Soul of Tafaria is a collection of poems that tells the Tafaria story from the inside. Written as reflections by George Tafaria, the poems trace the dream, hardship, perseverance and milestones behind the transformation of Deighton Downs into Tafaria Castle & Center for the Arts.

A memoir told through poetry

The collection is more than a chronology of buildings and dates. It preserves the feelings, symbols and memories that sit behind Tafaria's public story: migration, resilience, companionship, rural transformation and the belief that the arts can carry memory from one generation to another.

Stories within the collection

Titles such as Mother, You Are a Needle, Once Upon a Dream, Castle, You Were Stubborn, Last of the Keep, Adjournment and The Maiden Walk approach different moments in the journey through image and metaphor.

Encountering the story at Tafaria

Many of the themes in the poems can also be recognised around the property—in the Castle, artworks, landscape and recurring language of dreaming and transformation. Visitors who want to take the story home can look for a copy of Soul of Tafaria at the Tafaria Gift Shop.