Writing from the edge: writing what was never meant to be written

Bradley explores the tensions that exist in regards to his long-term collaborations with Indigenous Australians; the expectations of the Yanyuwa community in regards to what he has come to know and how this knowledge translates into academic life. He reflects on the tensions inherent in such an epistemic project, problematizing the flattening tendencies of western education and addressing the challenges that come with contest between various understandings and logics. Writing through his relationships with Yanyuwa he reflects on translatability, working from a culture that values orality as an important way of knowing. Throughout this chapter he asks, what happens when oral traditions are written down? What is lost? What is sustained? And who is the audience for the texts we create?.