Cirrus@Austlit

'I have been delivered of my books.'

These words hang in the air as Gerald Murnane confirms his retirement during a rare address to around thirty academics, writers, publishers and fans at the Goroke Golf Club. The one-day symposium, 'Another World in This One : Gerald Murnane's Fiction, is part of the Western Sydney University's 'Other Worlds: Forms of World Literature' project. On first glance it is a curious connection: how can the life work of an author who has rarely left the small pockets of Victoria, suburban Melbourne and a few regional villages and towns that he has called home for eighty years inform us about a literature of the 'world'?' (Introduction)

'Always there remain alternate versions of your official research project - half written then abandoned, scratched in the margin of a book, or descending through your brain cloud at 2am only to evaporate upon waking. These unrealised versions have their own validity. They could even be described as the purest kind of enquiry, unfettered by the format that research proper must follow to be recognised and accepted.' (Introduction)

'As a nop (boy) and later as I grew into a mamman (man) I travelled on many many bidi (roads), driving past a lot of placenames and signage across the south-western boodjera, or Nyungar country. At first, as a family,  we drove out mainly from Walwalingup (Fremantle), up South Street, across to Armadale Road, left onto Albany Highway and right onto Brookton Highway. Over the coastal plains, up and onto the Kaarta (Darling Ranges), out through the forests and eventually to the cleared paddocks to the east until we reached Kalkarni (the home fire —Brockton) (Thomas). The Nyungar placenames always caught my attention—towns, national parks, hills, rivers, streams, forests and railway sidings—standing tall like sentinels, their words in my language telling the direction and distance to the destinations that I journeyed to many times with my family and loved ones. Whether driving through the day or night, the placenames always haunted me, mile after mile, and later, kilometre after kilometre. Many of the signs I didn't understand nor was I able to read them properly and so I didn't know what they were really saying to me. But the signage always stood patiently by the roadside as though waiting to reflect a coded message to me.' (Introduction)
 

'The protocols of Acknowledgement and Welcome to Country have become a common practice at the commencement of official or public events across Australia. However, there are profound differences between Indigenous and non-Indigenous understandings of what these protocols mean. At the core of these differences are contrasting notions of sovereignty. Historically, Western legal traditions allowed colonising nations to claim ownership of land without forming sustainable relationships with the life of that land, But Aboriginal concepts of belonging always required that we looked after all the life forms that made up our homelands and that we respected the right of other peoples to be 'boss' in their own Countries. A better understanding of Welcome and Acknowledgement protocols by non-Indigenous peoples can lead to more respectful relationships with Indigenous peoples and with our homelands. '  (Introduction)

'At Perth Festival Writers Week, in February 2018, I was privileged to participate in an all-First Nations panel on Indigenous Australian literature. There has been on in almost every writers' festival I have attended and I have been honoured to participate in a few of them. It is important that these platforms exist so that Indigenous voices can be heard and so that people who wish to hear from us can have that opportunity.' (Introduction)