Lionel Fogarty

Harvest Lingo: New poems by Lionel Fogarty

September 2022, no. 446

If nothing else, Lionel Fogarty’s longevity as a poet should bring him to our attention. Kargun, his first work, was published forty-two years ago amid the ferment of utopian Black Panther politics, discriminatory legislation, and racialised police violence. Fogarty’s finest work, Ngutji, published in 1984, drew on his experience growing up in Cherbourg Aboriginal Settlement, but the breadth of his poetic vision was already evident. Some of the early poems such as ‘Jephson Street Brothers Who Had None’ and ‘Remember Something Like This’ originate in Fogarty’s experience of Cherbourg Aboriginal Mission and radical politics, but the poems’ truths are non-propositional and essentially human.

... (read more)

'Ambition Man' by Lionel Fogarty | States of Poetry Queensland - Series One

by Lionel Fogarty •

States of Poetry Queensland - Series One

The things us Murri blackfellas have to go over in life's
Futures is hard.
Love's gone bad and less money and work.
This easy going one got the flour tea sugar our mothers and fathers worked for.
We were black men before the lot say, Ah ah, what's colour got to do with it?
Well the light comes from the dark.
May our babies never forget the black men who washed clea ...

'He Had a Dream of Times' by Lionel Fogarty | States of Poetry Queensland - Series One

by Lionel Fogarty •

States of Poetry Queensland - Series One

They swing on real dreams of freedom.
Peace is like things of the past.
Justice is like ice on the lands never seen.
The dream he had was his own.
For he got pay for his speech.
People now can't dream in positive.
For money to dream became working to scream.
Years went by things same lay at the beds and rooms.
Pain anger injustices seem to be their lifelo ...

'Jealousy of the Undertow/Tombstone' by Lionel Fogarty | States of Poetry Queensland - Series One

by Lionel Fogarty •

States of Poetry Queensland - Series One

The need to recall the journey
Is her gift to her children?

They are the perfect journalists
To inscribe her tombstone

Outside my bedroom window
I see them walking the path to my door

Who understands the logic?
That they look so much like me

Meanwhile what a lousy deal
They will also in heart my life

This heat reminds me of a cert ...

'Between Places' by Lionel Fogarty | States of Poetry Queensland - Series One

by Lionel Fogarty •

States of Poetry Queensland - Series One

Beyond a man's face stands a skilful
         Command of changes
Beyond a woman's face stands a weep
       Over the sweet peace beauty
Borrowed emerging naked rage
      Made these times emptiness
Being at the advancing haunts came
The hunter's stamping leaps ...

'Koala Trees Turn Her Borobi' by Lionel Fogarty | States of Poetry Queensland - Series One

by Lionel Fogarty •

States of Poetry Queensland - Series One

She was pretty young Borobi being put in the tree by her human father for four hours.

As he walk back to the other Jarjum, they ask where Borobi was. He say, Oh she jump
into a tree wanting to eat leaves and looked like happy, so I let her be what she wanted
to be, a Borobi.

Many Bilin Bilin flirted around flying high and low seems like listen to old Kargaru sing

About Lionel Fogarty | States of Poetry Queensland - Series One

by Australian Book Review •

States of Poetry Queensland - Series One

Lionel Fogarty's first collection of poetry, Kargun, was published in 1980, and he has published eight further collections, as well as a children's book, Booyooburra, a traditional Wakka Wakka story. ... (read more)

Minyung Woolah Binnung by Lionel Fogarty & Smoke Encrypted Whispers by Samuel Wagan Watson

by Peter Minter •

February 2005, no. 268

Peter Minter reviews ‘Minyung Woolah Binnung: What Saying Says’ by Lionel Fogarty and ‘Smoke Encrypted Whispers’ by Samuel Wagan Watson

These two exceptional books should be sent to every household in Australia free of charge. They would be a perfect curative after the federal election. The campaigns of the conventional parties demonstrated how far indigenous Australia has fallen off the political radar screen. Fortunately, the independent creative work of Aboriginal thinkers, writers and artists continues to set high standards and often leads the way in the exploration of social, political and philosophical issues that many in mainstream culture are still unable to face.

... (read more)