On 26 May the Italian Cultural Institute of Sydney will present the book edited by Margherita Zanoletti ‘My People. La mia gente’ published by Mimesis.
This is the first critical edition of the largest and most widely distributed poetic anthology by the great Australian author Oodgeroo of the Noonuccal tribe (1920-93).
In ‘My People’ (1970), now considered a “classic” of postcolonial literature, Oodgeroo‘s poetry recovers and rewrites the oral and cultural traditions of First Nations populations, while reclaiming the rights denied by Government policies.
Oodgeroo is the first Aboriginal poet in history. Her literary career began in the mid-Sixties with the debut collection ‘We Are Going’, published with the Anglo-Saxon name Kath Walker and then merged into ‘My People’, here translated into Italian for the first time.
The book presentation at the Italian Cultural Institute, coordinated by Alice Loda (Lecturer in International Studies and Global Societies at UTS) and Valentina Gosetti (Assoc. Professor at UNE Faculty of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences and Education), will involve the in-person participation of Marika Duczynski (Curator of Indigenous heritage at the Chau Chak Wing Museum, The University of Sydney) and Monica Galassi (Research Associate at Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education & Research, UTS Sydney) and the online interventions of Susan Petrilli (Professor of Philosophy and Theory of Languages, University “Aldo Moro” of Bari and Visiting Research Fellow, University of Adelaide) and Margherita Zanoletti.
Margherita Zanoletti is a graduate from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan and PhD in Translation Studies, The University of Sydney, with a special focus on word and image and intercultural studies. She first translated the writings of the Australian painter Brett Whiteley, poems by various First Nations authors and various texts by Oodgeroo into Italian, collaborating with Italian and international publishers.
Look for more information on: iicsydney.esteri.it.
