How do you tell an impossible story, one that might be almost too big to contain in a single book?
- Alexis Wright, Tracker, 2017, p. 1.
In 2018 Natalie Harkin, Narungga poet and Flinders Research Fellow, was entrusted with a significant archive by Elizabeth 'Betty' Fisher, OAM, on the life and work of her good friend, the late Kaurna, Ngadjuri, Narungga Elder Aunty Gladys Elphick, MBE.
The gift of the collection came with an explicit request to complete Aunty Glad's book which they commenced in 1964. Betty’s archive included access to reel-to-reel recordings of Aunty Glad and other prominent Aboriginal women who established the Council of Aboriginal Women in South Australia (CAWSA) in 1965.
Please join Associate Professor Harkin as she talks to her work documented in the paper entitled, ‘A Story of Friendship: Betty Fisher and the Collective Living-Legacy of Aunty Gladys Elphick and the Council of Aboriginal Women in South Australia’, which addresses the significant challenges and cultural responsibilities involved in honouring the living-legacy archive of one person, Aunty Glad, as a community-owned story with extensive claim and investment.
The aforementioned paper considers Alexis Wright's opening question, as a necessary provocation that underpins 'archival-poetics' as a mode of collective storytelling used to re-frame biography and historical research. The loyal friendship between Betty Fisher and Aunty Glad remains the constant heartbeat to this work.
Date & Time
Thursday 26th October
Oration: 6pm to 7pm followed by light refreshments until 8pm.
Location
Alere Function Centre, Bedford Park.
