AustLit

Estelle Castro-Koshy is an Adjunct Research Fellow in the College of Arts, Society and Education at James Cook University, Queensland, Australia. The doctoral research during which the interviews were conducted was supported by an Australia-Europe Scholarship funded by the Australian Government through the Department of Education, Science and Training, and promoted by AEI, the Australian Government International Education Network, as well as financial support from the Ecole doctorale du Monde anglophone at Paris III-La Sorbonne Nouvelle University, the SAES (Société des Anglicistes de l’Enseignement Supérieur), and the Région Ile-de-France. The interviews were included – in English and French – in her PhD dissertation, “Tradition, création et reconnaissance dans la littérature aborigène du vingtième et vingt-et-unième siècles” (“Tradition, Creation and Recognition in Aboriginal Literature of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries”) (2007, The University of Queensland/Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3).

Estelle Castro-Koshy extends her thanks to the authors for generously sharing their thoughts and words with her, and for their continued support over the years: Lisa Bellear (who has remained an inspiration to many since her passing in 2006), Lionel Fogarty, Terri Janke, Romaine Moreton, Kerry Reed-Gilbert, and Sam Watson. Particular thanks go to AustLit Director, Kerry Kilner, for showing interest in these interviews, her editorial overseeing and vision for this project, and her dedication to scholarship on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander literature and storytelling. Sincere thanks also go to Professor Margaret Flinn and Nicholas Holt for their attentive reading of the interviews, and to Dr Linda Neil for her careful and musical suggestions for the essays.