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Issue Details: First known date: 2023... 2023 A Martuwarra Serpent Stirs in Its Sleep… : Enduring Creation Stories in a Time of Crisis
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'AN ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIAN who is a Nyikina woman, and a man and a woman from European backgrounds – all writers and cultural theorists – ponder the meaning and power of a River that has flowed for thousands of years, in northern Western Australia’s Kimberley. We ponder and share understandings about Australia as a colonised nation, the permeable boundaries between non-­fiction and fiction and the interconnected contemporaneous qualities of culture, people, history and the environment. Still thinking, worrying and talking about Martuwarra, regularly known and mapped as the Fitzroy River, Anne Wagaba Poelina tells how well she knows the River from Nyikina stories, experience, cultural life and knowledge handed down to her from family and past generations. Each of us conversationally and experientially understands that stories will always be transferred to those learning about Martuwarra from Wagaba and other Aboriginal people in the Kimberley’s Fitzroy Valley with deep-­time connections to the River. Each of us also knows from individual learning and collaborative research that the realism of the River’s creation and its life-­giving qualities are meant to be for all human and interrelated life.' (Introduction) 

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Griffith Review Creation Stories no. 80 2023 26159840 2023 periodical issue

    'The capacity to tell stories – along with language and the ability to create art – is seen as both intrinsic and unique to the human species. Over thousands of years, we’ve forged narratives of our origins, our journeys and our dreams as a means of accounting for who we are and to define our place in the world. 

    'In the twenty-first century, as our existential and environmental crises mount, humanity’s place feels distinctly tenuous. What lessons from the past can inform, even shape, our increasingly uncertain future? And are the stories we’re telling ourselves about what comes next – environmental downfall or technological salvation – helping or hindering what we might do and where we might go? 

    'In celebration of Griffith Review’s eightieth edition and twentieth anniversary, Creation Stories looks to the stars above and the earth below to map our ever-evolving relationships with the world around us. From archaeology and astronomy to AI and transhumanism, the preservation of traditional knowledge to the intricacies of postmodern identity, this edition travels through time and space to explore the many tales of who we are and where we might be headed.'  (Publication summary)

    2023
    pg. 36-60
Last amended 6 Jun 2023 14:04:12
36-60 A Martuwarra Serpent Stirs in Its Sleep… : Enduring Creation Stories in a Time of Crisissmall AustLit logo Griffith Review
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