from the editor's desk
‘waijung’ by Maria van Neerven
This poem by Maria van Neerven was originally published in Westerly 68.2; we’re delighted to make it freely available for everyone to read here on the Editor’s Desk. The online republication of this work forms part of Westerly‘s effort to make First Nations writing more widely accessible, as outlined in our Statement on the Voice to Parliament here.
waijung
when my mother died she left behind
a woman who became
a child an orphan searching
in a bottomless world
body knows
when things shift
when my mother died she left behind
me running from hospital to escape
reality ringing her obsessively to answer
hoping the woman in that bed was
not her
when my mother died she left behind
me searching for the house that almost broke us
our old kitchen cupboard stacked
with memories chipped plates cups our splintered
lives mum picked up the pieces kept them reminder
of her past or maybe because they were
still useful
when my mother died she left behind
me dreaming waijung left a map on country
to find her spirit to bring
home
waijung: mother/mum
Maria van Neerven is a Mununjali Yugambeh woman from south-east Queensland. She is a retired library technician who loves reading and writing poetry. Maria’s first published story was in the journal The Lifted Brow: Blak Brow (2018) and she has also published poetry in In Our Hands (2022), a collection of poetry from Elders and knowledge keepers. She was one of the four inaugural Mascara Varuna Writers’ and Editors’ Residency winners for her poetry. Maria’s work focuses on themes such as colonisation, racism, discrimination, family and mental health. She writes, ‘Growing-up in a large Indigenous family we had to deal with these issues daily. Back then my family had no voice for the injustice they encountered. I hope that through my poetry I can give my family and other First Nations People a voice.’
