AustLit

This thesis provides a comparative analysis of collaborative Indigenous life writing texts produced in Australia and Canada. Drawing on the large body of Indigenous life writing texts produced in both countries, the critical and theoretical literature surrounding these texts, and twenty-nine interviews conducted during the course of research with participants in Aboriginal and First Nations collaborative life writing, the author argues that literary criticism needs to take into account the co-operative basis of textual production as well as the constraining factors that shape the outcome of collaborative texts. Further, he argues for the importance of non-Indigenous critics acknowledging the centrality of Indigenous protocols in both the production and reception of collaborative Indigenous life writing. The thesis is based upon the premise that readers and producers of collaborative Indigenous life writing texts can and should talk to each other and that each group can benefit from such cross talk.