“There’s not much you can say in 28 minutes” Professor Marcia Langton *

Poetry Sunday edited by Ira Maine

Ali Cobby Eckermann

An Indigenous writer, Ali Cobby Eckermann has studied Visual Arts and Creative Writing at various institutions and has been employed in the film industry.

Ali was a finalist in the 2005, 2006 and 2007 NT Literary Awards; in 2006 she won the NSW Writer’s Centre ‘Survival’ competition for Indigenous writers and was selected to participate in the Australian Society of Authors’ national mentorship program.

2007 heralded a landmark year – Ali was granted two Poetry Mentorships, through NT Writers Centre and Varuna. She is working on a new selection of poems and is presently the Art Centre and Gallery Coordinator at Titjikala on the edge of the Simpson Desert.  (From 2007)

Ali Cobby Eckermann, “Circles and Squares”

I was born Yankunytjatara my mother is Yankunytjatara

her mother was Yankunytjatara my family is Yankunytjatara

I have learnt many things from my family elders I have grown

to recognise that life travels in circles aboriginal culture has

taught me this

When I was born I was not allowed to live with my family I

grew up in the white man’s world

We lived in a square house we picked fruit and vegetables from

a neat fenced square plot

we kept animals in square paddocks we ate at a square table we

sat on square chairs

I slept in a square bed

I looked at myself in a square mirror and did not know who

I was

And one day I met my mother

I began to travel I visited places that I had already been

but this time I sat down with family

We gathered closely together by big round campfires

we ate bush tucker feasting on round ants and berries

we ate meat from animals that live in round burrows

we slept in circles on beaches around our fires we sat in

the dirt on our land that belongs to a big round planet

we watched the moon grow to a magnificent yellow circle

that was our time

I have learnt two different ways now I am thankful for

this that is part of my Life Circle

My heart is Round ready to echo the music of my family

but the square within me remains

The Square stops me in my entirety.