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From: Vol.09 N.01 – A Poetics of Rights

Anthwerrke

by Glen Hunting
My voice is profane in this cavern
with soaring abutments, adorned
with the creatures whose bodies
created the hills and streams,
who fed their descendants, 
wedded the land to the sacred.

How would I understand this place
if the beacons and shelters 
I come from had never existed?
The ochre and lime on these walls
were crucial, though left alone
perhaps for years at a stretch, 
enduring until the guardians came
to see, to remember eternity,
to replenish their equilibrium.

My mind’s eye conjures 
a poor imitation of those 
who found nourishment here—
alone, but embraced by vastness,
their every tread reverent, assured.
But the radiant stillness casts
me adrift, reminds me of my 
unknowing of time, my intrusion 
on ageless terrain.

Anthwerrke is a sacred site on Arrernte country, 12 kilometres south-east of the present town of Alice Springs, where the caterpillar songlines Yeperenye, Ntyarlke, and Utnerrengatye intersect.

Published: August 2022
Glen Hunting

is a writer from Perth, Western Australia (Boorloo, Whadjuk Noongar boodja), now living in Mparntwe (Alice Springs), on Arrernte country. His writings have appeared in Portside Review, Recoil Twelve, Burrow, Creatrix, and elsewhere. When not writing, he works for a service provider on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands.

An Australian and international
journal of ecopoetry and ecopoetics.

Plumwood Mountain Journal is created on the unceded lands of the Gadigal and Wangal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and to elders past, present and future. We also acknowledge all traditional custodians of the lands this journal reaches.

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