AustLit

'I narrate several controversial incidents or issues Oodgeroo was involved in which featured in the pages of Australia's large-circulation daily newspapers. I contrast these narratives of controversies in Oodgeroo's life, and selected representations of her in the media, with her own views and understandings of events and of herself. I demonstrate the way in which she both used the media to convey her message of Aboriginal rights and challenged media portrayals of herself and her work, publicly articulating her own understandings of her life' (p. 57).

Judy Wickes examines the impact of the Certificate of Exemption on the lived experience of Aboriginal people in Queensland and its consequences for Aboriginal identity for subsequent generations. Wickes reflects on the experiences of her family, drawing on diaries as well as extensive archival research.

In this paper Jacklin argues that the reading of Indigenous life narratives by non-Indigenous academics and their subsequently published reviews and critiques of Indigenous life writing could benefit from the acknowledgement and implementation of Indigenous cultural protocols. Literary studies, Jacklin suggests, may be resistant to the notion that publishing commentary and interpretation of another's life narrative sets in motion an exchange whose consequences may exceed the printed page. Yet, as numerous Indigenous writers have asserted, consultation is a basic principle underlying any ethical exchange between non-Indigenous writers and Indigenous people. Jacklin outlines some of the gains made and complexities encountered in the processes of consultation that guided his PhD research into collaboratively produced Indigenous life writing in both Australia and Canada.

Simon Luckhurst draws on material contained in an archive of 34 boxes left behind by Pauline McLeod, in order to describe facets of McLeod's life and reflect on theoretical aspects of the biographical process. The material includes poems, letters, notes, film ideas, playscripts and diaries.