Jewellery with shiny gemstones that “everyone wears for an elegant look”. The afternoon scent of chicken kebabs around Doonside train station. A meal at Mount Druitt Rashays when a family “feels bougie”. The freedom and relief in leaving Mount Druitt station for Sydney’s inner-city neighbourhoods on a Saturday.
These are just a handful of themes that feature in I Talk, It Echoes, a collection of poetry recently published by Story Factory.
The book is deeply personal and fiercely communal – capturing the experiences, aspirations and concerns of more than 250 young people from Blacktown and Mount Druitt.
“That’s what poetry is: it’s intimate, it’s deep, it’s human at the highest level,” says Summer, a Year 10 student at Chifley College Shalvey Campus.
“So poetry has me looking at the journey of life. To write poetry you have to look at your past, your present and possibly even your future.”
The book grew out of a new program called It’s Our Turn, designed by Story Factory and The Hive and involving young people at Rooty Hill High School, Chifley College Shalvey Campus, Chifley College Bidwell Campus, Chifley College Mount Druitt Campus and Blacktown Girls High School, and community groups Headspace Mount Druitt, Street University, Learning Ground and Fusion Western Sydney.
Young people aged 12–18 were asked about the issues most important to them and their answers were then used in creative writing workshops.
The students imagined that aliens had crash-landed at Rooty Hill Station or Whalan Reserve and made the visitors a poetry guidebook to explain life in the local area.
“If you want to understand the heart and future of a community, the best people to ask are young people,” said Dr Catherine Keenan AM, Executive Director and Co-founder of Story Factory. “The writing in this book overflows with insight, wisdom and love: with stories of family and friends, and with aspirations for the future.”
The published book, I Talk, It Echoes, comprises a selection of the poems and was launched on 18 November at Glenwood Community Hub.
The book is available to purchase through Story Factory’s online bookshop. This program is funded by Multicultural NSW under the COMPACT program.
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“Switch” by Isaiah, a Year 10 student at Chifley College Shalvey Campus
There’s foam in the atmosphere at Tregear IGA
The stop lights shake
The bus yawns
And in my veins a switch is flicked
