Writing by Women from Australia

Abstract

The history of Australia is one of exploration, journeying, challenge, and settlement. Those who immigrated to Australia were often displaced from their homelands, and they in turn displaced indigenous peoples, carving the lands to fit their developing needs and ways of life. The establishment of settlements in challenging new circumstances featured people who were tough, dedicated survivalist ‘battlers’. This chapter will concentrate on settler writing (European, Asian or originated elsewhere), writing by Australians, and Aboriginal writing by indigenous women writers, the latter being the group who have come to publication more recently. It begins by sketching in some background to the settlement of Australia and the development of women’s writing, then moves on to look at Aboriginal women’s writing, particularly the work of Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath Walker), the best known poet, Bobbi Sykes and other poets. It considers Sally Morgan, Glenyse Ward and Ruby Langford, well known writers of semi-fictionalised autobiographies, a popular Aboriginal form of contemporary writing developed from oral storytelling which enables a record of individual and community lives.

Come and experience The lifestyles and Mystical spirituality That is quintessential To the life and existence Of a Traditional Aborigine We’ll also have a real Properly initiated Elder Who will empower you With Dreamtime secrets

(Lisa Bellear Noonuccal, 1996, ‘Souled Out’, p. 43)