6.00pm Wednesday March 7
Collected Works Bookstore
Nicholas Building, Level 1, 37 Swanston Street, Melbourne
Launcher: Jillian Hall
Phillip Hall writes from the edge: the edge of language; the edge of mental illness; and, from the perspective of a non-Indigenous poet and teacher standing at the edge of Indigenous culture and community carrying generosity and love alongside the ongoing trauma of dispossession. This is a volume intensely interested in language and the self-care required in precarious lives.
Praise for Fume
Phillip Hall’s Fume is a hymn and a love song for Borroloola on the Gulf of Carpentaria, and for the Yanyuwa, Mara, Gudanji & Garrawa peoples. One poem at time, Hall undertakes the crucial work of decolonising his own gaze as he walks through ‘Indigenous space’, led by and learning from its custodians. These intricately worked and deeply felt poems come from a place of humility, gratitude, respect and love, as well as sorrow for what has been lost and for the harrowing realities that remain. This is not a ‘singing of’, much less ‘singing at’, but a ‘singing with’ his Borroloola family, with their full permission and support.
MELINDA SMITH
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Phillip Hall is family to Blackfullas … a champion who writes like truth … he sees Country like me, like a lot of Blackfullas – seeing the minute, and seeing the inferences.
PAUL COLLIS, WINNER OF THE 2016 DAVID UNAIPON AWARD
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Phillip Hall, you loved our kids and worked very hard, always smiling and planning a camp. You respected Culture and listened. So we care for you very much. You are our friend and poetry mentor – thank you.
JEANETTE YAWANJIBIRNA CHARLIE, YANYUWA LANGUAGE TEACHER, BORROLOOLA