Stories - Heartlines

"Writing is one of my ways of giving back and passing on. I also hope I can encourage others to find their own voice and adventure."

"My husband described the Centre for Stories as a different kitchen, wherein using a bunch of unknown-before ingredients, I managed to develop a different spread. I too have felt a poignant and palpable shift in the flavour and texture of my poetry."

"I write because I like being creative. There’s something empowering about sharing your point of view with the world in a finished story. I feel most like myself when I’m writing, and while the government job pays the bills, it’s writing I enjoy most."

"It was nice being able to sit down for lunch with other people within the Centre for Stories and to chat about our work and glean some wisdom from others who might have experienced some of the struggles I had."

"I often view my writing as a collection of thoughts that I’ve not wanted to let go. Speaking makes our thinking momentarily real, I guess I like writing because I see it as a more permanent proof of my existence. In short, I write because I’m a hoarder of thoughts."

"My grandmother and my grandfather's Country tells a lot of stories. So that's why I want to take photographs of Millstream, of the Country, we call it 'Ngurra' in language. It's significant to my people. Because they have a way of telling their own story."

"I see writing as a way to honour my lineage and ancestors, and my community here today. Ancestrally, I am from a lineage of orators...I also really love the unique position I'm in as a Diaspora Zambian in this country."

"Growing up knowing I was Aboriginal too and listening to the stories of spirits and dreaming and things we can’t quite understand fully, this all made me feel incredibly connected to the world, other people, and their stories."

"I think I get too stuck in the original shape of things, and then I get distracted with a new idea and forget that you need to play around with the work a bit. And that it’s fun to just flip an idea completely on its head, sometimes the core of the it might just fall out and expose itself if you turn it upside down/chop it up/write it as a big chunky prose poem."