Indigenous authors and the challenge of telling their own stories

University program aims to improve cross-cultural understanding in Australian publishing sector.

The Australia Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australian office. Subscribeto receive it by email. This week's issue is written by Julia Bergin, a journalist based in the Northern Territory.

Eyes closed, head raised, leaning against the polished stone of the Old Physics Building on the University of Melbourne campus, Marie Elena Ellis paused briefly to breathe in the sunshine before returning inside to resume the publishing discussion.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Mrs. Ellis, an author and editor of Arrernte and Warlpiri from Central Australia, recently joined a six-month fellowship program with the University of Melbourne, both to learn more about traditional Western publishing and to offer others participants the context of an indigenous approach to the same activity.

A challenge? I'm getting used to being inside so much.

"I'm not used to sitting in a dog box," Ms. Ellis, as she showed a room of Melbourne academics. photos of his own “office” at home – the Ilparpa Claypans Wilderness Reserve, all red earth and shallow water. "This is where I can think," she said.

The University of Melbourne's goal, said Sandra Phillips, professor of publishing and wife of Wakka Wakka and Gooreng Gooreng, is that this two-way exchange will help the mainstream publishing sector examine its own assumptions and practices.

Although While many publishing fundamentals are common to Indigenous and non-Indigenous publishers, the methods are not, according to Dr. Phillips. The concepts of time, relationships, power and action are all perceived differently.

For example, Ms. Ellis said, a non-Indigenous editor might say “this book will not be won”. “I don't sell” with a certain cover or title, while for an indigenous publisher such decisions are up to the author: “We say: 'I don't care, it's my story.' And I'm going to say it and show it in my own way.'”

We're having trouble retrieving the content of the article.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode, please exit and log in to your Times account, or subscribe to the entire Times.