drop bear,
by Evelyn Araluen

This book has been on my TBR list for a long time. I think I saw it recommended through a podcast once upon a time, but because it has some poetry and is more like art than a novel, I’ve been waiting until I can buy a physical copy rather than download it on the kindle or listen as an audiobook. As soon as I stepped into the bookstore in Alice Springs, there it was on a display shelf just waiting for me to pick it up!

As I mentioned, part of this book is poetry and part is narrative, following the voice of someone who is continually repressed and violated by the oppression of colonialism. As I sat down to read Drop Bear, I found myself making audible noises of agreement. The author puts her ideas into such concise and clear phrasing, that the impacts of post-colonial Australia become glaringly obvious.

I don’t know how else to describe this beautiful book than by pulling out some of the quotes that really floored me:

“We are relearning this place through poetry: …
I learn that balun is both river and Milky Way,
and that he is baray-gir, the youngest child,
and the top of the tree,
where the gahar will come to rest -
to call its own name across the canopy,
long after his word for it
is gone”

“I would like… to remind everyone
that we are meeting on Land Stolen
And to remind everyone how sad it is
You all died”

“Got you believing in seven days”

“When I am dead
they will not say my name
and when you are dead
you can have your poems”

Araluen talks about words and language disappearing, about fractured families and disillusionment, and about the oppression of ideas and being. I ate this book up whole and left not a single crumb remaining. I think everyone should read Drop Bear. Go and do it now please.