Poignant was involved in photographing and writing about museum collections of the material culture of Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Australia.

These were people presumed lost to the Manbarra of Palm Island[1][2] Poignant was born in Marouba (Sydney) in 1927 as Roslyn Betty Izatt.

She credited her parents, Miriam (born Audet) and David Izatt, as being responsible for her deep sense of social justice.

She began studying pictures of indigenous Australians in her first job working with linguist Ted Strehlow who had recorded some of their ceremonies.

[4] These people were all thought to be dead and buried until the mummified body of Kukamunburra (Tambo) was discovered in a funeral home in Cleveland, Ohio.