Kaitlen Wellington is set to join Red Room Poetry Month as part of a panel of established and emerging poets celebrating Australian poetry.
Hosted by Red Room Poetry (RRP), an organisation dedicated to increasing access, awareness, value and visibility of poetry in all its forms and for all audiences, the month-long event showcases Australian poetry at events, performances and conversations around the country.
Ms Wellington is an emerging storyteller who joins RRP Month for the first time. Rather than strictly being a writer or poet, she described herself as a "storyteller" as she likes to experiment with different forms such as poetry, prose, play, visual arts and sound.
The Yuin woman is also one of the 2025 recipients of the RRP Fellowship for 'Foreva Dreaming' - an anthology of poems illustrating her story of trauma and healing through culture and language.
"I was actually surprised," she said, "but I feel really privileged and very excited to work in a space with a bunch of great First Nations and diverse storytellers".
This August, Ms Wellington will participate in RRP Month's 30in30, a project where specially commissioned poems are published every day of August from poets, artists, musicians, writers, from across the nation.
Reflecting on her commissioned poem 'Born to Fight', Ms Wellington described it as "a reflection of racism and stereotypes".
Grounded in her own experiences with racism, Ms Wellington has translated the challenges of living as a First Nations woman into her writing.
"If you look visibly Black, or like a person of colour, you don't get a choice in how you're seen," she said.
"It's just the everyday racism and stereotyping of women's - especially First Nations women's - bodies and features and being judged for how I look.
"I'm just kind of fed up, because people would just treat you differently, and you find yourself in some bizarre situations," she admitted, "You just can't win, and you're born to fight for your voice and your freedom.
"[My poem] is a reflection of that - an expression of how I didn't have a choice, I was just born to fight."
For Ms Wellington, poetry is more than art - it's also a tool for healing.
"For me, it's really about healing and reclaiming my narrative. When I started writing poetry and doing my first gigs and reconnecting with Country, it helped me find my voice and gave me a way to express myself," she said.
"I also use [writing] as a tool to articulate where you sit in the world, and to express and unpack some of the experiences you've had. It can mean different things for different people, but I've often used it to redefine who I am, to express myself, to create, and to use it as a form of healing as well."
Ms Wellington is no stranger to RRP, having participated in previous programs such as Poetry in First Nations Languages and Baraya Barray Whale Song.
"Those first initial programs were really pivotal in my journey," she said, reflecting on their role in reconnecting her to culture and Country.
"Language is so important. I know our culture is important, but there's something about language - it holds everything: our stories, our songs, our connection to Country.
"It was really good to go home, reconnect, and see the young ones create and just be inspired. And like, you know how brilliant their minds are - they absorb a lot, and they have a story to tell. It's inspiring.
"And in a way, it was kind of like the ancestor's way of guiding me through some of the things going on in my life there. So it really meant a lot."
Reflecting on her own youth, a memory from high school still stands out to Ms Wellington.
"We used to go up to Belvoir theatre and see plays, especially First Nation plays, and to see that display and that representation inspired me," she said.
"Just seeing our stories being told up on the stage, and how brilliant and beautiful they are, or traumatic, that just really inspired me to reclaim my narrative."
And in many ways, that's what her work continues to do: reclaim, inspire, and remind us of the power of storytelling and poetry.