Unconference on Craig Santos Perez’s poetry and on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Literature with a special focus on the works of Ali Cobby Eckermann and Jeanine Leane

Ali Cobby Eckermann is a Yankunytjatjara poet and artist from South Australia. Her poetry collections include little bit long time (2009, Picaro Press), verse novel Ruby Moonlight, Inside my Mother (2015, Giramondo), and She Is The Earth (2023, Magabala).

Jeanine Leane is a Wiradjuri writer, poet, critic, and essayist from southwest New South Wales. Her books include Dark Secrets After Dreaming: A.D. 1887-1961 (2010, Presspress), Purple Threads (2011, UQP), and Gawimarra, gathering (UQP, 2024). She edited Guwayu – for all times (2020, Magabala).

Craig Santos Perez is an indigenous Chamoru from the Pacific Island of Guåhan (Guam). He is the co-editor of eight anthologies and the author of six books of poetry and the academic monograph Navigating Chamoru Poetry: Indigeneity, Aesthetics, and Decolonization.

8:30–8:40
Opening

8:40–8:50
Rethinking Remoteness in Alexis Wright and Cathie Dunsford’s novels
Temiti Lehartel, RMIT/Université Paul Valéry, Montpellier III

8:50–9:00

Writing back to the settlers’ love of country in ‘A Love Like Dorothea’s’ by Alison Whittaker
Anne Le Guellec-Minel, HCTI, UBO

9:00–9:10

Drifting bodies – bodies adrift in Praiseworthy (2023) and Carpentaria (2006) by Alexis Wright
Sophie Gaïda, ENS Lyon

9:10–9:25

Q&A

9:25–10:10

Conversation with Jeanine Leane – followed by poetry reading.
Jeanine Leane will speak about contemporary First Nations storytelling and the role of nonfiction poetry as a tool of truth-telling and reclaiming captured archives and stories with readings from Gawimarra – gathering (2024) her recent collection.
Chair: Estelle Castro-Koshy

10:10–10:30

Tea/coffee break

10:30–10:45

Screening of kwatye urrewe, 2025
A film produced by Running Water Community Press in collaboration with Garuwa

10:45–10:55

A Series of Unwarranted Events: photography as a counter-archive of colonial violence in Australia.
Chloé Brice-Sanna, Université du Mans

10:55–11:05

Reclaiming the gaze: visual sovereignty in the works of Tracey Moffatt and Jazz Money
Charlène Corolleur, UBO

11:05–11:15

“Spinning echoing bodies: writing and reading dancing bodies”
Margaux Schepper, ENS Lyon

11:15–11:25

A presentation by Estelle Castro-Koshy, OSPAPIK, CRBC, UBO, and screening of poems translated in French Sign Language by Anthony Guyon and Marie Lamothe.
Un firmament d’histoires : la littérature aborigène et îlienne du détroit de Torres with Anthologie trilingue de poésie autochtone australienne, Actes Sud, 2025

11:25–11:40

Q&A

11:40–11:50

Tea/coffee break

11:50–12:35

Conversation with Ali Cobby Eckermann on Ruby Moonlight – followed by poetry reading.
Ali Cobby Eckermann will talk about how the past becomes the present when unhealed and how the story came to me.
Chair: Estelle Castro-Koshy

12:35–14:00

Lunch

14:00–14:20

Conversation with Craig Santos Perez on the historical and political context of his poetic and academic work
Chair: Jean-Marc Serme, HCTI, UBO

14:20–14:40

Conversation with Craig Santos Perez on Habitat Threshold and his ecopoetry
Estelle Castro-Koshy, OSPAPIK, CRBC, UBO

14:40–14:50

Translators’ insights into J’ai quelque chose de dangereux à déclarer
Elise Roué, traductrice, UBO alumnus
Testimonies by Sarah Bennour, professeure d’anglais and UBO alumnus, and Alfred O’Brien, UBO alumnus, will also be read

14:50–15:10

Tea/coffee break

15:10–15:30

Conversation with Craig Santos Perez on navigation
Chair: Géraldine Le Roux, OSPAPIK, CRBC, UBO

15:30–15:40

Poetry reading

15:40–16:00

Craig Santos Perez’s response to OSPAPIK themes

16:00–16:20

Closing comments

16:20-17:00

Informal conversation and drinks

Organisers:

Estelle Castro-Koshy, OSPAPIK, CRBC, UBO

Gabrielle Guilcher, OSPAPIK, CRBC, UBO