Wow.
In response to a question from fjm , I have been attempting to find out about Australian Aboriginal sci-fi or fantasy writers, existence of.
After much web searching, consulting with a university creative writing and sci-fi literature lecturer, as well as some Australian writers and fans, I have come up with - ta da! - exactly nothing. That is, no support for the hypothesis for the existence of Aboriginal writers of sci-fi or fantasy literature, at this point in time, given the research conducted.
This surprises me. It's not something I had thought of before, but I can see it. Given that I know there are many Aboriginal writers, and that story/literature/narrative is an important aspect of Aboriginal cultures, this makes me think of a couple of possibilities.
Maybe the focus of Aboriginal writing is on social conditions or Aboriginal styles of writing and art, which do not involve science fiction or fantasy as we know it.
Maybe being an Aboriginal writer is difficult enough for social reasons and so on, and perhaps if writers are writing genre fiction they do not want disadvantage and discrimination so they do not identify as Aboriginal. (Identifying as Aboriginal can be an advantage when writing about cultural stuff - from my perspective about non-Aboriginal, there does seem to be support, funding and publicity for Aboriginal artists to create work about Aboriginal and related social conditions, as well as 'literary' fiction).
Maybe people who are into sci-fi and/or fantasy are not people who identify themselves racially/culturally as much as writers of 'general' or 'literary' fiction - this hypothesis might relate to the nature of people who create these imaginative kinds of worlds. I wonder...
It would be interesting to hear from anyone who has opinion or experience about this.
After much web searching, consulting with a university creative writing and sci-fi literature lecturer, as well as some Australian writers and fans, I have come up with - ta da! - exactly nothing. That is, no support for the hypothesis for the existence of Aboriginal writers of sci-fi or fantasy literature, at this point in time, given the research conducted.
This surprises me. It's not something I had thought of before, but I can see it. Given that I know there are many Aboriginal writers, and that story/literature/narrative is an important aspect of Aboriginal cultures, this makes me think of a couple of possibilities.
Maybe the focus of Aboriginal writing is on social conditions or Aboriginal styles of writing and art, which do not involve science fiction or fantasy as we know it.
Maybe being an Aboriginal writer is difficult enough for social reasons and so on, and perhaps if writers are writing genre fiction they do not want disadvantage and discrimination so they do not identify as Aboriginal. (Identifying as Aboriginal can be an advantage when writing about cultural stuff - from my perspective about non-Aboriginal, there does seem to be support, funding and publicity for Aboriginal artists to create work about Aboriginal and related social conditions, as well as 'literary' fiction).
Maybe people who are into sci-fi and/or fantasy are not people who identify themselves racially/culturally as much as writers of 'general' or 'literary' fiction - this hypothesis might relate to the nature of people who create these imaginative kinds of worlds. I wonder...
It would be interesting to hear from anyone who has opinion or experience about this.