Australian Bush Laureate Awards 2014

[Stephen Whiteside]

I know the inclusion of so many musicians - and young ones at that - at the awards ceremony has been the cause of a certain amount of angst over the years. I can see both sides of the argument here. I think the musicians put a lot of bums on seats that would not be there otherwise. And of course if you had higher profile musicians that would put the costs up dramatically. So it's all a bit of balancing act. Personally, I don't really mind that, but I can see how it could push noses out of joint.

I take your point about the advertising posters. I haven't studied them closely over the years, but I have looked at one or two from time to time, and did think it was disappointing that the poets were not mentioned more prominently. Again, I suppose, it comes down to who the organisers think are going to draw the crowds. Still, if the event is primarily to reward and promote bush poets, you would think they should be mentioned fairly prominently in the advertising. Otherwise it runs the risk of creating the impression that the organisers do not have faith in their own product.

[manfredvijars]

We poets appear to have an identity crisis and we've locked ourselves into a dependency mindset.
Yep, dependent on others!

We attach ourselves to the Folk movement (who's hearts are rooted in the British Isles).
We attach ourselves to the Country Music scene (who's hearts are rooted in Nashville).

Our hearts are firmly rooted HERE!

We are dependent on the largesse of a commercial organisation to push our 'cause' and think we need unknown musicians to draw a crowd to see US???
Give me a break!!!

The "Naked Poets" paved the way and showed us that we CAN stand on our own successfully-and others have been/are.
Yet we still need to be molly-coddled.

Next year the ABPA will be 20 years old!
The 'craft' we practice is considerably older.

Maybe as an organisation we are only ONE year old - twenty times ...

[Stephen Whiteside]

I'm not sure that's fair, Manfred.

The poetry that we all love - Paterson and Lawson, etc. - was written in an era when it didn't have much to compete with. Film, radio and television were yet to come. Even popular music was in its infancy back then. All of these forms of entertainment have ultimately proved to be much more popular than poetry. In fact, given everything that goes on around us these days, one could argue it's a miracle poetry has survived at all.

It makes good sense for poetry to attach itself to sympathetic music festivals. By all means have a go at organising a poetry festival without any music if you want to. I don't think you'll find it easy.

In a sense, I guess that's what Toolangi is. It's been a great success and a lot of fun, but it's only ever been a small, 'boutique' festival. This year we have Ted Egan - a singer - performing for us. I imagine this will boost the numbers attending the festival, which is a great thing.

It's a natural progression to include music to broaden the appeal of a poetry event. Of course, it needs to be done sensitively. Ted is a great choice for us, because he is intrinsically and passionately Australian, he is a great storyteller, and he has a keen sense of history...as well as being a wonderful entertainer.

[Stephen Whiteside]

Another thought.

The name "Naked Poets" seems to say it all.

We all know sex sells. So a collection of poets put 'naked' in their title, and it helps them. I'm not saying they are not very good, I am sure they are, but I don't see too many musicians feeling the need to call themselves 'naked' to succeed.

[manfredvijars]

You're right Stephen, it's not fair, but that's the way it is!
And I stand by what I said above!

You're missing the point about the "Naked Poets"
Here is a group that believed in their creativity, looked outwards, took a risk, and created their own opportunities. As did others!

We can stand on our own!

You said you were prepared to go out and promote the Children's section for the ABLA,
which doesn't have much of a foothold in children's publishing world (your discovery).
Would you Stephen, be prepared to do that for ABPA Awards?

[David Campbell]

I’ve read these comments with interest and have ended up more puzzled than ever! There has been talk for some time about setting up our own ABPA awards, but it hasn’t happened as yet…so why not support a commercial enterprise that is providing some sort of platform for bush poetry? And a platform that, at least on the surface, appears to be operating in conjunction with the ABPA.

Okay, maybe the Bush Laureate Awards are in decline…that was news to me…but there’s almost a suggestion here that we should encourage that decline by not participating, perhaps with the idea that ABPA awards would somehow arise, phoenix-like, from the ashes. How realistic is that? If the Bush Laureate Awards disappear and nothing is set up in their place, which seems quite possible, then bush poetry suffers.

The fact that the ABLA is a private, commercially-run operation appears to be a concern. Why? We’ve just supported a publisher in producing an anthology of bush poetry…it’s a private enterprise and there’s no money in it for contributors. But what it does do is get bush poetry ‘out there’, and we’re hardly in a strong enough position that we can afford to turn our backs on any legitimate opportunity to promote what poets are doing. Do we knock back approaches simply because they’re coming from private enterprise?

I’m not at all bothered by the idea of dependence, be it to music or anything else. Here in Victoria we have the Victorian Bush Poetry and Music Association, run by the very hard-working Jan Lewis. In a couple of weeks I’m going up to Benalla for the Entertainment Muster, part of which is the Victorian Aussie Song/Music Championships. So there’ll be musos and poets sharing the stage. If the music gets bums on seats, opens up bush poetry to some who might otherwise not hear it, and also sells a few books…then where’s the downside? It’s the same point that Stephen is making about Ted Egan coming to Toolangi. Music and bush poetry are a natural combination, with some lucky people combining both skills, so why not exploit that?

Neil’s observations in the last magazine about falling membership, vanishing festivals/comps, age demographics and “desperate” times underline the importance of taking what promotional opportunities we can. There are so many distractions for people these days that many of the old recreational society groupings that depend on voluntary involvement for committees etc. are struggling. Tennis and golf clubs, for example, are disappearing or amalgamating. So our difficulties are not unusual.

We need whatever friends we can find.

David

[Terry]

I agree with you David,
You only have to go to Boyup Brook for their festival.
It really is a country music festival and we Bush Poets just a small part of it, but the upside of it is that Sundays Poets Breakfast attracts massive crowds thanks largely to to the crowds being down there for festival itself. Which sort of proves to me that many people still love our poetry if we can only get some major attraction to get the crowds to where we are reciting. But make no mistake every poetic event is packed out as anyone of the visiting poets who have performed there will attest, I guess Tamworth is similar.

I went to the Laureate awards last year and there seemed to be a lot of people there but how that compared to past years I have no idea.

As you say David we need to take advantage of any chance to promote ourselves and even if we get the ABPA awards up and running (and I really hope we do) lets not turn our backs on the Laureates, let them remain another way of promoting ourselves.

Terry

[manfredvijars]

We poets appear to have an identity crisis and we've locked ourselves into a dependency mindset.

.....l

We are dependent on the largesse of a commercial organisation to push our 'cause' and think we need unknown musicians to draw a crowd to see US???

....

Next year the ABPA will be 20 years old!
The 'craft' we practice is considerably older.

Maybe as an organisation we are only ONE year old - twenty times over ...

I stand more firmly now by what I wrote earlier.

Are there any forward thinkers here??

[Terry]

I hear what you're saying Manfred and you have certainly been around the Bush Poetry scene a lot longer than me.

Following on from what you say, you must be impressed in what we are trying to do over here with the WA Championships Festival at Toodyay. We are determined to have this Festival challenge Boyup Brook in popularity within a few years.

Remember this is a Bush Poetry Festival where we will reverse the trend by putting on supporting musical entertainment rather than being the supporting act ourselves. We will also bring over top Eastern Australian Poets to perform alongside our very talented local poets - this year we have engaged Bill Kearns and will continue to bring over Eastern States Talent in future years.

Toodyay is already a well known place because of it's very successful Moondyne Festival and its close proximity to Perth, we are also taking advantage of their expert knowledge by running this as a joint operation with with their local events committee.

Terry

[Stephen Whiteside]

Terry,

My entry to the WA Bush Poets written comp is in the mail.

I've also emailed a copy of the poem to the entries compiler, John, as requested on the entry form. It wasn't clear to me, however, whether or not that should have my name on it. I decided to leave it on. Hope that is OK.

Cheers,
Stephen