My Town Magazine, Discover Queensland Edition 8th September 2014 Edition 41 | Page 66
Unfolding myths at Sandcliffe
by Jackie Smith
Writers Festival
Authors inspire writers both young and old to pick up a pen and find
their voice at this year’s Sandcliffe Writers Festival.
Fellow David Unaipon award winners, Dr “Aunty Ruth” Hegarty and
Samuel Wagan Watson attended the second annual Sandcliffe Writers
Festival with one message in mind: writers must write, and it’s never
too late to start.
Aunty Ruth Hegarty wrote Is That You Ruthie?, the story of her early
life as a dormitory girl in Cherbourg, at the age of 70 and shows no
sign of slowing down. Recently awarded an honorary doctorate from
ACU for her work in the community and in literature, Aunty Ruth is
passionate about reading and writing. In her frequent visits to schools
and local community groups, she stresses the importance of writing
your story down for the next generation.
Now 85 years old and with only a fourth grade education, Aunty Ruth
is the proud author of four books, including a debut novel, Suffer the
Children. Writing has become her life, she admits, and she couldn’t be
happier. ‘I can’t go to sleep without things flying through my head,’ she
laughs.
It is a sentiment which acclaimed poet, Samuel Wagan Watson echoes.
He found inspiration in his daily journal when the Brisbane Writers
Festival approached him to write an opera in 2004. ‘I conceived the
idea in my journal and worked it over and over,’ he says.
Jackie Smith with poet Samuel Wagan Watson
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Watson will often turn to the quirky or unusual when struggling with
a concept, like workshopping the infamous Coco Pops slogan with a
group of young Tiwi Island residents who had limited access to television in his role as an Indigenous Literacy Foundation ambassador, or
trying to re-create ghost’s blood with dry ice and red food colouring
in a cocktail glass for his own writing. He concedes that such techniques may not be for everyone, but as Rumi, a 10th century warriorturned-monk Watson often likes to quote, once said, ‘Don’t be satisfied
with the stories that come before you. Unfold your own myth!’