"I can’t see what possible interest Aborigines or Australian poetry could have for Americans," the project officer said flatly. It almost sounded rehearsed. A tour of California and the American southwest by three Australian performance poets and two Aboriginal songmen? How would this benefit Australian taxpayers? How was this going to enrich Australia’s cultural life?
The idea for an exchange had first been suggested in Sydney in 1992, during a late-night conversation over a few bottles of Australian wine. Two American theatre directors – Dave and Ellen Purdy – had been listening to Nigel Roberts and myself read our poetry. "Your stuff’d go down great over there," they said. "Come to the States."
Tours to America by Australian poets were a rarity. In the mid-80s, PiO had gone over with Geoff Page, Joanne Burns and others, reading his poems on what became the legendary "PiO T-shirt Tour". There had also been visits by Les Murray and John Tranter. But nothing to write home about.
Tours to Australia by American poets, on the other hand, were not uncommon. Ginsberg had come in the 70s, as had Robert Duncan and Bob Creeley, Galway Kinnell and Philip Levine. More recently, there had been visits by Gary Snyder and Sterling Plumpp. Americans were out there, on the hustings, taking their poetry everywhere. By comparison, Australia was producing a group of stay-at-home poets whose work, one guessed, had no relevance outside Australia. Australians knew about American poetry, for sure, but Americans with few exceptions didn’t have a clue about what was happening Down Under.
Dave Purdy poured himself another glass of red, then, in a booming voice, declared: "Why don’t we do an exchange! The world ain’t that big!"
In March, 1993, at the insistence of Dave and Ellen, three West Coast American poets – Morton Marcus, Anita Wilkins and Joe Stroud – came to Australia to meet Nigel and me, and to do a series of readings and workshops in New South Wales. Acting as hosts, Nigel and I organized readings at the Harold Park Hotel, the Evening Star, and The Resistance Centre. At the University of Newcastle the visitors discussed contemporary American poetry with staff and students. On two or three other occasions they were joined by other Australian and British poets, including PiO, Brian Patten and Roger McGough. The success of their visit, as anticipated, led to the creation and organization of the American Walkabout Tour.
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