Cosmopolitan Jindyworobak: Flexmore Hudson, Nationalism and World-Mindedness

Abstract

Poet, editor, and school teacher Flexmore Hudson is best remembered as a long time, if sometimes reluctant, supporter of Rex Ingamells’ Jindyworobak Movement. However, unlike many of his nationalist counterparts, Hudson was interested in internationalism and the encouragement of ‘self-conscious world citizens.’ In 1947 Hudson was writing the educational comic Discovery, which he would later describe as ‘hack work’, in a failed attempt to keep his highbrow magazine Poetry financially afloat. Though Hudson was doubtful of the literary merit of Discovery, both texts show signs of his concerted effort to promote respect and communication between people ‘regardless of their colour, race or religion.’ This paper will use a range of Hudson’s little studied literary output to demonstrate his simultaneous support for ‘world-mindedness’ and the Jindyworobaks. Though this double allegiance yielded tension, Hudson took advantage of the ideological intersection that saw the environment become crucial to both nationalism and new world-minded thinking. Hudson’s overtly ‘placed’ poetry, written while a resident of rural South Australia, resonated with the Jindyworobak call for literary attention to ‘environmental values’ and gave him a curious advantage as an adherent of world-mindedness.