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Clip description
Judith Wright says that, for Australians, the wealth of our nation has become more important than the wellbeing of its people.
Curator’s notes
The really telling thing about the issues that Judith Wright always considered paramount is that they’re the major issues we still grapple with in Australia today. In terms of the environment, she was light years ahead in warning that we were squandering our fragile heritage. She was also one of the first to point out that in practising genocide against the original owners of the land, the least we could do was to offer land rights in compensation.
John Thompson reads a little from one of her works to provoke Wright to talk about the issues that she feels are central to her art. Only then can we truly appreciate her poetry in all its rich symbolism.
This is a simple but effective interview. The host, with a well chosen and nicely read excerpt, draws out Wright’s passion about issues in the poem. She has also been directed to glance at the camera, as well as look at the interviewer, so the audience feels directly involved in the discussion.
