Salleh Ben Joned was a noted Malaysian poet and public intellectual who came to Australia as a Colombo Plan scholar in the 1960s and stayed for 10 years.1 His posthumous collection edited and authored by his daughter Anna Salleh is titled Salleh Ben Joned - Truth, Beauty, Amok and Belonging.
I speak to Anna about her father, the book project, and the legacy he leaves behind in both countries. At some point she shows me one of her cassette letters containing a reading which I decipher to be an early version of the poem ‘Ria’, about her late sister Maria, whose tragic passing at the age of four causes Salleh to leave Australia and build another life back home.2
Cassette Letter to his daughter Anna, 1976.
The things I’ve been writing about, Anna, have to do with personal matters – the pain, the happiness that I’ve experienced, as well as… things to do with certain aspects of life and people in this country, which I didn’t seem to appreciate when I was younger before I left the country to go to Australia. Now that I have been back, things appear in different perspective, seem to take on different meanings. And there are certainly things which I didn’t value before, which I… have learnt to value now.
I try most of the time in my writing to be true to the positive impulse in me. Meaning the part of me which says yes to life.
You understand this with your blood, I know that.
But in spite of this impulse in me, sometimes certain things keep… dogging my consciousness… which I can only… find relief for by writing.
I would like now to read to you a poem which I wrote a few months ago, which I would like you to listen to and remember if possible. It’s about your sister of course.
I didn’t mean this conversation to become sad, Anna, but it did. I must say though that, although one must recognise pain and… sadness – must confront them, must face them – one must never allow them to dominate one’s life, one’s consciousness, simply because one has to go on living.
I’m sure you understand all this. I don’t have to tell you.
1. Salleh Ben Joned began at the University of Adelaide and later moved to Hobart to study English at the University of Tasmania under poet and literary critic James McAuley. When he returned to his home country, Salleh became known as a poet and columnist who delivered playful and well-read provocations on complex subjects such as race and religion. His brutal honesty and refusal to toe the establishment line meant that he was not officially honoured during his life as an important figure. Following his passing in 2020 however, the Malaysian press dubbed him the nation’s “uncrowned poet laureate”.
2. Anna Salleh combines a passion for journalism and music. In her long-standing association with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, she has been an editor, journalist and producer, creating online articles and podcast documentaries on everything from science, environment and Indigenous issues to ethics, music and social history. She is also a seasoned singer, guitarist and songwriter, and has traced her journey of musical discovery in the audio documentary Brazil Calling( italics as per other podcast title ). In a 2020 ABC podcast series Salleh Ben Joned: A Most Unlikely Malay, Anna provided a moving two-part exploration of the provocative life of her late father. A book on his literary journey titled Salleh Ben Joned - Truth, Beauty, Amok and Belonging was published by Maya Press in 2023.
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Publisher: Victorian College of the Arts
University of Melbourne
