Cirrus@Austlit

'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.

Chesson had first met Jack Davis in 1970 through his wife, when she was a member of the Executive Committee of the Aboriginal Advancement Council. It was in the late 1970s, that Jack Davis was approached by a publisher to write his own biography, Davis been too shy, had asked Chesson to write it. Chesson had transcribed the conversations with Jack on tape during social occasions, and wrote this fascinating history of Davis's life and his work in the literary and dramatic fields; in which the Chesson hope that this book helps to make Jack Davie's life and work better known and appreciated. (source: Chesson, 1983)