Proud Gunai Woman Kirli Saunders (OAM) is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist, author of nine books, poet and singer-songwriter. Kirli will bring her bold, boundary-pushing voice to Beyond the Lines, a vibrant fusion of poetry, music, and cultural storytelling at Byron Writers Festival.
Your poems in Eclipse talk about culture, love and identity. What message do you hope readers take away from the book?
Poetry has always been a place of introspection and transformation for me, and during 2022-24 I wrote all these poems, for Eclipse. When an eclipse happens, the world stops to pay attention, and I felt like I was taking stock of my own life while writing these poems, cataloging moments, so I could put them down to rest, let them go, or write to honor something truly special, kind of like a wordy Polaroid to come back to.
There are poems in here for my Sissy, encouraging her to sing, for my brother, honouring his art and cultural practice, for my Mum, and a hellish day she’d had at work as a hospital liaison. There are poems for the heartbreakers, for the women I’ve had crushes on, for the friends who got me through enormous grief. There are poems for Country, and for the Ancestors.
I hope Eclipse brings readers peace and attunes them to the calm and care of the land, the sea and skies, especially when the world feels wild and too big. I hope it’s a grounding, meditative collection that gets carried around and flicked through over coffee, with friends, or on a rainy day when someone has called in sick for work, and they have the house to themselves. I hope it makes readers feel seen and understood in their experience, that they’re not alone in the depths of grief or loss. I hope it feels like a cheeky little beacon, which brightens those moments and celebrates the magic ones too.
In a world that feels enormous, I hope my poems can bring them back to Country, to find healing in the land, seas and skies. I hope they can take away the act of slowing down, feeling their emotions, processing their experiences so they themselves can find peace.
You’ve said the book shows both happy and sad moments. How do you find balance between light and dark in your writing?
In 2023, when I was pitching this book, the eclipse season in the Sky Country felt unending. In my personal life, I was experiencing love, heartbreak, grief, joy, suffering, and loss, which highlighted this duality. But there were also eclipses of these moments, coming together, which showed me how all these parts, light and dark, are one and the same.
I love making art, writing and singing, and my creative practice gives me the space to process my experiences and to share them with others.
Taking in the other works of artists and writers also allows me to feel seen in my experiences – so it’s a really nice symbiotic space, the arts – for finding that balance and feeling it all.
The theme for Byron Writers Festival is Passion and Purpose. How do you personally define passion and purpose, and how do these definitions shape you as a writer?
I create to connect to make change, I feel deeply guided by Country, ancestors and Dreaming to create work that advocates for our mob, and our precious places. For me, passion is a home fire burning in your belly, and purpose is what we must do to care for your Country and community. My Elders told me I’m the teacher and the storyteller – so I think that’s the role I take, to fulfil that purpose, and passion is what keeps me showing up with love.
See Kirli Saunders on Saturday at the Byron Writers Festival:
- Poetry Walk
Sat 9 Aug, 2:00pm–3:00pm, Coolamon
- Beyond the Lines
Sat 9 Aug, 7:30pm–9:00pm, A&I Hall
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