Yuin Country. Image by Craig Bender
- this is the time
- of lilly pillies
- plumping into (fullness)
- Possum Skin Cloaks
- on the mend
- or perhaps being
- worn for the first time
- Again
- an age of deciduous
- home makers
- Losing
- \lea|ves/
- and the last
- flowers
- f
- a
- l
- l
- i
- n
- g
- from myrtle
- A moment
- of wattle
- and whale
- Syncing
- to mark the start of
- m i g r a t i o n
- and like the Old Ones
- here I am
- Healing
- releasing
- growing
- and moving
- fruiting a new path
- on this Country that is not mine
- but who kindly
- offers wisdoms
- as trees
- remind us
- how our Scars
- can be sacred
- and the many ways
- to lay down
- deep
- roots
- to nourishment
- beneath
- even when the <<West Wind>>
- *howls* and hauls
- islands into o~c~e~a~n.
- These wise ones
- show how a crowded canopy
- offers shade
- but limits growth
- of those below
- knowing that
- tall trees are
- forged over
- Grandfather
- Sun Downs
- and
- seasons
- seasons
- seasons
- seasons
- seasons
- Seasons
Sun Downs and Seasons
Kirli Saunders
Kirli Saunders
How are you shaped by sea?
We are where we come from, where we’re known and remembered and in turn, we are where we know Country. On both Nan and Pop’s side of the family we are salt-water people. From Lake Tyers and the entrance in East Gippsland to the glowing sands of Biripi Country, on Yuin lands, where Mum was born, and on Dharawal and Yuin lands, where Pop’s family were relocated, I am one with the sea and she is me.
Country is a significant element in all of my work as an artist and writer and for this reason, my poem responds to the connection I have with her. I wrote Sun Downs and Seasons on Dharawal lands, around Wollongong, where I’ve lived for a decade. I wrote it with respect to the Ancestors, Dharawal people and Dharawal Lands.
Sun Downs and Seasons references the seasons, calendar flowers and whale migration which hold time for us, it also acknowledges a Creation Story, and in turn talks about the timelessness of our ways of being. For me, this work is intended to ground the audience in this connection and to bring them back to land and sea.
—Kirli Saunders
Image by Tad Souden
Kirli Saunders OAM is a proud Gunai Woman and award-winning multidisciplinary artist and consultant. An experienced speaker and facilitator, advocating for marginalised communities and care for country, Kirli was the NSW Aboriginal Woman of the Year (2020). In 2022, she was awarded an OAM for the contribution to literature. Her celebrated books include The Incredible Freedom Machines (2018, Scholastic), Kindred (2019, Magabala), Bindi (2020, Magabala) and Our Dreaming (Scholastic 2022).
Kirli’s books, The Incredible Freedom Machines (2018), Kindred (2019) and Bindi (2020) and Our Dreaming (2022) have been celebrated by the Prime Minister’s, QLD, WA, Adelaide, Victorian Premier’s Literary, ABIAs, Kate Challis RAKA, Speech Pathology, ABDA and CBCA awards. Her 2023 forthcoming titles include a visual poetry collection, Returning and a picture book, Afloat. She created Poetry in First Languages, Re[ad]generate and Returning. All were delivered in partnerships and with many First Nations collaborators and industry partners. Kirli was a member of the working group behind the CreateNSW Aboriginal Arts and Culture Protocols and is member of Merrigong’s First Nations Advisory Group.