january 21 - 27 | 2015
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Spirit of Australia www.wangarattachronicle.com.au
circulating in wangaratta, myrtleford, bright, mt beauty, beechworth, yackandandah, rutherglen, chiltern and districts
By KYLIE WILSON
AUSTRALIAN VOICE:
Roderick Williams, with his faithful dog Dusty, loves to evoke the spirit of Australia in his poems and songs. PHOTO: Kylie Wilson
GARDENING WITH
JOE
RSPCA
WITH
EVIE
FILM AMERICAN
SNIPER
WINE TALK WITH
ANITA
FROM shearing and droving to working on a fishing boat and even working as an actor – there is no question Roderick Williams has crammed a lot into his lifetime. But nowhere does he feel more alive than in front of an audience and sharing bush poetry and traditional song. Animated, and never standing still, even for a minute, the Myrtleford resident engages his audience’s sense of fun, no matter what their age. His energetic, but quiet and faithful eight year old border collie/coolie cross Dusty is never far from his side, pricking up his ears at the sound of Roderick’s voice and keeping a watchful eye on his master. Roderick’s passion for poetry stems from his childhood, the majority of which was spent on a farm in Burringbar, NSW, which included a banana plantation. He said his father introduced the works of Banjo Patterson, CJ Dennis and Will Ogilvy to him, and that attraction to the Australian bush prompted him to go droving. “It spoke to me,” he said. “Poetry is about the understanding of things we don’t recognise, that we don’t talk about. “And there’s a lot of our history in there. “It’s important for children to express themselves, starting with learning forms of poetry.” continued page |
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