2016 Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Competition Awards Ceremony

[Stephen Whiteside]

I have recently returned from Gunnedah, where I attended the Awards Ceremony for the Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Competition. I had a terrific time!
Details can be found on my blog, here:
http://www.stephenwhiteside.com.au/2016 ... -ceremony/

Unfortunately, though the competition is in a very healthy state, there is very little joy in this for the A.B.P.A. Almost none of the entries were written in traditional rhyme and metre. Having said that, however, I know that children still love hearing and reading rhyming verse.

[Stephen Whiteside]

Reflecting on this overnight, I think I am sounding a little negative. I think it is true to say that the next generation of writers of verse with rhythm and rhyme is not coming - at least not quite in the way that we would perhaps like them to. I don't see a new wave of Gen X ABPA members massing on the horizon.

Having said that, the love of rhyme and rhythm in the hearts and minds of today's young remains as strong as ever - you see it in song lyrics, you see it in rap, you see it in hip hop.

What you don't see - and this is a separate issue, though it is easy to conflate the two - is a love of the legacy of Paterson, Lawson et al. I don't see young people growing up inspired by their cultural/historical legacy. It isn't their fault, and it isn't a new problem. In fact, the void is now deep into the second generation, as their teachers also have little knowledge of the great Australian poets of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

I can go into a class room and perform my rhyming verse, and I will be greeted with a polite, luke warm response. I can then perform a couple of more 'rap style' poems which I have also written, and the whole room will come alive. There is a lesson there, clearly. I find the 'rap style' poems harder to write, in the sense that they take a lot more energy, and I have to be in a very upbeat frame of mind myself to be able to pull it off properly. Nevertheless, that is the way of the future, and I will probably feel compelled to write more of similar ilk in the future.

That said, my principal publisher, "The School Magazine" (NSW Department of Education), prefers the more traditional approach - these poems look better on paper - so I will probably continue to write both styles to try to keep everybody happy!

[Wendy Seddon]

Gunnedah is my home town - glad you liked it Stephen.

[Shelley Hansen]

Hi Stephen

I really enjoyed reading your report - and have shared it on the ABPA Facebook page.

The points you make about less exposure to our poetry tradition in schools are very valid ones. Interestingly, up this way it seems to vary according to location.

A couple of weeks ago Rod and I had the absolute pleasure of performing to two groups of school children for Book Week, the theme of which was "Australia - Story Country". Very suited to bush poetry!!

The school was in a nearby rural town. They have made a conscious decision to include Aussie bush poetry in their curriculum, and the Year 5 students are currently studying Banjo Paterson. The headmistress and teacher/librarian are both lovers of bush poetry and they have bush poetry books in the school library.

We had great response from both groups of kids (Prep to Grade 3, and Grades 4-6). A factor in that response was no doubt their prior exposure to bush poetry.

Sadly, I know from conversations with other kids and teachers, some schools elect not to feature bush poetry in their curriculum. That is such a loss and will certainly do nothing to spawn rhymers of the future. I'm not suggesting that free verse be ignored either - kids need to be exposed to all the genres of poetry to build their knowledge and appreciation.

Cheers
Shelley

[Stephen Whiteside]

Thanks, Shelley.

Yes, my comments about schools relate purely to my own experiences, which are largely confined to the suburbs of Melbourne. I imagine the situation improves a little once you move away from the big cities.

[Shelley Hansen]

Hi Stephen

I wonder - is there a demarcation between metropolitan and regional schools across Australia, or does it vary State-to-State? How much leeway does an individual school have within the set curriculum - and does the passion of individual teachers play a role?

Not being involved in the education scene, I don't know the answers. But it would be interesting to find out.

Cheers
Shelley

[Stephen Whiteside]

I'm not aware of any clear demarcation, Shelley. I think it is more of a cultural thing. With exceptions, of course, the population becomes less multicultural and more "Anglo" as you move away from the cities.

My understanding is that teachers have a great deal of freedom within the syllabus - certainly at primary school level. I think the passion of the individual teacher is pretty much everything.

[David Campbell]

I agree with Stephen about the passion of the individual teacher. As we've discussed before, not many have a passion for poetry these days, and those that do are more likely to lean towards non-rhyming verse. That is very evident from the lack of traditional entries in both this competition and the Ipswich Poetry Feast, probably the two biggest poetry comps for children in Australia.

As to the demarcation issue, Shelley, it's significant that (as far as I know) the only bush poetry competitions that are based in capital cities are the Boree Log, which is run by the Eastwood/Hills FAW in suburban Sydney, and the competition run last year by our Henry Lawson Society here in Melbourne (judged by Stephen, although it wasn't run again this year). As you know, we also used to have the Bryan Kelleher Award here in Melbourne, but that's gone. I'm happy to be corrected, but the rest of our festivals/competitions are located outside metropolitan areas. So it could be argued that, if anywhere, you're more likely to find some bush poetry in a rural school, particularly if there's some poetic history relating to the area...as there is with the two Henry Lawson festivals in Gulgong and Grenfell.

Cheers
David