2 book-making projects in Australia and Mexico playing a similar tune
In 2008 I collaborated with Rachel Breunlin from the Neighborhood Story Project (based in New Orleans, Louisiana USA) and Jalaris Aboriginal Corporation (based in Derby, Western Australia) on a collaborative writing and photography project which resulted in the book Singing Out – Aboriginal Ladies Stories of the North West Kimberley.
Singing Out book cover
The project aimed at documenting and sharing the diverse stories of Aboriginal women’s experiences of education and learning using writing, interviewing and photography, and forms part of the community-based research on issues for Indigenous kids and families in Derby on which Jalaris and I have been collaborating for many years.
Click here to read more about Singing Out, including links to a podcast of readings from the book launch and some pages from the book… You can also go here, to Side by Side Community Project Consulting website to read more generally about what Jalaris Aboriginal Corporation is up to…
We are all pretty proud of Singing Out – its a great read and a beautiful object, and we think (not wanting to be too modest!) that its a good contribution to literature in and about the Kimberley region of Australia, as well as a document of womens stories that rarely get much public space.
Imagine my surprise and pleasure when wandering through a bookshop in San Cristobal de las Casas (1/2 the world away from the Kimberley) and I came across a book, almost the same size and shape as Singing Out, of womens stories here in Chiapas!
Para Que Tu Sepas - libro
Para Que Tu Sepas, or So That You Know is a book made with the support of Melel Xojobal (their site is in Spanish, click here for some info in English), a San Cristobal de las Casas (Chiapas, Mexico) based organisation that provides support in health, education and advocacy to kids who live or work on the streets of San Cristobal and their families. Para Que Tu Sepas was a project of women writing about their lives and experiences to their own children, published originally in 2006, with a second edition including English translation published in 2008.
It is extremely interesting to see the parallels between the two projects, from the similar community development and advocacy goals that the making of the two books had; the similar methods and goals of Jalaris Aboriginal Corporation and Melel Xojobal; the personal voice and images, including photographs and hand drawn images from the authors that are included in each book; right down to the format and layout of both books.
In the hope that we might be able to facilitate some dialogue between writers from each book and their supporting organisations, we are working on translating sections of Singing Out into Spanish (thanks to Isabel Haviland, our translator, and yes, another talented Haviland sister!) If anything comes of this exchange possibility I’ll post more down the track…