Cirrus@Austlit

'Alexis Wright's literary works are regularly discussed in relation to the ways in which they bring Indigenous perspectives, experiences, and histories to the foreground. Following Carpentaria's Miles Franklin Award win in 2007, Wright claimed that—writing from her own Indigenous "viewpoint"—she tries "to bring out the way" many Indigenous Australians "think as people," to share what she terms "something of our humanity, something of our character, something of our soul" (O'Brien 217). An awareness of the dynamics underpinning Indigenous exposition and cross-cultural exchange are integral to understanding Wright's oeuvre. Yet while close readings of Wright's literary works need be attuned to the "things" that are being expressively shared (modes of storytelling), I propose that such analyses also need to be conscious of the halts, silences, and gaps in her narratives: the unarticulated spaces that may connote trauma. Drawing on Alison Ravenscroft's approach to reading trauma in "Indigenous-signed texts"—a reading technique that focuses on elements of the unknown, or "nodes of silence"—this essay examines some of the ways in which the unspeakable is conveyed in Wright's short fiction and how the manipulation of oral forms contributes to wider processes of cultural regeneration (Ravenscroft, Postcolonial 16).' (Introduction)