Our Commonwealth (Wink, Wink) with Luke Patterson
This workshop raids the living archive of stories, rituals, songs, sayings and everyday objects, asking what becomes possible when words are treated less as property than as part of a commonwealth. Through playful writing experiments shared acts of making and small exchanges between participants, we’ll build a temporary commons of stories, images and borrowed phrases.
Date: Saturday 28 November 2026
Time: 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Delivery: In-Person
Fees: $70 full-price, $50 concession, $40 MobTix/Disability Support Pension
Location: Varuna Reading Room, Katoomba
-
Not every poem begins as a poem. Some begin as a recipe, a rumour, a family saying, a football chant, a shopping list, the wrong lyrics to a favourite song, or something your grandmother always said.
This workshop raids the living archive of stories, rituals, songs, sayings and everyday objects, asking what becomes possible when words are treated less as property than as part of a commonwealth. Through playful writing experiments, shared acts of making and small exchanges between participants, we’ll build a temporary commons of stories, images and borrowed phrases. Together we’ll experiment with language as something carried, translated, gifted and held in our care, discovering how poems emerge from the lives words have lived before they reached us.
Expect playful, occasionally odd writing experiments, moments of collaboration and opportunities to borrow, gift or carry language for someone else. Equally, we’ll honour the right to keep a story in your own care. Listening, observing and choosing not to share are all part of the workshop.
-
Luke Patterson is a Gamilaroi poet, educator and musician living on Gadigal lands. His poetry has appeared in Cordite Poetry Review, Plumwood Mountain, Rabbit, Running Dog and The Suburban Review, and in the anthologies Active Aesthetics, Firefront: First Nations Poetry and Power Today and Best of Australian Poems 2025. His research and creative practice are grounded in extensive work with First Nations and other community-based organisations across Australia. His debut poetry collection, A Savage Turn, is out now with Magabala Books.