Tribute to Judith Wright

Judith Wright was an Australian poet and environmentalist who was a strong advocate of Aboriginal land rights. A recipient of the Christopher Brennan Award and the Australian National Living Treasure Award in 1998, Wright was also one of only two Australian poets to be considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Her works were standard taught for many years in Australian schools and universities, which she admittedly deplored:

"Appreciation of poetry, one out of 10 or whatever it might be, is quite alien to what a poet feels about poetry" Judith Wright.

Australian poet Judith Wright. Courtesy National Archives

Early Life and Poetry

Born on 31st May 1915 at Thalgarrah station in Armidale, New South Wales to a wealthy pastoral family, Wright spent her younger years riding ponies across the property. A rather lonely child, she was homeschooled until the early passing of her mother and later went to live with her Aunt while boarding at New England Girls' School.

These hills my father's father stripped

And beggars to the winter wind

They crouch like shoulders, naked and whipped…

When the last leaf and bird go

Let my thoughts stand like trees here...

From Eroded Hills by Judith Wright, 1950

Wright later studied Philosophy, English, Psychology and History at the University of Sydney. After graduating she worked as a research officer at the University of Queensland, during which time she wrote perhaps her most famous poems - Bullocky and The Moving Image. During this time she also helped publish Meanjin, a literary journal with Clem Christesen.

Moving to Mount Tamborine, Queensland in 1950 with novelist and abstract philosopher Jack McKinney, they had their first child, Meredith in the same year. They later married in 1962, sadly Jack passed away in 1966.

While living in the mountains of southern Queensland during the 1950s and 60s, Wright wrote a huge proportion of her works. Her first collection of published short stories in 1966 saw her nominated for the 1967 Nobel Prize in Literature and included: The Ant-lion, The Vineyard Woman, Eighty Acres, The Dugong, The Weeping Fig and The Nature of Love.

Wright also wrote children's stories, books of criticism and Generations Of Men - a novel about her early settler grandparents from Queensland's Dawson Valley.

Wright began to lose her hearing in her mid-20s and became completely deaf by 1992. She also had trouble with her eyesight, which thanks to modern medicine she could regain. She admits that losing her hearing was difficult to adapt to but her brilliant mind could see beyond its challenges.

"As we get past our superficial material wants and instant gratification we connect to a deeper part of ourselves, as well as to others, and the universe."

Environmentalism and Social Activism

It's well known that Wright also cared deeply about the Australian landscape and became very distressed by the devastation at the hands of white Australians. With her awareness of environmental issues she became a supporter of the Aboriginal land rights movement. This led to the forming of the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland in the mid-60s with David Fleay, Kathleen McArthur and Brian Clouston. A powerful conservation group, Wright was a founding member from 1964 to 1976.

Wright, among many issues, fought to conserve the Great Barrier Reef when it was threatened by oil drilling and lobbied against sand mining on Fraser Island.

In 1991, Wright was the second Australian to receive the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry and in 1994 also received Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Poetry Award for Collected Poems.

Legacy

Wright passed away in Canberra on 25 June 2000, aged 85.

Her verbal fabric opened our eyes to the:

"...engagement poetry can have with philosophical ideas, with history, and with the guilt, racism, pride and violence in that history, she opened our eyes to our landscapes, our flora and fauna." Kevin John Brophy, Professor of Creative writing, The University of Melbourne.

Part of the Q150 celebrations in 2009, Judith Wright was named one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for her role as an "Influential Artists". Then there is the Judith Wright Calanthe Award which has been awarded as part of the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards since 2004.

WRIGHT STUFF: Judith Wright had an affintiy with Boreen Point and preserving the local landscape. Courtesy of Judith Wright Comtem

Once called 'the conscience of the nation' Judith Wright's passionate commitment to the environment and Aboriginal land rights pays homage to her spirit.

I wither and you break from me;

yet though you dance in living light

I am the earth, I am the root,

I am the stem that fed the fruit,

the link that joins you to the night.

From Woman To Child by Judith Wright, 1949

Rest in peace, Judith Wright. Your honesty, love of environment and rich verbal fabric will forever be remembered.

By Kirsten Jakubenko

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