Poem · 2026  |  Nisaba Merrieweather  |  Read by Erifili Davis
Part of Inspired by Her, the annual creative programme of The Orana Every Woman Festival. Curated by Erifili Davis. Exhibited at The Greens, Dubbo — free, for the full seven days of the festival.

Recorded as part of the Inspired by Her exhibition, 2026 Orana Every Woman Festival, Dubbo NSW. Written by Nisaba Merrieweather. Read aloud by Erifili Davis — Dubbo-based writer, creative practitioner and curator of the exhibition.

She looked up at me
With infinite sadness
And infinite knowledge.
She knew what was coming.
She was one hour old.
That knowledge would fade.

Her own daughter came in a Covid lockdown
So the doting grandmother couldn’t visit.
She rang me up to tell me how tired she was.
She rang to say: hey, the baby
Knows everything and looks right through me
To my very soul. It’s spooky.

By the time I could travel,
Like her mother before her
The knowledge had faded
And she was just a baby.

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Nisaba Merrieweather is a Dubbo-based writer and poet, and president of the Outback Writers’ Centre. Her work explores themes of mysticism, spirituality, identity, LGBTQI experience, and marginalised perspectives, often with dark humour and rich symbolism. She has published two books of poetry, two novels, a book of short stories and a memoir, and has won or placed in more than 70 online poetry competitions. Nisaba also contributed Homecoming to the exhibition.

Erifili Davis is a Dubbo-based writer and creative practitioner whose work spans theatre, film and community storytelling. Dubbo’s Cultural Person of the Year in 2024, she was the curator and coordinator of the Inspired by Her exhibition.

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Eight women. Eight responses to the same brief.

Inspired by Her invites women artists and writers to make new work inspired by the lives, voices and stories of women from our region’s past. The 2026 exhibition opened on Monday 2 March at the Macquarie Conservatorium, with a Wiradjuri Welcome to Country by Aunty Diane McNaboe, alongside novelist Eleanor Limprecht and performer Rachael Beck.

• Tin Town Tess — Erifili Davis
• Something New — Kalina Davis
• Homecoming — Nisaba Merrieweather
• Icon — Jude Morrell
• Wambuul: Echoes of the Turning Tide — Sophia Johnson
• A Bouquet of Flowers — Phoebe Maroulis
• Nonna. Mother. Daughter. — Milena Sallustio

See the full Inspired by Her 2026 programme →  |  The brief is open again for 2027 →