Every Country Town’s very own True Crime (#1)

“Of all the poems we have looked at in the last two weeks (either in lectures or tutorials) which struck home most forcibly for you? Can you say why? Give a short synopsis of what it was about the poem that touched your thoughts and/or feelings.”

Despite the poem’s controversial title, ‘Niggers Leap’ is surprisingly about “guilt of invasion” and Judith Wright’s own personal ‘ode’ to the crimes of her ancestors. This struck home to me due to my own ancestry being ambiguously coated in the blood of Indigenous Australians.

My family are a family of generational farmers in a small country town called ‘Coolah’ & despite the town having a school with the promise of 3 HSC subjects and the potential for me being related to everyone currently residing in the town. It has recently come to light that the town has a history like many small country towns like it, of massacre-ing its First Nations people.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-09/what-happened-to-coolah-dunedoos-aboriginal-people/9092648

Judith Wright’s poem itself presented a dark and non stop allusion to the massacres that took place – against First Nations people, confronting the audience through graphic allusions to the violence in the land & maintaining references to Aboriginal history. Wright claims her ancestors directly, murdered the Indigenous people on their land & due to the murdered having no voice she herself, refuses to live without advocating for them. The poem also acts as a warning to the violence that Australia is capable and culpable of/to and the crime of refusing to acknowledge these crimes as they stand.

The poem struck this chord specifically through its unapologetic attempt to reach out to the past and acknowledge the crimes even if Judith Wright’s ancestors refused to themselves. I, myself, once hearing the news about the massacre’s in my hometown found myself calling my cousin who although unlike me, grew up in the confounds of Coolah I thought would be disheartened to know our direct ancestors and probably our grandparents knew something about these horrific crimes. Unfortunately the response I got from him was; “Why should I care? It wasn’t me?”.

This dismissal of acknowledgment is exactly what made ‘Niggers Leap’ so powerful, because Wright cared despite the fact that it wasn’t her, as a fifth generation convict she personally had no part in the crimes that took place on her families property. However through cries like “cold quilt on the bone & skull” creating a cold image and the consistent reminder of Indigenous ownership of Australian landscape – no matter how ‘harsh’ & ‘elusive’ we dub it to be.

Judith Wright within ‘Niggers Leap’ reminds me, that although I do not personally bear the guilt of past actions, I can still claim responsibility through acknowledgment, advocacy & activism of those Aboriginal people who are currently living.