I feel a moral obligation to other community blackfellas, who our awards and grants are designed for – who our elders had in mind when they fought for these gifts – to pick these issues apart, to speak on matters of identity and belonging from my own considerable and well-examined lived experience. I urge others think about identity as belonging – not as choice, but as lived in and embodied. Not made up in the mind.
I was brought up with cultural responsibilities and I take cultural protocol seriously, as a community person and as an Aboriginal researcher. Unlike some Aboriginal writers and artists, I know that it’s not right to make money off someone else’s struggles, or to stories you have no connection to. I know how to seek permission for research, and with this comes the knowledge of when permission is needed and when it is not. This was not one of those times.
Winner of the 2019 Grace Marion Wilson Emerging Writers Competition, creative non-fiction category. Judge's comments: "The poetic language in this entry is like a force of nature. I was impressed by the rhythm of it, how the writer moves from the backyard to a global vision to an impassioned call to arms about environmental degradation. The sense of place and history are beautifully evocative while being layered with a good dose of despair. Along with technique, I was looking for writing that takes artistic risks and manages a gut-punch, and this delivers."
Mykaela Saunders 