First Nations poets offer a post-referendum path to peace. They invite us to stand together in suffering before moving forward
- Written by: Elfie Shiosaki, Associate Professor, Australian National University
Despite the unsettling advancement of weapons technology in the 21st century, storytelling remains a powerful force for promoting conflict resolution and peace. First Nations poetry of peace is a continuation of millennia-old Indigenous practices to maintain or restore balance in our worlds through storytelling.
After the failure of the October referendum to enshrine a First Nations Voice in the constitution, there has largely been silence about alternative roadmaps to peace in Australia. Yet, even in this silence, we can still hear the extraordinary voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people calling for peace in their storytelling. Might we then re-envision First Nations poetry as a work of makarrata?
Natalie Harkin.
Wheeler Centre
By reading First Nations poetry, we come to feel, rather than know, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s truths and lived experiences.
We learn, for example, about policies and practices of the Stolen Generation and estimates of the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children forcibly removed from their families, but First Nations storytelling, in its deep generosity, teaches us what it feels like to have a child taken from your arms.
This is a relational process, in which listening is equally important to speaking, generating compassion in the true sense of the word – to stand together in suffering.
It is a process that moves us beyond truth-telling to making peace between individuals and communities, a practice of nation-building that confronts a painful past and embraces possibilities of new beginnings.
Authors: Elfie Shiosaki, Associate Professor, Australian National University 
