Smyth, Elizabeth (2026) Ancient knowledge in current times: The importance of oral testimony in the age of AI. In: [Association for the Study of Australian Literature]. p. 89. From: ASAL 2026 Conference Australian Literature in the Digital Age, 29 Jun - 3 Jul 2025, Brisbane, Australia.

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Abstract

Indigenous Australians maintain strong and complex connections with Country that historically (and at times recently) have been misunderstood, miscommunicated or entirely omitted by settler-colonial writers. Despite an increase in self-authored First Nations literature and criticism, the voices of some identity groups remain under-represented. In this session, I argue that the reach of Indigenous voices into Australian literary studies can be assisted by scholarship that draws on oral testimony. This approach is crucial, I argue, to ensuring that Indigenous groups throughout Australia are empowered to counter AI narratives that perpetuate past errors or disseminate machine-generated inventions. Two current examples will be presented to demonstrate how oral narratives by Indigenous people are fundamental to enriching understandings of settler-colonial literature. The first centres on a conversation with Mbabaram Elder and ethnobotanist, Gerry Turpin, about Welsh migrant writing in John Naish’s The Cruel Field (1962). The second is based on oral accounts provided by Yadhaigana Elder, Ted Wymarra, to anthropologist Nonie Sharp about author Jack McLaren. Melbourne-born and of Scottish heritage, McLaren established a coconut plantation at Utingu/Simpson Bay, Cape York, over a period of 8 years from 1911, an experience recorded in My Crowded Solitude (1926). McLaren’s Aboriginal grandson, Ted Wymarra’s oral history of McLaren and the Cape York plantation complicates common understandings of McLaren as a racist travel writer. In My Crowded Solitude, McLaren negotiated, considered and documented Yadhaigana land rights. The resistance and independence of Aboriginal people depicted offers a vital positive counterbalance to the devastating murders of Aboriginal people, notably by Frank Jardine, leading up to and during that time.

Item ID:	92871
Item Type:	Conference Item (Abstract / Summary)
Keywords:	Gerry Turpin, ethnobotany, John Naish, Jack McLaren, Indigenous, First Nations
Copyright Information:	© 2026 Association for the Study of Australian Literature.
Additional Information:	This paper was co-presented with JCU-affiliated resarcher, Margaret Wymarra.
Date Deposited:	14 Aug 2026 02:25
FoR Codes:	47 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE > 4705 Literary studies > 470502 Australian literature (excl. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander literature) @ 50% 45 INDIGENOUS STUDIES > 4501 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, language and history > 450103 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural history @ 50%
SEO Codes:	21 INDIGENOUS > 2104 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage and culture > 210402 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander connection to land and environment @ 50% 13 CULTURE AND SOCIETY > 1302 Communication > 130203 Literature @ 50%
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