Cirrus@Austlit

Kim discusses some of the processes that he used to research, draft and edit Benang.

Anna Haebich investigates how the West Australian Department of Indigenous Affairs archives (1898-1972) have been utilised by Indigenous writers/researchers.

'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.

'As a published writer who applies magic realism to my works of fiction, I undertook this practice-related research project to contribute to existing global research on magic realism in literature, and to better understand my own creative practice. This research focused on two questions: what are key attributes of magic realist literature? And to what extent can magic realism be identified in Aboriginal authored novels?'

Source: Abstract.