Cirrus@Austlit

'There is a Bugarrigarra story from north-west Australia about spirit children, the rayi, who emerge from the water to create future children in the minds of dreamers. Among other things, the story suggests that rights and obligations can be inherited as well as bestowed. The story is significant to Paddy Roe, a Nyigina man from Broome in Western Australia, whose authority and custodianship is linked to a vision of a pregnant stingray he experienced with his wife, Mary Pikalli. In part, the vision conveyed the future coming of children in his family.' (Introduction)

'‘Might as well,’ I heard myself say. I was telling myself to record the poems I wrote in the margins of The Trouble with Being Born whenever poetry struck in the middle of reading it. I normally record it or them elsewhere. But I put them here today, Chinese or English, regardless.' (Introduction)