Lost and Found in Translation

Cheryl Leavy is a Kooma and Nguri writer whose poem Ngali – We two won the 2022 Oodgeroo Noonuccal Poetry Prize. Cheryl’s first children’s book, Yanga Mother, will be published by UQP in 2024 and her second, For You Country, in 2025. Passionate about language revitalisation, Cheryl often writes in her Kooma language.

Clint Bracknell is a Noongar song-maker from the south coast of Western Australia and Professor of Indigenous Languages at the University of Queensland researching connections between song, language, and landscapes. He recently co-translated a complete Shakespearean theatre work (Hecate 2020) and a dubbed international feature film (Fist of Fury Noongar Daa 2021), both world-firsts for languages of Australia. He creates Noongar-language music under the name Maatakitj and leads development of the Mayakeniny Noongar performance and language resource website.

Lorna Munro, or ‘Yilinhi’, is a Wiradjuri and Gamilaroi woman, multidisciplinary artist and regular radio and podcast host at Sydney’s Radio Skid Row. A long-time active member of her Redfern/Waterloo community, her work is informed by her passion and well-studied insight in areas such as culture, history, politics and popular culture. Lorna has travelled the world showcasing her skills and distinctive style of poetry and political commentary. She was also the sole designer and creator of Sydney’s—and possibly Australia’s—first initiative to teach Aboriginal language through poetry, in partnership with Red Room Poetry in 2015. Throughout her career she has been on stage, in films and on paper. She compiled and edited Paper Dreaming: Our Stories Our Way for Cambridge University Press (2015). Lorna continues to work tirelessly mastering many art forms, raising funds, and supporting and advocating for her community and her people on the local, national and international stage. In 2019, Lorna was announced as a recipient of the Wheeler Centre’s Next Chapter fellowship and in 2020 she was the recipient of the PLAYKING initiative with The Griffith Theatre and publishing poetry for ‘Solid Air: Australian and New Zealand Spoken Word’ edited by David Stranger and Anne- Marie Te Whiu, ‘Fire Front:First Nations poetry and power today’ edited by Alison Whittaker and ‘Guwayu- For All Times: A collection of First Nations Poems’ commissioned by Red Room Company and edited by Jeanine Leanne. Lorna continues her work with the Redfern/Waterloo Community Archive and mentoring our future podcasters and storytellers while caring for her son and nephews.