AustLit

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.