Jamali Bowden is a settler living on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Woi Worrung people of the Kulin Nations. He is of mixed Anglo-African descent which has informed his perspective on so-called ‘australia’. Jamali writes and performs poetry to make sense of the world and because it is fun. Three major aspects of his work are using word sounds to create feelings distinct from but related to the assigned meanings of words, playing with the audience/performer boundary, and raging against the systems that impact the lives of the people he loves. All three of these are on display in ‘Fire / Don’t Speak It’ which was inspired by the bushfires of 2019 – 2020 as well as the ongoing national refusal to properly discuss the truth of australia’s frontier wars which were integral to establishing the colonial order that continues to lead us to ever-greater climate disaster.
Jamali Bowden
