedictine Mission, New Norcia where, he says, Aboriginal culture and Aboriginal language was “considered ‘a mortal sin’”. Alf only discovered his heritage when he left the mission at age 16 and searched for his family. As a young man, he worked in the Perth and Geraldton areas as a seasonal farm worker before joining the armed forces and living in several locations around Australia. Best known as a poet, Alf began writing poetry when young, but only started publishing it in the 1990s when he found his voice as a writer and poet after marriage, seven children, divorce, struggles with alcohol and an attempted suicide. Alf’s other published works include his verse collection Singer Songwriter,  republished in Rimfire: Poetry from Aboriginal Australia with Michail J Smith’s Calling Thought and Romaine Moreton’s The Callused Stick of Wanting.

Long Time Now: Stories of the Dreamtime, the Here and Now
Magabala Books, 2001; ISBN 9781875641680

These exceptional stories about people, places and irreverent events will make you laugh and cry. They are both fantastic and true-to-life. Humorous, raw and interspersed with Nyoongar language and imagery, you will love the warmth, frailty and strength of the many wonderful characters like Uncle Jacko, the wool pickers Barney and Bill, Brickwall Jackson, Uncle Dollar and Aunty Flo to name just a few.

Winds
Magabala, 1994; ISBN 9781875641208
3-8 years
This powerful and thought-provoking collection from major Australian poet Alf Taylor never strays far from the depth of our feelings and our human relationships.