How do you tell an impossible story, one that is almost too big to contain in a single book? A hunter of words might pace around the countryside in an endless quest like Nabokov with his butterfly net to get closer to the real thing, but writers of stories know that some distances are too great and might never be crossed, and will remain a mystery if the rare thing does not want to be caught, does not want to give up all of its secrets.
In all honesty, an Aboriginal writer would admit to being hardpressed to understand all the nuances and depths of differences, or what is really in the heart of another countryman’s or countrywoman’s song, the deep inner spirit of their traditional country, and its full significance in our world. You cannot. Too much has happened. Too much about this country is never resolved, and this is also what has shaped us. And we learn to guard what we know too much.
