mozhi

Priyanka's words are more protest than poetry. They are a challenge to each of us, to people of all ancestries, colours, cultures and religions, to examine our position and role in the systems of power that we are all subject to; that we are all complicit in. Priyanka's work creates discomfort with this challenge, as self-interrogation should. But if you want an easier read, then read something else. With simple ferocity, she reminds the reader that the land we now call Australia, was built on genocide and theft, with continuing injustices for First Nations Peoples. She confronts the ways in which she has been colonised, the ways in which we all - as the colonised - have been taught to loathe ourselves and the journey we must take to love ourselves. She moves between the political and the personal, with confidence, demonstrating the causal relationship between the two. Through her poetry, she asserts her power and reveals her vulnerabilities. She records the traumas of childhood racism, relinquishes the burdens of the good immigrant and reclaims her ancestral language. Her voice is uncompromising and courageous. Every word in her debut anthology, will hurt and inspire you. Every word will stay with you. Shankari Chandran