Poetic Portraits of Older Australians

Non/fictionLab member, Associate Professor Jessica Wilkinson, and collaborator Associate Professor Cassandra Atherton (Deakin University), are leading a team of poets in a project that honours the life stories of Older Australians.

Supported by Australia Council for the Arts and Creative Victoria, the project aims to engage with and appreciate the lives of older Australians through listening to their life stories and writing those stories—or aspects of their lives—as poems. The poets who are interviewing participants and writing poems are Ali Alizadeh, Jeanine Leane, Leni Shilton, Aidan Coleman, Eileen Chong, Ali Cobby Eckermann, Jessica Wilkinson and Cassandra Atherton. The project will result in several outcomes including a book of poetic portraits (also featuring watercolour portraits of the participants by Sierra McManus), a one-hour podcast, and a public event to launch the book.

Image by Sierra McManus Image by Sierra McManus

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Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

aboriginal flag
torres strait flag

Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business.