Looking for diversity – we could start at home.

The great thing about the internet is being hooked into the global speculative fiction community.  It has been particularly good for enabling me to read speculative fiction from non western and non Anglophone backgrounds.  But it occurred to me earlier in the year, that the writers who I had let down, who I had left out in my speculative fiction reviewing were the indigenous storytellers who chose speculative fiction as an avenue in my own country.

So it was exciting to learn that Ambelin Kwaymullina was going to be the local guest of honour at the 53rd Annual Science Fiction convention.  I had heard her in our Galactic Chat interview ( conducted by Alex Pierce)  and was expecting a fairly good speech.

She didn’t disappoint, giving a speech that was honest and rousing.  Folks were keen to have chance to read the content of that speech again, as with all good speeches, you can’t take everything in at once. When asked at the end of the speech if it would be posted online, Ambelin said that most of it was being reworked as a written article and I believe that you will find it here as part of the Wheeler dailies:

Walking Many Worlds: Aboriginal Storytelling and Writing for the Young

And true to her word she also compiled a reading list of the people and works that she mentioned in that same speech.  The kind folk at Continuum have posted it at the website here.

So perhaps when next looking for something to read you could check out our home grown diversity.

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