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postcolonial literature-For over half a century the poetry of Judith Wright provided Australians with words to explore the spiritual dimension of their land, its people and history. In this she was no sentimentalist. In her poem, At Cooloobah (1955), she speaks for all European peoples who have inhabited Australia: "I'm a stranger come of a conquering people." This sense of Australian alienation from the land and victimization of its first peoples is dominant throughout her writing and actions. Writing for the Tasmanian Wildnerness Calendar (1981) she states: "the love of the land we have invaded and the guilt of the invasion have become a part of me." In her last public act, only weeks before her death, she led the reconciliation march in Canberra.
Yes, Judith Wright was a political poet. She mixed words with deeds. She saw the poet as a public figure with responsibility for challenging negative social forces and inhumane attitudes that demean human life and the environment. She was an outspoken and passionate critic of nuclear power, environmental devastation, injustice towards Aboriginal peoples and the excessive materialism that she judged to be bleeding the Australian soul of spiritual power. In the sixties, Wright was among the first and foremost campaigners for the protection of the Great Barrier Reef. Equally, her voice was loud and clear in protest against sand-mining on Fraser Island. In the wake of environmental destruction of the rainforest, she co-founded the Q...
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