'If you want to know the reality of inside Black Australia, this book is for you. The women who speak within these pages allow you, the reader, to look into their hearts, minds, bodies and souls. Share with them their journey - the journey of life.' (Back cover)
Dedication:
Women's Dreaming continues
It is forever changing
Our business was never silenced
Before the whiteman came
we are still here
things may have changed
but we still have business
we are strong
we will not be silenced
International Women's Day 1988
In this short paper, Reed-Gilbert questions 'Who's responsible? you, me the government, the police, him, her...the politician, the taxi driver, the bus driver, the preacher, the teacher.'
In this paper, Ruby Langford 'Ginibi' talks about the many reasons as to why she wrote her autobiography.
In this paper, Anita Heiss shares her thoughts and her understanding on why black women write and why they choose what they write about.
In this paper, through her research Nellie Green discusses 'the ways in which the sense of Aboriginality has been diminished for many Aboriginal people in the community through government intervention.'
'Taking Kerry Reed-Gilbert’s anthology The Strength of Us as Women: Black Women Speak (2000) as touchstone, the chapter undertakes a conversation between two Aboriginal women poets from Narungga and Wiradjuri standpoints about the transformative power of Indigenous poetry and its significant contribution to literature in the world. Offering an alternative to the essay, the authors discuss embodied engagements with the colonial archive and the theme of relationality that informs so much of Aboriginal writing. The chapter considers the potential of poetry to be both an affective tool and literary intervention. It outlines the methods of Gathering and Archival-Poetic praxis as ways to explore the counter-narrative potential of poetry. In considering the role of memory work and memory-making, the authors also discuss blood memory and body memory.'
Source: Abstract.
In this essay Heiss discusses and explains the important role of anthologies in the creation of communities of writers and in acknowledging, consolidating and launching writing careers.
In this essay Heiss discusses and explains the important role of anthologies in the creation of communities of writers and in acknowledging, consolidating and launching writing careers.
'Taking Kerry Reed-Gilbert’s anthology The Strength of Us as Women: Black Women Speak (2000) as touchstone, the chapter undertakes a conversation between two Aboriginal women poets from Narungga and Wiradjuri standpoints about the transformative power of Indigenous poetry and its significant contribution to literature in the world. Offering an alternative to the essay, the authors discuss embodied engagements with the colonial archive and the theme of relationality that informs so much of Aboriginal writing. The chapter considers the potential of poetry to be both an affective tool and literary intervention. It outlines the methods of Gathering and Archival-Poetic praxis as ways to explore the counter-narrative potential of poetry. In considering the role of memory work and memory-making, the authors also discuss blood memory and body memory.'
Source: Abstract.
