Nandi Chinna Invites OOTA Members to
Swamp
walking the wetlands of the Swan Coastal Plain
poems by Nandi Chinna
published by Fremantle Press 2014
Launched by John Mateer
with performances by Danna Checksfield - Viola
and Mei Saraswati - Swamp Gospel
Sat May 10
2pm for short wetland walk (depending on weather) 3pm – 5pm launch.
at the Cockburn Wetlands Education Centre
184 Hope Road Bibra Lake
Transport options: for car pooling contact chinnanandi@hotmail.com
By bus from Fremantle catch the 99 to Barry Marshall Pde Fiona Stanley Hospital A (Stop No: 26647) then 320 m walk to centre, or the 520 from Fremantle to Gwilliam Dr After North Lake Rd (Stop No: 20349) then 15 min walk around Bibra Lake to Centre
By train alight at Murdoch station and catch 514 to Bibra Dr after Farrington Rd (Stop No: 20360) then 360 m walk to Centre.
Hope to see you there!Dr Nandi Chinna
Independent Researcher
PoetSwamp; Walking the Wetlands of the Swan Coastal Plain
http://www.fremantlepress.com.
Chinna uncovers the lost places that exist beneath the townscape of Perth. For the last four years the poet has walked the wetlands of the Swan Coastal Plain – and she has walked the paths and streets where the wetlands once were.
Chinna writes with great poignancy and beauty of our inability to return, and the ways in which we can use the dual practice of writing and walking to reclaim what we have lost. Her poems speak with urgency about wetlands that are under threat from development today.
Praise for the book
‘I found reading this sequence of poems moving, exciting, engaging, often sad and melancholic. It left me wanting to know more.’ Susan Hawthorne, James Cook University
‘This body of poetry differs significantly from other bodies of poetry which deal with nature in that the poems are not produced within the nature/culture binary. I am not aware of any other body of work that is located within an urban space and actually works across this binary opposition. These poems do this with exquisite care and attention and in doing so, achieve their goal, not so much of learning to take care of our small patches, although that is an important practical outcome, but in developing a language that does not negate the very thing it wishes to preserve.’ Margaret Somerville, University of Sydney
