Book Week With the Students from Higaturu Oil Palm International School

August 26, 2021September 7, 2021 | June

*Work from the students of the Higaturu Oil Palm International School which became a class anthology, Escape to Wonder*

A recent week of Book Week workshops via zoom, at the Higaturu Oil Palm International School, was wondrous.

Students were willing to imagine and open their eyes to a sense of wonder, to explore other worlds within worlds, from nature, to rivers to the moon and outerspace.

We began with learning about cheeky Cassowaries hungry and looking for food after a cyclone, and imagining what they might say or think, and advanced to humourous dialogues within the river and exploring a sense of wonder, through sensory adventure poems.

Students learnt about the power of working in pairs and in groups and how many voices combined can create, extend and then joyously and confidently perform their creations.

Creativity is joyful! Students in action creating.

Throughout I used my own illustrated poetry book, Magic Fish Dreaming, as the main mentor text with a storytelling session also of Michelle Worthington’s Book, Possum Games.

Both had kindly been posted and provided to the school by Tina from CYA. This meant we could read together, and as I have dialogue poems and question and answer structures this was fantastic to have each student have the book on the other side of the zoom.

I was impressed by how the students worked with each other on some in the river dialogues and their humour and inventiveness throughout the week began to shine through.

*Work from Stone and Seaweed Anthology, by Students of Higaturu Oil Palm International School*

I am delighted the school community (families and staff) gave permission for me to share their work.

More important than products though, is the process of creativity that the children undertook within their classroom. By reflecting on that stories can come from that which you know through your senses and take you to places you might only imagine.

I hope these children, will create many more poems or stories and strengthen and contribute to building a publishing community within Papua New Guinea, beginning from anthologies within their school and moving beyond the anthologies for their communities. Building perhaps collectives for theirs and future generations.

With many thanks to the school, students , staff of the Higaturu Oil Palm International School, and Tina of CYA.

Photographs courtesy of the Higaturu Oil Palm International School, shared with their permission

Returning to the Motherland 2#

August 20, 2021September 7, 2021 | June

So, continuing on from my last post on zooming to Higaturu Oil Palm International School, PNG for a most memorable book week, here is more about the classroom itself. This image is what it looked like from the point of view of the students in the main zoom room, before we were allocated to our learning zoom room with the students and their teacher.

*Zooming Book Week Image Courtesy HOPIS school*

So how did we end up with a confident performance of a group poem by the end of book week (despite the challenges of working via zoom and classroom learning space combined) and a wall full of beautiful art and sense poems?

This is where the immense dedication of the teacher, her assistant and children, going with the flow of a physically distant author communicating and coming to terms with being on a large screen, and stuck there, makes a massive difference.

As I communicated, using voice, slide shows, and virtual white boards, Ms Gwendalyn, and Ms Cynthia, her assistant, would further explain it to the students. Zoom can be tricky as I couldn’t walk around the classroom, nor easily read the body language of students, like I normally do. The students could only walk up to the front to ask me questions, and sometimes felt a bit shy of the screen.

Although by the end of the week they knew to keep an eye on the whiteboard for surprises, such as Riddles!

It helped that they had the focus texts, of Magic Fish Dreaming and Michelle Worthington’s Possum Games with them to work from as well. These had been posted to arrive before Book Week in PNG began.

They became mentor texts for the students, to also learn about publishing, illustrating and cover pages.

We had a prior meeting on zoom the week before, with all presenting authors, Tina, Phil, Caroline, Albert and myself, meeting the teachers, and working out how we would proceed. I asked Ms Gwendalyn, to please put stickers on the children with their names, and she sent me a class list as well.

I ran the program by her, to check if it would be helpful for the students, and had a mix of activities to go with the books, such as art, drama, writing, all complementary to the text, as well as readings.

Although I have done many workshops this was my first time doing a sequence for a whole week, and in Papua New Guinea too, as normally I just have had two hour workshops so that was a blessing and a new challenge.

As part of the process we decided that each day it would be helpful for me to email Ms Gwendalyn, and just check in on how she felt the children had responded, as well as observing that during class time myself.

These consultations sometimes led to modifications for the next day which were beneficial for all. Although sometimes the messages took longer to arrive then we anticipated. That’s the internet for you.

I gave the students a sneak peek reading of a new anthology I have some new poems in which is edited by Michelle Worthington. We also spoke about the power of anthologies.

The immense benefit of working over a whole week with the students and their teacher was we could use each earlier class as a foundation to the next class and creative task.

We could expand and apply new concepts into their work from previous sessions. The main challenge, was just making sure to go with the flow of what was engaging the students, and extending them to just the right balance.

This meant every now and then, me or Ms Gwendalyn, making on the spot easy to implement decisions to alter previous plans.

By the end of this post series, I’d like to feature some of the work of the students, the school is just doublechecking with their parents that this will be okay as it is my hope to introduce these budding authors to you through their work. Perhaps some of them will choose the pathway of authors, designers, artists or playwrights!

Another amazing thing, was the warmth of the author team and some of the zany things we decided to do, like change our head gear everyday…

to be continued…

Illuminations Launching

May 12, 2020June 16, 2020 | June

My new poetry book, Illuminations is about to be released.

This collection captures the wonder of the act of creation,

the burst of excitement associated with the birth of the new,

and the challenges and sacrifice involved in bringing inspiration to fruition.

Launching June 20, 2020

Author: June Perkins

Illustrators: Ruha and Minaira Fifita

Target Age: 13 to 100 years plus

Genre: Poetry

ISBN: 9780980731194 (paperback)

ISBN: 9780648720508 (hard cover, dustcover)

Publication Date: 20/6/2020

80 leaves, 63 pages of content

For more information on this book Illuminations

For International orders see the Book Depository

Direct orders available for Australian customers from Author in Australia

Library available from Peter Pal and soon Wheeler’s Books

Library and Schools New Zealand see Wheelers Books New Zealand

Please be aware delivery everywhere is slower due to the COVID19 even with on the ground delivery in US, UK and Australia so do check delivery dates on any sites you order through.

Your patience is appreciated.

Australia 1-2 weeks

UK 2-3 weeks

United States 5 weeks

Samplewithsignature4

The above poem featured in In Your Hands Red Room Poetry Project

More information to come in the following weeks.

Readings for Families at Home

March 31, 2020March 31, 2020 | June

To all the wonderful families visiting this site I am sharing some readings of my poetry to assist you in your homeschooling. Consider them a small personal author visit.

I am putting up some of these readings not just here, but on Instagram.

If you are stuck inside or in the city, these poems will take you to the great outdoors.

If you have never been to Far North Queensland, they may give you a sense of that beautiful place.

These are recorded on my phone or by my laptop from home. So enjoy!

I will let you know if there are any online workshops as well.

If you would like to order the book, of course you can as post offices are open and I will package it up and send it out, but most of all be safe, be kind and see you on the other side of the virus raging world wide.

Power of poetry, power of art, power of story, power of community!

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A post shared by June Perkins (@gumbootspearlzpress) on Mar 28, 2020 at 7:28pm PDT

Dream a Character

February 8, 2019February 20, 2019 | June

Ripple Poetry

Image by June Perkins

I dream the beginnings of my story
and see the face of my first character.
Soon I begin to see her friends and allies
her guardians.

I am not sure of her name
and look for meanings that explain
choices she will make
and explain what she will protect.

I dream her dreams.
I see where she will begin and end
and the journey in-between is
free to unfold.

She will both love and hate water;
she will both survive and feel
like all is lost.

Branches to her family
her friends
her nemesis
begin to shape themselves
out of the branches
in the river.

Her face seeds a tree
of her reality.

No more can I say, but
it is time to go on her journey
discover who she is
and what her life means.

June Perkins

8/02/2019

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Magic Fish Dreaming with your help and love on its way to PNG

November 18, 2018February 20, 2019 | June

CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO MAGIC FISH DREAMING BOOKS TO PNG (You will be asked to verify you are not a robot first!)

Inspired by a meeting with Gregg Dreise, where we learnt about the Indigenous Literacy Foundation in Australia and their various projects I decided I needed to do something for literacy for my mother’s homeland Papua New Guinea.

I decided to run a non profit book drive to send some copies of Magic Fish Dreaming, via local charities that deliver them, to Papua New Guinea. In this way I hoped to cover my cost price only, and effectively donate the profit on these books to charity.

I wanted to do this so that rather than sending second hand books, that might not be culturally appropriate I could send a brand new book, from my heart to the heart of Papua New Guinea.

I wanted to do something to assist literacy to assist the children in my Mekeo mother’s homeland.

I had a feeling that if I asked my friends, they would want to support me in these efforts, and enable me to send more than a few.

To my amazement, so far enough for 76 books has been raised, and I am so excited to be delivering them to the charities who will then ensure these make it into schools that need them.

I will soon be sharing the names of all those assisted me to make this contribution on my social media and with the charities (as long as you give me your name) that find schools in need of these books in Papua New Guinea.

I will be making my first delivery to my first charity of choice, Books4PNGKIDS soon, but have found some other worthy people who take books into PNG schools and communities to support as well and I may look to send it to other places in the Pacific.

$8.00 AUD per book allows me to send one Magic Fish Dreaming book to PNG by covering the costs of my printing.

People can sponsor as many books as they would like, whether it be one or ten or more, it is the love with which this donation is made that matters the most.

I am now inviting overseas friends and fans to join this project to sponsor some Magic Fish Dreaming Books to go to PNG.

Please leave a note with a name and message and join us in this quest to send this beautiful book to PNG. You are welcome to email me at gumbootspearlz@gmail.com

I hope to share updates of where the books end up!

Donations to this project are closed for now.

Another charity sponsorship project coming soon.

Words and Pictures Reviewed by Renee Hills

November 8, 2018November 18, 2018 | June

Review of June Perkins’s Words and Pictures Tour (Queensland Art Gallery, Sept-November 2018)

French artist Edgar Degas (1834 – 1917) famously said ‘Art is not what you see, but what you make others see’.

This was truly my experience when I joined June Perkins’s tour of Words & Pictures. June’s interactive journey through the Australian Collection features poetry and micro stories inspired by 12 different artworks. Her responses are written for visitors of all ages, with particular appeal to children and families; a delightful glimpse of art through the eyes of a poet and children’s author.

Words & Pictures is part of an ongoing project to increase engagement with artworks in QAG. Local artists and writers are invited to respond to artworks in the Australia Collection. June was thrilled to be commissioned to do this work. ‘This was one of the best emails in relation to my work I’ve ever received,’ she said.

June had complete freedom over her choice of artworks. Each response was limited to a maximum of 80 words and everything had to be completed in three weeks with a couple more weeks for editing! She spent a lot of time in the gallery, finding works that appealed to her, thinking of a child’s perspective (choosing works above and below their eye level and in a variety of media) and developing a concept for her poetic responses. The result is engaging, inspiring and easily accessible to children and adults.

June’s poetry appears in a display adjacent to author information beside each artwork. Each poem carries a delicate feather motif. This is a reference to an imaginary character that June created – Perceval’s Angel, inspired by John Perceval’s Herald Angel, a richly glazed sculpture.

Herald Angel, John Perceval, Queensland Art Gallery

June imagined the tour like a giant picture book with Perceval’s Angel guiding viewers through the pages. June was delighted to tell John Perceval’s grandson, a friend from her university days, that she was using the angel in her creative pieces for the gallery. Some of her poetry pieces begin with a quote from Perceval’s Angel who speaks directly to the viewers, guiding them to the next artwork or helping them interact with it.

‘Hop on board’ the angel invites viewers of Yvonne Koolmatrie’s Hot Air Balloon, and June adds:
‘Take yourself to the balloon’s edge,
Feel the breezes, through the sedge’

This is an enticing invitation to adventure and travel which lets the imagination ride free in this sedge grass, coil woven work suspended in space.

Hot Air Balloon, Yvonne Koolmatrie, Queensland Art Gallery

On a time travel wall displaying different artists’ approaches to the Australian landscape, the angel says:
‘Listen to the music of landscapes
through the portal of Australia’s artists’

One of June’s choices on this wall is Rosalie Gascoigne’s Lamp Lit, a large work made up of letters and shapes from cut up road signs. June’s response draws on the personal experience of destruction and loss wrought by Cyclone Yasi in 2011 when a road sign ended up in her front yard; or as angel says: ‘But the real question is what will you design in response to loss?’

Lamp Lit, Rosalie Gascoigne, Queensland Art Gallery

And so, the adventure in art continues, stopping by at Ian Fairweather’s Epiphany, Sydney Long’s romantic and ethereally beautiful Spirit of the Plains, Sonya Carmichael’s colourful Baskets of Culture, Fred William’s vivid Echuca Landscape, Irene Chou’s suggestive Universe within Our Hearts, William Delafield Cook’s amazingly detailed and skilfully toned A Haystack, and Ray Crooke’s Woman with blossoms, reminiscent of Gauguin. June said she saw her identity in this particular work.

Woman with Blossoms, Ray Crooke, Queensland Art Gallery

Our tour ended as it had begun with an invitation to travel on in the imagination, this time on a representation of Ian Fairweather’s ramshackle craft; the one he used at the age of 60 to make a potentially suicidal 16 day crossing of the Timor Sea from Darwin to a remote coral island west of Timor in 1952.

The gift (from ‘Argonauts of the Timor Sea’), Michael Stevenson, Queensland Art Gallery

June’s verse reads:
‘You can do anything, be anything
travel anywhere…’

The child in her poem makes the sacrifice necessary to travel to Kudusur – a reference to the dramatic mural visible through the hole in the craft’s sail. Painted by Torres Strait islander Alick Tipoti, it references paddling a canoe, seasons, ocean currents, journeying between islands and spiritual ancestors – the universal journey through life.

Kudusur, Alick Tipolti, Queensland Art Gallery

Don’t miss this Words and Pictures journey. Grab a child or find your inner child; help yourself to the drawing board, paper and pencils, and create your own responses. You can take yourself on a tour anytime between 10 am to 5 pm, until the end of November.

June’s final in person tour will be on November 17th 2 pm (contact gumbootspearlz@gmail.com for more information). You won’t regret it. All those attending on 17th Nov are invited to sponsor Magic Fish Dreaming books to go to PNG.

Pdfs of POEMS UNTIL END OF NOVEMBER

Renee Hills 2018-11-06

June with a tour group

Dr June Perkins is a Brisbane-based poet, blogger and children’s author, of Indigenous Papua New Guinean and Australian background, raised in Tasmania by Baha’i parents. She utilizes multiarts and multicultural stories to inspire an enriched sense of belonging and compassion in those who encounter her work. She was recently invited to share Magic Fish Dreaming at the Asia Pacific Triennial, Summer Program 2019 and became a member of Mana Pasifika research Institute. She maintains an interest and dedication to promoting diversity in the Australian literary landscape. Her first children’s book was the award-winning poetry collection, Magic Fish Dreaming (2016) illustrated by Helene Magisson.

June Perkins’s Website
Ripple Poetry Blog

Renee Hills has always loved words and writing. A founding member of Write Links, she writes picture books (Turtle Love was published in 2017); flash fiction (Proof was published in Short and Twisted,Celapene Press 2017); and a short fantasy is to be included in the Rainforest Writing Retreat Anthology 2018.

Renee Hill’s Webpage

This review originally appeared on the Write Links Blog as curated by Lucy McGinley

(Photo credits: June Perkins, Renee Hills,Rebecca Sheraton and Maria Parenti-Baldey)

An Art Adventure at the Queensland Art Gallery

September 2, 2018November 7, 2018 | June

Copy of June cover page — Sidney Long, Spirit of the Plains, Yvonne Koolmatrie’s Hot Air Balloon, June Perkins, poem Spirit of the Plains, Images Courtesy Queensland Art Gallery

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Follow the Angel, Follow the Feathers, Follow the Art!

Imagine you are in a Hot Air Balloon

Discover a fresh perspective on the Australian Collection with Words & Pictures, an ongoing project that invites local artists and writers to respond to artworks in the Australian Collection. Take inspiration, and use the pencils and paper provided at the stations to create your own response through drawing or writing.

Only small extracts of the poems and writing are here to encourage you to go visit and read them on location!

The Spring Program has been written by Dr June Perkins.

The poems and stories are now up, September to November 2018

Queensland Art Gallery

Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art

SPRING 2018

This season’s Words & Pictures inspiration comes from June Perkins, Brisbane-based poet and children’s author. June has developed an interactive journey through the Australian Collection through poems and micro-stories for visitors of all ages, with particular appeal for children and families: Art Adventures in the Australian Collection.

Look for Words & Pictures labels alongside the following artworks. If you’d like to follow the writer’s journey, visit the works in the following order.

John Perceval Sculpture: The Herald Angel 1958
Yvonne Koolmatrie Hot-air balloon 2006
Landscape wall, Gallery 10
Sydney Long, Spirit of the Plains 1897
Sonja Carmichael Deranji Dabayil (Rocky place, healing waters): Baskets of Culture 2017
Ian Fairweather, Epiphany 1962
Michael Stevenson, The gift (from ‘Argonauts of the Timor Sea’) 2004-2006
Ray Crooke Woman with blossoms 1962-1963
Fred Williams Echuca landscape 1961
William Delafield Cook A haystack 1982
Rosalie Gascoigne Lamp lit 1989
Irene Chou The universe is within our hearts 1992