Tucked away in the quiet suburbs of Bengaluru is The Jamun, the home of Sangam House, one of India’s most coveted writers’ residencies. This month, the bungalow played host to two Australian First Nations writers and two Indian Adivasi writers, giving them a quiet escape that allowed them to fully focus their energies on their craft. “It was such an enriching and life-changing experience, as someone with Aboriginal and Indian heritage, it has been a coming home of sorts, and a manner of being able to connect to my heritage and story. I enjoyed visiting the Nagarahole Tiger
Reserve and meeting with Adivasi communities,” shared Merinda Dutton, one of the Australian writers, who is also a critic and lawyer by trade, taking a moment to reflect.
Australian writers Ali Cobby Eckermann and Dutton got to spend April at Sangam house (a week of which was shared with the Indian writers) while Indian Writers Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar and Beni Yanthan spent October at Varuna, a writers’ residency in Australia. For Yanthan, the exchange was the opposite of homecoming, being her first extended trip away from India. She explains, “Varuna had the kind of stillness that compels one to become acutely aware of one’s thoughts, habits and ways of being and existing... it made me aware of how much my imagination and worldview is rooted in my sense of place and in the landscape, how they exist almost instinctively in relation to what surrounds me.”
The programme was supported by The Australian Consulate-General in Bengaluru through funding from the Centre for Australia-India Relations with the Australian Consul General in Bengaluru, Hilary McGeachy saying, “The exchange provides time and space for artists to draw on shared histories, identities, and storytelling traditions and explore new collaborations. As the Australia-India relationship continues to grow, it’s important to celebrate and explore the rich culture and diversity of both countries.”
The four authors proposed projects which Varuna noted ‘would benefit greatly from the opportunity for international exchange.’ As the programme draws to a close, the writers agree that it indeed did. “One thing that I learnt from First Nations writers, thinkers and community members was their deep sense of kinship with the land and nature and how this relationship transforms into acts of care, responsibility, and reclamation,” said Yanthan whose work has been widely published in literary magazines.
The fact that the four were a mix of more established writers and emerging writers facilitated mentorship and exchange on an additional level. A much-awarded poet, Eckermann notes that the learning went both ways, saying, “My benefit was listening to the emerging yet wise poetry, to be reminded the next generation are not obliged to carry the pain of my generation. There was never a hierarchy of place. The evolution of Aboriginal and Adivasi poetry will remain a true timeline about our love and resilience, and also how we are treated by mainstream society.”
A doctor and Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar winner Shekhar, however, points out a difference that cannot be discounted, “I do not see myself as an established writer at all because I cannot make a living out of writing [in India],” before adding, “Beni and I are both Adivasis, and we are both government employees. So our stay together in Australia and then in Bengaluru was (from my side, at least) a full-blown catharsis. It was an exchange of ideas on survival.”