Cockatoos in the Mangroves: A Poetry Collection

By Vanessa S. Lee-AhMat

There is a great need for poetry in this world. Words twisted together can let the imagination travel through time and place and connects you with a sense of emotional expression and understanding - like all forms of Art. In “Cockatoos in the Mangroves”, Lee-AhMat an Aboriginal-Torres Strait Islander woman covers many of the social and life issues that affect Indigenous Australian. Sharing our knowledge comes with great responsibility, which is passed down from many generations before us. Kyra Kum-Sing, Curator, Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative, Australia.

With passion and raw honesty, Vanessa S. Lee-AhMat is unapologetic as she writes from a sense of knowing and doing perspective of being an Aboriginal-Torres Strait Islander woman in contemporary Australia. She courageously pens issues experienced by black Indigenous people such as racism and discrimination, lived humor, earthly connections, and environmental disruptions. Through poetry she takes the reader on a deep journey to the darker side of being human as reality is exposed and life is painted through a myriad of emotions.

“Cockatoos in the Mangroves” is confessional and at the same time artfully expressive debut collection of poetry that will leave a fiery footprint on your spirit.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Sep 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9781664100657

Vanessa S. Lee-AhMat

VANESSA LEE-AHMAT, an Indigenous Australian, lives on the land of the Gadigal people in Sydney, Australia. She is a poet, writer, social epidemiologist, suicide prevention advocate and a strong believer in social equality. In 2016, Vanessa became the first Indigenous female to graduate with a PhD from the Faculty of Medicine at Griffith University, Queensland. She was the first Indigenous National vice-president for the Public Health Association of Australia, 2011 to 2015, where she advocated for more resources to be allocated towards preventative health. In 2017, Vanessa became the first independent director for Suicide Prevention Australia. Dr Lee-AhMat began writing poetry following the graduation of her PhD, and she offers no apology for her confessional style of poetry. In 2016, Vanessa was invited to present her poetry at the Sydney Writers Festival with other Indigenous Australian poets. Her poem “Warrior Cloak” (a piece about betrayal and resilience) was choregraphed into a seven-minute contemporary Aboriginal dance by choreographer Monica Stevens and performed at Carriage Works in Sydney, Australia. She was invited to contribute poems, in 2017, to the Australian Poetry Journal for their Australian Poetry Anthology series, SKIN; a series of high-level poems interpreting skin. Vanessa’s poem as “Black Women Do” was published as part of a book chapter on women’s resilience. Her poem “My Master”, a poem of courage and strength, has been played on National Indigenous radio and television; she was also invited to perform the poem as part of an interview on National ABC program `All in the Mind’- mental health and suicide prevention. In 2019, Vanessa was invited to read her short story “Compassion” at the opening of Aging Fiercely platform Story Room in preparation for a story telling podcast. She continues to perform and publish her confessional poetry across various media platforms.

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Copyright © 2020 by Vanessa S. Lee-Ahmat.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 09/23/2020

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Contents

Cover Image

Authors Note

Compassion

CUTTING THROUGH THE RACISM

The Warrior

Taste

Rope

How do you make poverty sexy

Your Privilege

My Master

Bigotry

How

Coloured Ribbons

Black Pearl

White Paper

Girl – Contradiction

Girl – Skin Inhalation

Girl – Once Was

Are you done?

Thanks for your discrimination

Hospital Boat

Favour

Gossip Rejection

Cultural Repair

In Silence

26th January

BECOMING

Arriving

Decreed

Warrior Cloak

Outlaw

As Black Women Do

Called to Order

Footprint of You

Self-Sabotage

Pollen Party

Explosive Red

Love my reflection

Priscilla

Rock, Desert, Pearl

Breakfast

Life Drawing

Grey Roots

Last Draw

Walk out of the Ocean

BLACK EARTH

Sand

Philosophy

Silent Death

Reciprocity

Burn

Ignorance

Privilege Face

Eviction

In mines we trust

History Celebrates

Rendezvous with reality

Fury

Portal

Bush Hope

Catastrophe

Date with Destiny

Understand

Glory of Souls

Cockatoos in the Mangroves

About the Author

Cover Image

The image on the cover of this book is a burnt-out old stone church. The church was built roughly at the end of the 19th century in a small settlement known as Poid to Westerns and Adam (pronounced arr-durm) to the Indigenous Australian people of the land. When the missionaries came to Adam, they changed the name to Poid and turned the First Peoples village into a Western settlement. By about 1917, Poid settlement was closed due to an outbreak of tropical diseases and the church and the cemetery was the only remaining remnant of the missionary’s presence. Over the years during Aboriginal-Torres Strait Islander ways of back-burning, fires have continuously burnt through the site and all that continues to remain of the Western system is the cemetery and the church structure. The First Peoples have since claimed back their name, their land, and their ways of knowing