(Re)considering Australian Geography with First Nations Literature - Jeanine Leane’s Walk Back Over

• Main Author: Donovan, Trevor
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Association for the Study of Australian Literature 2023
• Subjects: First Nations
• Online Access: https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/JASAL/article/view/16383

Taking First Nations literature as a point of entry, the aim of this paper is to reconsider Australian geography. Focusing on the poetic collection Walk Back Over by Wiradjuri poet and academic Jeanine Leane, the current study considers the role of culture in our understanding of Australian geography, and the central place of vision and visuality in the transmission of geographical knowledge. Reading Walk Back Over requires the reader to look beyond the text, beyond colonial-settler geography in order to see another geography of Australia. In doing so, Jeanine Leane brings into the light another geography and, therefore, another history of the land. Key words : First Nations Literature, Jeanine Leane, Geography, Vision, Culture, Postcolonialism