Jazz Money is a Wiradjuri poet and artist producing works that encompass installation, digital, performance, film and print. Their writing and art has been presented, performed and published nationally and internationally, and their feature film WINHANGANHA (2023) was commissioned by the National Film and Sound Archive. Jazz’s first poetry collection, the best-selling how to make a basket (UQP, 2021) won the David Unaipon Award. Their second collection is mark the dawn, which was the recipient of the 2024 UQP Quentin Bryce Award.

mark the dawn is a celebration of community and gathering, while negotiating the legacies of the intersecting histories we inherit. As a queer First Nations poet, Jazz Money unflinchingly declares that, despite everything that has come before, we remain glorious, abundant, sexy, joyous and determined.

Archer Magazine: Hey Jazz! Congratulations on the release of your new poetry collection, mark the dawn! This comes about three years after your first book, how to make a basket. Both collections are award-winning and exquisite – I adore your work! Can you tell us about both collections, and how they might connect and/or diverge from each other?

Jazz Money: Thank you for the kind words! It’s been such a joy to release mark the dawn into the world and have it find readers.

I suppose both the collections are interested in some similar themes, though I really felt like I understood the craft of poetry a lot more when writing a second collection. My focus really centred around time: how time marks us and how we mark time, our responsibilities and our relations that extend into a deep time understanding.

AM: I know some writers experience anxiety in the form of the dreaded ‘sophomore slump’ or ‘second book syndrome’. What was it like to write your second book? Did you find it easier or harder the second time around?

JM: I found writing a second collection a lot easier! I think because I understood the process and understood the publishing industry a lot more when writing a second book, it was far less overwhelming for me.

AM: You’re a multimedia artist and all-around creative. Can you tell us about your arts practice and how you incorporate poetry into your other works, such as art installations?

JM: I work across different mediums that can include film, audio and art installations, but are always centred in a conversation around poetics.

I’m interested in testing ways that we understand place and stories in the physical world. Integrating text in ways that bring the body into dialogue with the words is really satisfying for me. Despite the range of mediums, it all feels part of the same project!

Jazz Money, Only Country Lasts Forever, 2024. Installation view: Canberra Art Biennial 2024. Photo: courtesy the artist.

Jazz Money, Only Country Lasts Forever, 2024. Installation view: Canberra Art Biennial 2024. Photo: courtesy the artist.

AM: I love the way you celebrate Wiradjuri language and culture in your poems. In a Broadsheet interview, you said that you reconnected with Wiradjuri language as an adult. If you feel comfortable, can you tell us about this experience?

JM: I didn’t grow up speaking Wiradjuri, and I’m still learning! It’s such an abundant language, and poetry often feels better equipped to engage with the concepts than any other genre.

I feel so grateful to the Elders and custodians who came before me, who have cared for the language and all it contains, which makes it possible for me to learn its rivers, streams and tributaries as an adult.

AM: Your poems champion Blak queer love, liberation and resistance against colonial and capitalistic forces. For example, your poem ‘mardi gras rainbow dreaming’ in mark the dawn critiques pinkwashing, rainbow capitalism and corporate yassification.

With this in mind, can you tell us about the power of poetry as a form of protest against oppression and co-option?

JM: Poetry can help us access the truth of what we are feeling, and the pathways to changing our reality. As Audre Lorde taught us: “Poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action.”

As a queer Blakfella, I feel it is my responsibility to use whatever tools are available to me to speak truth, to shine light, to protest and to celebrate our gorgeousness.

Since the beginning of the colonial invasion of these lands, there have been Blakfellas protesting. Our Elders would take whatever platform was available to speak their truths, and that is poetry! From chanting in the streets to a whispered song, this is how we carry our stories from one person to the next, from one generation to the next.

AM: Who are your literary inspirations? And do you have any advice for fellow writers/poets?

JM: I think, in this moment, we’re incredibly lucky to be surrounded by an abundant generation of poets who I am constantly learning from and growing with. I’m very inspired by the generosity of this community, especially those who fought hard in the generations before us so that we could be heard today.

I think my advice would be to find that community – at poetry slams, in reading groups, at art openings, in workshops and in publishing spaces. Find the people that nourish you and figure why you turn to poetry, and what it can be used to achieve.

mark the dawn by Jazz Money (UQP), RRP $24.99, is out now online and in bookstores.