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When my father and his brother got into a fight when they were young, my grandfather had them sit down to write on a piece of paper what the fight was about. The explanations couldnÙt have been further apart from one another. Whether it is a news article, magazine piece or memoir, we ask the question, whose story is it, anyway?
When I spent a month in
Alice Springs ,
Australia , I was able to see several different sides to the complex issues of Aboriginal oral tradition and history. One day I spent on a tour through an Aboriginal community promoting education, social change and advancement. A day later, an elder Aboriginal man took me on the back side of the community and showed me where much abuse and starvation had taken place.
Like looking through a filter at the same object, everyone who looks through a kaleidoscope will see something different. As writers, we have the gift to pull out these perspectives and piece them together, weaving different colors of thread to form a complex tapestry.
Who creates the story? Is it the characters, whoever vivid or abstract, the writer, weaving a string of words together, or the readerÙs engagement? Each plays a part in finding the angle, the slice of life that creates a different slice of truth.
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