Dalwurra: The Black Bittern: A Poem Cycle

WEST AUSTRALIANA POETRY ABORIGINAL

In this collection of poems, based on the Aboriginal form of the manikay or song cycle, Colin Johnson (Mudrooroo Narogin) adapts the story of Dalwurra, the black bittern, to his own experience, telling the story of a journey which leads from Perth in Western Australia, to Singapore, then to India and finally to Scotland and England, to the Commonwealth Writer’s Conference in Edinburgh – and then to London at the time of the Brixton riots. The return to Western Australia is not only a return to his own country but to full possession of his Aboriginal inheritance, a return which this poem celebrates.

• 77 p. : ill. ; 21 cm. #130424