Features
Janaka Malwatta, doctor living and working in Australia, launches his anthology of poems in Colombo
A unique combination of practicing medical doctor and published poet is Janaka Malwatta, here in Sri Lanka to launch his first published book of poetry blackbirds don’t mate with starlings at the
Additionally, a migrant is invariably a second class citizen in the adopted country. And why does Janaka plan to return to this country? Because he wants his son to grow up in this milieu, among relatives in an extended family, inheriting his father’s heritage. This attitude, welcome and courageous, is so different from the usual admiration of aspirants to settle overseas, seeking foreign education, dollar salaries and better living conditions.
I said Janaka has the unusual honour of being doctor plus poet. We have had many prose – mostly fiction – writing doctors, the best known and most read being British Richard Gordon (Doctor in the House etc. 1921-2017). And many in Sri Lanka too. But a doctor-poet? Among the first being Janaka Malwatta, I surmise.
Before I write about his poetry and publications, I would like to write about the person; facts gathered during a conversation I had with him recently. A word about his persona: very personable, inspiring even an interviewer with admiration for and confidence in him. One could imagine his effect on his patients in the UK and Australia, although, as we have heard, there definitely still is colour prejudice in both countries.
Janaka Malwatta was born in Kandy. His family moved to London when he was five years old. Janaka had his schooling and medical education in the UK. He migrated to Australia in 2010 and works as a GP in Brisbane. His son is now in schooling and Janaka has this desire to bring him back to his father’s country to send down his own roots here.
Disturbing issues
Janaka has always been deeply affected by inequality, racism, slavery as practiced long ago and even now in different guises. He mentioned that in the late 19th century 60,000 Pacific Islanders, captured or enticed, were taken to Australia to work as indentured labourers, a process known as ‘blackbirding’. Sri Lanka had its own import of slaves from South India, named indentured labour. This was under the British to labour in their tea plantations where Sinhalese peasants refused to work; but were deprived of their land. Janaka’s sensibilities being aroused, he needed an outlet of expression. Thus his writing poetry, which is more impressively expressive and, of course, more emotive than prose. Feelings expressed in concise poetic form with its enhancing devices of imagery, rhyme, rhythm, allusion etc. emerge stronger and more effective. Intended themes, even if subtly included, are discerned by the reader more strikingly in a poem with its shortened and precise language.
One incident that further catalyzed his poetry writing was African-American George Floyd’s murder by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25, 2020, the resulting worldwide Black Lives Matter Movement, and the backlash to that movement. The collection of poems that is being introduced to the Sri Lankan public on March 30 is a direct result of the murder of George Floyd and the BLM movement.
Janaka Malwatta
During our chat, Janaka said he had read much on Jack Johnson, World Heavy Weight Champion in 1908, who had for years been prevented from contesting the championship by the refusal of white boxers to meet him in the ring because of his colour. Here was an early incident of white supremacy overshadowing sportsmanship. He also mentioned Boris Johnson, Britain’s ex=PM, who claimed his hero is Winston Churchill, the latter an outright racist; and the victory of Obama as the 44th President of the US overcoming colour prejudice in January 2009.
His poetry
The real impetus for expressing his thoughts and emotions in verse were these issues that confronted Janaka when he was growing up. In contrast was the strength of identity, solidarity and security of family and extended family. He read much; listened to people’s stories; overheard conversations; and personally felt discrimination and racism. Many years later, he captured these experiences in poetic form.
He writes poems about his experiences as an immigrant in two continents. He also writes narrative poetry, often exploring Sri Lankan stories. He has performed poetry in Brisbane at the Queensland Poetry Festival, in Adelaide ,at the OzAsia festival, and has been published in Cordite Poetry Review, Rabbit Poetry and Peril magazine. He was the Sri Lankan voice on the ESPNCricinfo.com blog The Cordon. He is one half of the poetry and tabla collective Dubla. The book he launches on March 30 – blackbirds don’t mate with starlings – is his first full-length collection of poetry.
Janaka said the poems in the anthology he launches are organized in four sections titled Unburdenings; Imaginings; Examinings and Foundlings. He submitted the collection to the 2021 Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize, and won the first prize. A signal honour for a professional writing poetry for the mere love of it and being strongly moved to express angst within himself.
Prize winning entry
Comments and reviewing the poems by local critics will be postponed for after the launch. I feel it more relevant and useful as of now to quote from information gathered.
“The anthology blackbirds ….is a work of activism, fury and hope. Its urgent and purposeful poems contribute to the dismantling of racism and raging against its machinery. It combines performance poetry with poetry of witness and memory, recounting personal experiences of racism as well as historic injustices.”
Another critic wrote: “The coherence of the collection comes from the incandescent rage that burns from the first poem to the last. Yet, there is a measure of compassion here, a compassion that is able to register contradiction and complexity without passing judgment. Ultimately this superb collection directs its imagining towards a just future for the next generation.”
Stephanie King, bookseller at Readings Emporium, wrote: “Both lyrical and at times tender, the poems are also blunt and deal with Australia’s prevalent casual racism in a manner that is thoughtful and urgent. Repeated throughout the collection is a reminder the colonial past is still very much present in our day-to-day life. Malwatta’s style could be encapsulated in the poem I am/am I which explores his identities as Sri Lankan, British and Australian. Poems such as swastika continue this tension, discussing how the meaning of this symbol was colonized. What was to Buddhists, Hindus and Jains a revered symbol is re-appropriated as a hate symbol.”
Critic Miranda Riwoe commented: “Razor sharp and resonant, blackbirds ….is a collection to savour and re-read for its beauty and power.”
We will hear the poet on his collection of poems which he launches on March 30; read them later and form our own judgments. However, even before hearing him and reading his poems, we are convinced he is a unique person.