This collection of poetry is at once deeply personal and fiercely communal—a guidebook that welcomes, instructs, and illuminates. Written by young people from Blacktown and Mount Druitt, it overflows with their deep knowledge of this area: their unexpected wisdom and hard-won advice; their memories of laughter and pressure; their stories of family ties and cultural memory.
This book grew out of It’s Our Turn, a very special project run by Story Factory and The Hive which is about recognising the voices of young people as essential to shaping the future of the places in which they live. Over the course of a year, more than 250 young people generously reflected on and shared their expert knowledge about their communities and their worlds.
Their poetry maps out the streets and inner worlds they know best—from Popondetta Park to a charm bracelet that is much more than just decoration. In these pages the everyday blurs with the sacred and echoes out the truth of what it means to grow up here.