Vale Charmaine Papertalk Green
Poet, writer, artist and researcher Charmaine Papertalk Green has died.
Magabala publisher Rachel Bin Salleh writes:
Legacy is a profound gift, and the passing of Dr Charmaine Papertalk Green has left an everlasting mark on family, friends and peers, and on Australian cultural life. This legacy will mean different things to those who knew her and who shared some or all parts of her life’s journey. Words are inadequate for the loss faced by her children, grandchildren, husband, family and community, and [her] passing will have ramifications for generations to come.
Born in Eradu, Charmaine, a Wajarri, Badimaya and Wilunyu woman (Yamaji Nation), passed away on 27 August 2025. She was 63. Raised in Mullewa, her early life was spent on the red soil of mid-west Western Australia and around tight family communities that would greatly influence her life and work. It is this foundation that informed her morality, ethics and razor-sharp intellect. She embodied her truest self in her personal and professional life; and it is through her work that I came to know Charmaine, as her publisher and friend. Charmaine navigated this relationship with time and many conversations. Over the years, through emails, texts and yarns, she said that truth would reveal itself with time and this was how she would decide whether she trusted you (or not). I can tell you; the world was an infinitely brighter, lighter and more humorous place with her in it and trusting you.
Charmaine was a visionary and her works encompassed poetry, poetry collections, installations, visual art, and advocacy. She was a much-needed light in research and academia. Nganajungu Yagu (Cordite Books) is her award-winning poetry collection that wove together memory, identity and the history of Yamaji people, whilst False Claims of Colonial Thieves with John Kinsella (Magabala Books) confronted Australia’s colonial past and truths of now. Her custom of truth-telling was and is unmatched.
As a researcher, Charmaine finalised her PhD – Ngatha Wangga (I Talk): Little Yamaji Woman: Big Yamaji Narratives – for which she was awarded the inaugural Kurongkurl Katitjin Research Medal. It is through this practice of archival research that Charmaine contributed to safe spaces for other First Nations writers and poets to follow. In these quiet spaces of story, whilst bearing witness to the unacknowledged acts of hate and apathy that is the record of our ‘here’, Charmaine sat with this history and grief for a time and was able to turn it into a powerhouse of a practice. She gave voice to those who never had one; embodied empathy and compassion for those who never saw any; and through selflessness embodied love to tell these truths.
Charmaine’s many achievements and legacy resulted in the Victorian Premier’s Prize for Poetry (2020), the Australian Literary Society Gold Medal, and the Red Room Poetry Fellowship, [as well as] being inducted into the Western Australian Women’s Hall of Fame (2023). Charmaine was very passionate about art and served as the chair of Yamaji Art Centre, was director of WA Art Centre Hub, and was a research fellow at the WA Centre for Rural Health.
Charmaine was a mother, wife, grandmother (proudly so), advocate, storyteller, guardian of truth, mentor, artist, scholar and friend to many. In one of my last conversations with her, Charmaine called to say she retired and was looking forward to writing and creating. We talked about many things and laughed about a lot more. I hung up from that call knowing that Charmaine was beginning a new stage of her journey in this space and she had plans. If ever someone deserved more time, days, weeks, decades, it was Charmaine. For the industry we are in, the writings that we do, the stories we continue to hold and craft, Dr Charmaine Papertalk Green is one of poetry and literature’s True North – the light humanity needs to find its way home.
Category: Obituaries
