Aboriginal life writing... 'is a syncretic practice: bound to postcolonial structure of mourning and trauma which while also deeply engaged with tradition and its restoration. This double condition of tradition and continuance has been a consistent problem in the Indigenous paradigm of writing and of life writing particularly. To write of life, it is often necessary to break with precolonial Indigenous tradition: at the very least (since one is writing), the traditional positioning of self and kinship within the complexity of oral culture.' In this essay, the author offers a partial survey of the bounds of life writing, and frames his approach whilst examining the complexities of tradition in post-colonial Australia.
Aboriginal life writing... 'is a syncretic practice: bound to postcolonial structure of mourning and trauma which while also deeply engaged with tradition and its restoration. This double condition of tradition and continuance has been a consistent problem in the Indigenous paradigm of writing and of life writing particularly. To write of life, it is often necessary to break with precolonial Indigenous tradition: at the very least (since one is writing), the traditional positioning of self and kinship within the complexity of oral culture.' In this essay, the author offers a partial survey of the bounds of life writing, and frames his approach whilst examining the complexities of tradition in post-colonial Australia.
