Inscribing Difference and Resistance. Indigenous Women’s Personal Non-fiction and Life Writing in Australia and North America

Abstract

The making of this book has been long overdue. Re-visiting the manuscript after several years proved to be a challenge as well as an exercise in resilience. Both places and people have shaped and contributed to the research and a way of thinking that informs my writing in the book. I am indebted to several fellowships provided by the Australian Government: Endeavour Research Fellowship (2006), Endeavour European Fellowship (2011), and Group of Eight Fellowship (2008) allowed me to spend considerable research time in Australia; John F. Kennedy Institute Library Research Grants offered a quiet space and excellent North American book collections, as did the UBC library in Vancouver, Canada, part of the ICCS scholarship program for doctoral students in 2004. My home institution, Masaryk University, Faculty of Arts, and the Department of English and American Studies have also contributed to funding my research trips overseas through various smaller grants. I am grateful to the long-term Department Head, Jeffrey A. Vanderziel, who has always shown understanding and tolerance of my longer absences in the Department. Sydney has become my second home while in Australia and it is one of the few places that keeps growing on me. It is a privilege to be able to travel internationally and acquaint myself, more intimately and in an un-touristy capacity, with a place that is not my own-the city, the neighborhoods, the streets, the local pubs, shops, bookstores and beaches-and develop a sense of … well, comfort of fitting in, if not entirely belonging. I am thankful to people who made me feel less of a stranger, both geographically and intellectually, on these distant shores: Anne Brewster, for being such a generous mentor and for offering a friendship that is very dear to me; to