An Interview with Jeanine Leane

Abstract

JeanIne leane is the prize-winning author of Purple Threads (U of Queensland P, 2011) and Dark Secrets After Dreaming: AD 1887-1961 (PressPress, 2010). She completed her PhD at the University of Technology, Sydney, and previously held the position of education re- search fellow at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. She currently holds a postdoctoral fellowship at Australian National University, Canberra. Her interest in education, diversity, and Indigenous perspectives is strongly grounded in twenty years of teaching at secondary and tertiary levels. She belongs to the Wiradjuri nation in southwest New South Wales.This interview was conducted via several emails between August and November 2013. At the time of this interview, Wheeler was an assistant professor of English at Paine College in Georgia. She is now an assistant professor of English at Claflin University in South Carolina. Wheeler is the editor of A Companion to Australian Aboriginal Literature (Camden House, 2013).BELINDA WHEELER (BW): Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions for me, Jeanine. We have known one another for several years, and I'm delighted to have the opportunity to interview you.Several of your manuscripts, including Magpies (short story sequence), White Ele- phant (selected short stories), and Dark Secrets After Dreaming: AD 1887-1961 (poetry sequence) were shortlisted for the David Unaipon Award, and Dark Secrets won the 2010 Scanlon Prize for Indigenous Poetry from the Australian Poets' Union. Your collection of short stories, Purple Threads, won the David Unaipon Award, and it was also shortlisted for the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize and the 2012 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards. In ad- dition to these awards and nominations, several leading Australian Aboriginal authors, such as Dr. Anita Heiss, have lavished praise on you and your work. What has this support meant to you? And, how has this support changed your life, your writing, etc.?JEANINE LEANE (JL): Support from other established writers in the field such as Anita Heiss means a great deal to me as a writer and I probably wouldn't continue without it. I write first and foremost as an Aboriginal person (although I also write with the hope that my works will be widely read); so, for me the ultimate sign of success is being read and appreciated by those Aboriginal writers that I admire. This has changed my life because I know I can write now. Before I lacked confidence but was driven by the important stories/histories that I had to tell. Now I know that these stories are not just important to me, but to many people.BW: You are right. There are many people worldwide who are very interested in reading stories by Australian Aboriginal authors and learning more about Australia's Indigenous community, generally. In many of the texts written by Australian Aboriginal authors they overtly discuss topics such as the Stolen Generation, mission life, forced indoctrination, and alcohol abuse. In Purple Threads you discuss many of these issues, but you do so subtly. Can you talk about your decision to discuss these important issues the successful way that you do?JL: Yes. I was raised not to be bitter, twisted, or resentful even in very unfair or un- just situations because it is crippling and stif ling for the individual. I was also raised to believe that the most successful way to tell a story is to let the events/episodes/ people speak for themselves and the reader to not be patronized or lectured to (as this will put off even the most sympathetic reader), but hopefully, through empathy with the storyteller and characters within the reader will see a situation differently and from someone else's point of view.BW: I can see how such an approach would be appreciated by your diverse readership. An- other striking feature of Purple Threads is the layering in of your Elders' rich oral stories with American and British literature, American films and movie actors, Native American figures, Greek philosophers, and world history. …