Refugia

Patrick's Review 

Following on from her prize-winning mixed-genre collection Homecoming, Refugia again shows Elfie Shiosaki’s concern for Indigenous issues and her brilliant control of language. She questions white culture’s belief in its right to own the land, based on its assumption of racial superiority, by making visible the lost stories and oppression of her people. While she also acknowledges the reality of colonial power, she also reminds white culture of who was here first, who cultivated the land first, who told the stories first. The collection is skilfully crafted and the poems are beautifully evocative. While her subjects are confronting, Shiosaki also offers hope for a future of belonging and togetherness for her people. In my view it’s one of the best poetry collections to be released in the last few years.

Publisher's Review 

'in ember and ash / the heart of the Noongar Nation beats buried...'

Refugia is an unparalleled work of vision and political fury from Noongar and Yawuru poet and scholar Elfie Shiosaki. Inspired by the beeliar (Swan River) and the NASA James Webb Space Telescope's first year of science, this collection draws on colonial archives to contest the occupation of Noongar Country.

As the bicentennial year of the colony of Western Australia approaches, Shiosaki looks to the stars and back to the earth to make sense of memory and the afterlife of imperial violence.