In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Gabriella chats with Sarah George, who wrote GAMU: The Dreamtime Stories, Life and Feelings of Big Bill Neidjie. Known as Kakadu Man, Aboriginal elder Big Bill was instrumental in the establishment of the World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park and he was deeply committed to preserving his land, culture and mother tongue.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:

• You’ll meet Indigenous elder Big Bill Neidjie
• The role of Dreamtime stories in Aboriginal spirituality and culture
• Why Big Bill wanted Dreamtime stories recorded and shared for future generations of Indigenous people.
• Why it is crucial for non-Indigenous people to understand the cultural and spiritual significance of Dreamtime stories.
• The meaning of the Indigenous word GAMU and why Big Bill chose this title for his book.
• Why Sarah structured GAMU around 240 photographically illustrated pages of Big Bill’s Dreamtime stories, personal history, and his thoughts and feelings regarding problems faced by Aboriginal communities.

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In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Ann-Marie Priest chats with Gabriella about the choices she made while writing her award-winning biography My Tongue Is My Own. A Life of Gwen Harwood, the first biography of Gwen Harwood, one of Australia’s most distinctive poets. My Tongue Is My Own follows Gwen from her childhood in 1920s Brisbane, to her final years in Hobart in the 1990s.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:

• Why Ann-Marie Priest felt inspired to write Gwen Harwood’s biography.
• The meaning of the book’s title: My Tongue is my Own.
• How Ann-Marie chose to present Harwood’s many conflicting personas and contradictions.
• How Ann-Marie represented the historical, social and cultural context in which Harwood struggled to forge a career as a poet.
• How Ann-Marie portrayed Harwood’s behaviour as a chameleon and a rebel, one who adopted several pseudonyms and staged several literary hoaxes to highlight entrenched discrimination against female poets.
• The ethical decisions Ann-Marie made when deciding whether to reveal secrets and sensitive information contained in previously unpublished letters.
• How Ann-Marie balanced Harwood’s professional, personal and interior lives.
• The extent to which Ann-Marie believes she captured the truth of her subject.
• The literary devices Ann-Marie employed to craft compelling narrative.
• How Ann-Marie reconciled Harwood’s refusal to be bound by conventions, yet at the same time, lived a conventional life as a wife and mother to four children.
• How Ann-Marie balanced Harwood’s human story with literary criticism.

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In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, the historian Mark McKenna chats with Gabriella about the choices he made while writing An Eye for Eternity, the biography of Australia’s legendary historian, Manning Clark.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:

• The meaning behind the book’s title: An Eye for Eternity.

• How Mark McKenna navigated Manning Clark’s painstakingly curated archive of letters and diaries, which included detailed notes and instructions for Clark’s future biographers.

• Mark’s meticulous research strategy and how he narrowed the biographical scope given the avalanche of primary sources he accessed.

• How Mark reconciled conflicting views of Clark.

• Why Mark included details of Clark’s adulterous behaviour.

• What ethical choices Mark made about information to include, emphasise and suppress given the potential effects of these revelations on Clark’s living children and grandchildren.

• Why Mark made Dymphna Clark, Manning’s loyal wife, a central character in An Eye for Eternity and why he represented her point of view so comprehensively.

• The extent to which Mark was able to capture the truth of his subject versus the version of the truth Clark wanted him to represent.

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