'This could be an extract from a story. It is an extract from my life story. The conversation happened pretty well just like that - although I fixed it up to make it sound better. Oh , groan! Not only do I think that being "one of those" makes me right but that I can act like some out-of-control deity and rearrange facts to make them read better. But then again, I am a writer and we writers do that. We imagine, we create, rearrange and then we write it all down.' (Source: Abstract, Hodgson, 2002)
'In the 1960s Oodgeroo Noonuccal (then Kath Walker) hit the literary limelight as Australia’s first published ‘Aboriginal poet’ and since then Aboriginal writers have used their work as a form of self-definition and to defend our rights to our identity. Many authors are inspired by the need to redress historical government definitions of Aboriginality, to reclaim pride in First Nation status, to explain the diversity of Aboriginal experience, and to demonstrate the realities and complexities of ‘being Aboriginal’ in the 21st century.'
Source: Author's introduction.
'In the 1960s Oodgeroo Noonuccal (then Kath Walker) hit the literary limelight as Australia’s first published ‘Aboriginal poet’ and since then Aboriginal writers have used their work as a form of self-definition and to defend our rights to our identity. Many authors are inspired by the need to redress historical government definitions of Aboriginality, to reclaim pride in First Nation status, to explain the diversity of Aboriginal experience, and to demonstrate the realities and complexities of ‘being Aboriginal’ in the 21st century.'
Source: Author's introduction.