OBITUARY
Venie Holmgren (1922-2016)
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Venie Holmgren finished writing her life-long poem on Wednesday, January 27.
An adventure filled with 93 years of words, feisty activism and wry humour.
She moves on leaving vivid memories in her brothers Norman and Gordon and her children Jenny, David and his partner Su and step grandchildren Kimon and Jody and grandson Oliver as well as many others she touched over many years of wordsmithing and friendship.
She will be celebrated at Poets Corner, Melliodora 16 Fourteenth St Hepburn on Tuesday, February 9, at 10.30am. The burial will follow at Franklinford cemetery.
Venie Holmgren (nee Rich) was the second youngest of 11 children, born to immigrant Jewish parents in York, Western Australia.
In 1946, Venie Rich married Jack Holmgren a (non-Jewish) comrade in peace activism against nuclear weapons and, later Australia’s involvement in Vietnam (documented in her Vietnam memoir - in press 2016).
They had three children – Jenny, David and Gerald – and were active in community affairs from their home in Fremantle suburb of Bicton. Venie and Jack also were business partners in Rellim Booksellers (Perth), one of the best technical bookshops in the country in the 1970s.
After Jack’s death in 1975 Venie spent her gypsy years travelling in a campervan (documented in her travel memoir A Sense of Direction).
The bush property, at Wyndham on the Far South Coast of NSW, where she settled was designed and established with her son David, the co-originator of the permaculture concept.
Venie’s Wyndham property is documented in the case study Permaculture In The Bush.
In her late 50s Venie began to write poetry and her first published anthology, The Sun Collection 1989, became a poetry “best seller”.
At the same time, she applied her activist skills and commitment to the campaign to save native forests of the region, being arrested twice for obstructing log trucks.
After 16 years of solo self reliant living she moved to the local town of Pambula where she penned her travel memoir, several more books of poetry and travelled widely as a performance poet.
After the unexpected death of Gerald in 2010 she left her community of choice to join her son David, daughter-in-law Su Dennett and grandson Oliver at Melliodora, their home and permaculture demonstration site in Hepburn, central Victoria.
While waiting for the completion of the second handmade-house built for her by David, she wrote The Tea-house Poems, that has received wide acclaim. (See Kevin Child’s In Praise of Venie Holmgren: at 92 still an activist, adventurer and poet, published in the Guardian March 2015).
During the last couple of years of life, her house mate (and informal carer) Rick Tanaka facilitated the publication of The Tea-house Poems and, along with other local friends, satisfied Venie’s love of Scrabble.
Venie’s last move of her long life, was up the road to Hepburn House where she made an impression on the staff with her sharp mind and tenacity.
We have received a number of comments from those who knew Venie and have added some of those below.
From Rosemary Beaumont
It is with both sadness and warm memories comes the news of Venie Holmgren’s death on the 27th January at the home of her son, David, in Daylesford, Victoria.
Venie lived in the Bega Valley for many years and had a significant impact on many in that time.
Venie was a foundational member of the Southern Women’s Group which established the Women’s Refuge and Women’s Resource Centre thirty years ago.
She was a feisty activist in forest and environmental campaigns. A skilful gardener, Venie was ever welcoming at her home, the first permaculture designed property in the region.
And her crystalline intellect, creativity and insight shone through in her many thought-provoking and heart-opening poetry publications.
Venie exemplifies a life lived to the full. Sad we are at her death for those who were privileged to know her and her inspiration lives on.
From Rosslyn Thomas (Writers of the Far South Coast)
Venie Holmgren’s passing has left a veil of tears in our community, but her voice will live on.
Fortunately for us when Venie travelled from Tuart trees in Western Australia to our tall trees in Towamba on our far south coast, she had A Sense of Direction.
In Venie’s memoir of this title, we come to know Venie’s love of landscape, wildlife and her personal insight into existence, life, and community. Her bumpy, three year, solitary adventure along outback roads is not without its fears, but she tells her story with her own irreverent and endearing humour.
After arriving here, Venie commits, with others, to save our south-east forests for our national heritage and our children’s future. If that means acquiring a criminal record, so be it.
In her poem Chip Ship published in Peasant in January (Dialogue Press, 1995), her passion is clear:
‘In the silence we see the ancient eucalypt forest
We see the great leafy temples falling.’
Venie has fearlessly confronted those who threatened her, be they feral cats in her Wyndham permaculture garden, as Hugh Gravestein remembers. Then, Venie brandished a .410 shotgun in pursuit of the intruders.
Lotte Pors Eriksen tells of Venie’s verbal assault when neighbouring trees were chain-sawed adjacent to her property in her Ives Street, Pambula, home.
Venie is well known as a writer, poet, mother, teacher, permaculturalist, environmentalist, and political activist. In all these roles she was cherished by her friends, She will be sadly missed. Her legacy and her support will not be forgotten. Her ideals of creating and nurturing the culture are borne out in her actions and writings.
As well, Venie has been a mentor to many emerging writers in the Writers of the Far South Coast for thirty years. She was an incredible person who touched the lives of many: someone with Spirit and Spark, Compassion and Caring.
Venie’s poetry and poetic mediations bring us back to our senses. Alarm bells ring. What are our prospects for survival if no change occurs, the forests are destroyed, we accept politicians’ sectional interests or economic popularism?
In her poem Xanthorrhoea Venie cries:
‘it takes fifteen seconds flat
for a bulldozer to destroy a Xanthorrhoea’
Let’s hope Venie’s Sense of Direction becomes ours in the years to come.
From Lotte Pors Eriksen
Hearing of Venie's passing I am thinking of her and her amazing life and the time we shared living in Ives Street in Pambula. And I smile.
Here is a memory that kind says a lot about Venie... When I moved to Ives St in 2000 the big block across the road had a large stand on big and beautiful eucalypts. The fruit bats feasted on their nectar when they were in flower and they were home to the resident extended magpie family.
But it was only a matter of time before it would be developed and we knew it and dreaded it.
One morning we heard the chainsaws and I walked up the street to see Venie march out to confront the poor boys who had been sent in to clear the block.
I don't know what shocked them the most... the verbal spray she gave them or the sight of this rather elderly lady only half dressed in her skirt and her salmon bra.
Venie had not had time to complete her dressing when she heard the chainsaws and the thought of those trees falling was obviously much more important.
I always wanted to grow old and have as much spunk and spirit as Venie.
I cherish the time we spent as neighbours and friends.