Barrina South

This poem was commissioned in response to Eugene von Guérard’s North-east view from the northern top of Mount Kosciusko.

Shifting by Barrina South is an ekphrastic poem, commissioned in partnership with Red Room Poetry with the intention of amplifying connections between poetry and works in the national collection. An ekphrastic poem is a vivid description, written in response to a work of art.

Barrina South is a Barkindji artist and poet dedicated to writing about topics and themes affecting land, culture, and history. In 2022, was one of five Australian poets selected to participate in the Invisible Walls: poetry as a Doorway to Intercultural Understanding. An initiative run in partnership between the University of South Australia and Sogang University in Seoul. In the same year, was published in Rabbit and appointed Writer in Residence at University of Canberra. In 2023, she was published in the special issue of the Teesta Review: A Journal of Poetry, Kolkata, India, Authora Australia and awarded a Varuna First Nations Fellowship. Barrina is a current member of the First Nations Australia Writers Network and a Director of Us Mob Writing.