This week Candy chats with Laniyuk, a writer and performer of poetry and short memoir. Born of a French mother and a Larrakia, Kungarrakan and Gurindji father her storytelling often reflects the intersectionality of her cross cultural and queer identity.
Laniyuk grew up in Anula, Darwin in the 90’s and as a child could often be found with her head in a book, absorbing content way beyond her age. Her experiences growing up in government housing and living the ‘rough’ culture of Darwin often informs her writing. She explores her complex identities juxtaposing her ‘light skin privilege’ at home in Darwin, with her ‘trendiness’ in the white Melbourne Literary scene.
On her way to perform in majority white spaces Laniyuk listens to 16 shots by Steflon Don. Recently she has been residing in Aotearoa where she was sorta trapped due to Covid19. Laniyuk has been immersing herself in Maori literature and developing a rich embodied understanding of solidarity.
Discussion Points
Maintenance of white violence and supremacy in indigenous communities with reference to the ‘NT intervention’
Navigating how to work and love in a colonised system.
The narrative of settler colonialism and its inherent violence
The intentional curation of ‘Australian’ culture and the absence/erasure of aboriginal stories in the mainstream.
Biography
Laniyuk is a writer and performer of poetry and short memoir. She contributed to the book Colouring the Rainbow: Blak, Queer and Trans Perspectives in 2015, has been published online in Djed Press and the Lifted Brow, as well as in print poetry collections such as UQP’s 2019 Solid Air and 2020 Fire Front. She received Canberra’s Noted Writers Festival’s 2017 Indigenous Writers Residency, Overland’s 2018 Writers Residency and was shortlisted for Overland’s 2018 Nakata-Brophy poetry prize. She runs poetry workshops for festivals, moderates panel discussions, and has given guest lectures at ANU and The University of Melbourne. She is currently completing her first collection of work to be published through Magabala Books.
Links
Instagram @laniyuk
Watch Listen Learn list
She takes Shelter in her body by Candy Bowers - Multicultural Arts Victoria
