Journeying together virtually on Country: Building a relational poetics and pedagogy in the middle of a pandemic

Abstract

In the introduction to Fire Front: First Nations Power and Poetry Today, one of several anthologies dedicated to First Nations poets published in 2020, Alison Whittaker describes the gathering momentum of First Nations poetry as a ‘sovereign renaissance’ (p. x). This paper outlines the rationale for – and tells the story of – the collaborative development of a general first-year poetry subject whose pedagogical foundations lie in an Aboriginal epistemological framework, and that privileges the work of First Nations poets. The subject, designed on Dharawal Country and informed by the University of Wollongong’s Jindaola program, is based on a grounded Aboriginal framework of Country, Kinship, Culture, Journey and Connectedness. These five principles shape the students’ journey through the subject as they are prompted, through readings, lectures and writing exercises, to consider their own relationship with place, language, family, community and culture. Teaching poetry guided by this framework is one way of responding to Ali Cobby Eckermann’s call to not only listen to the work of First Nations poets, but also to act (2020, p. 147).