Voicing the Voiceless

Australian literature is one that has not been explored as deep as the other Commonwealth literatures. The continent is rocky, bushy, sandy and wild; a place which had been chosen by the British as a punishment area for the outlaws, soon developed into a fertile and civilized country. The native Aborigines were soley responsible for this. But the British officers ill treated them and brutally slaughtered them in huge masses. Judith Wright, a descendent of an officer, grew up seeing the massacre of the innocents. She made up her mind to bring freedom to the Aborigines. As a poet, politician and a social worker she raised her voice to bring liberation to them. This book is on those particular poems which bring out the feelings of the poet on the natives. The poet voices her protests against the rulers and their exploitation of both the natives and the land. A tinge of humanism is prevalent in most of her poems. Other poems on motherhood, war and destruction, ‘mother-child’ relationship are also presented. The history of Australia and the native Aborigines is also highlighted.