Much of Lisa Bellear's poetry is politics made eloquent. In Aboriginal Country many poems seem to spark with frustrated energy over Australia's political crossed circuits regarding a treaty with our First Nations peoples - as promised by Prime Minister Hawke in 1988. Reading the title poem for the first time I was struck by its power. We are on Aboriginal Country in Australia. With subtle barbs she wakes us as to how the `ownership' (via naming `rights') of Australian public lands and monuments lauds absent white English royalty and `intrepid god fearing discoverers'. Yet in her closing lines the poet transforms this potential for bitterness into a moment of hushed respect for country. - Jen Jewel Brown, Editor
