When I first started thinking about Rachel as a character and who to match her with, I wanted someone who understood her lifestyle as an athlete. AFL is the biggest sport in Victoria, so a footy player hero seemed obvious. The decision to create Jacob as an Indigenous AFL player was an organic choice to reflect the diverse reality of the footy field.
As with any character I write who has an identity that I don’t share, I have some basic ground rules for myself. Firstly, I must be friends with at least two people who share that identity. Secondly, I read a lot of books by #ownvoices writers who share that identity (preferably in romance and in non-fiction, but also wider across other genres). Thirdly, I do a ton of research on stereotypes, so I understand how to avoid harmful tropes. Fourthly, I follow people on Twitter who share my character’s identity, and I listen. I have made mistakes during this journey, and I am grateful to everyone who has helped me grow and learn. And last, the most important parts of this process, is that I pay a sensitivity reader who shares the identity of my character. Their feedback always improves the book.
Together, I believe this amount of research when combined with my personal friendships helps me to approach an identity with empathy, however, I also acknowledge that I don’t have the same deep insight as an #ownvoices writer in that space. I believe that no identity is a monolith and there are many different viewpoints within every identity, and no single character can (or should) attempt to cover off every collective idea. I mean, it’s obvious – if we can have 4,000 romance white billionaire heroes with toxic fathers, and they are all different, then any other way of grouping humans will also have the same breadth of individuality.
Every book I read is on my Goodreads page, while my favourites can be found on the Recommendations page of my website. If you want to start reading some Indigenous #ownvoices, I thoroughly recommend Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu, Claire G Coleman’s Terra Nullius, Growing up Aboriginal in Australia, edited by Dr Anita Heiss, Jeanine Leane’s Purple Threads, and Counting Teller Crow by Ambelin and Ezekiel Kwaymullina. Specific to the Indigenous #ownvoices space, it was difficult to find romances written by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. I’m hoping the inaugural Commercial Fiction Fellowship for First Nations offered by HarperCollins Australia will mean more books for me to read and will encourage more Indigenous writers to write romance.
On social media, IndigenousX is a valuable resource for anyone wanting to learn more about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Their Twitter account was one of the first revolving accounts with a different person running it every week. It’s a fantastic way to listen to many different voices. https://indigenousx.com.au/ or https://twitter.com/IndigenousX
I am bisexual, as is Rachel, however, I still went through the same process of research outlined above and added many nuanced views to my own self-awareness.
Like her siblings, I named Rachel after a famous racehorse—Rachel Alexandra, the 2009 USA Horse of the Year. She won 13 of her 19 starts, including the Kentucky Oaks and Preakness Stakes. She nearly died while foaling her second foal, Rachel’s Valentina (who went on to be a Group One winner) and was retired as broodmare. Her first foal, Jess’s Dream, is a winner and Group One placed. Rachel Alexandra lives at Stonestreet Farm.
Jockeys are self-employed and are paid by the ride. They get a standard sum for every horse they ride, as well as 5% of the prizemoney earned by the horse. For example, if a horse wins a race worth $1 million, the winning horse gets 60% of the prize pool ($600,000) which is then split out with 10% to the trainer, and 5% to the jockey ($30,000), with the remainder going to the owners of the horse. The other 40% of the prize pool is split between the horses who finished second to fifth. In Australia in 2018/19, there were 19,500 races, with just 42 of those worth $1 million or more.
The AFL finals are run through September with the Grand Final on the last weekend in September. The teams who finish in the top eight positions on the competition table play three elimination rounds before the Grand Final. The first round is designed to assist the top four teams—where 1 plays 4 and 2 plays 3, and 5 plays 8 and 6 plays 7. The winners of 1v4 and 2v3 skip a week and progress to the Preliminary Final. The losers go to the semi-final, and play the winners of games 5v8 and 6v7. For a team like Jacob’s, who finished 6th on the table, it means they have to win the 6v7 game, then win the game against the loser of the 2v3 game, then play the winner of the 2v3 game to make it into the Grand Final. In this book, Jacob’s team lost the game against the loser of the 2v3 game to end their season.
In a 2014 article for Breeding & Racing magazine, I wrote: ‘True equality is hard to find. It is an elusive ideal that exists in theory, but one that real life seems to continually find hurdles to prevent. However, horses give us the only sport where men and women compete on a truly equal basis. In both racing and equestrian, riders are deemed competitive equals. There is no ‘weight allowance’ for being a female jockey. And the numbers are now well on their way to being equal too. This season, the number of female apprentice jockeys has tipped over the 50% mark. According to RISA, there are 289 apprentice jockeys in Australia, of which 150 (52%) are female. … Of the 990 jockeys in Australia, 457 are over 30 years old but only 70 (15%) of these are female.’
Sampi’s Mark—the 2004 Mark of the Year went to West Coast Eagles player Ashley Sampi.
Unaarrimin, also known as Johnny Mullagh, was the captain of the first Australian touring cricket team to England in 1868 (more than a decade before the test which gave birth to the Ashes). When he arrived home after a successful tour of England, the Aboriginal Protection Act (1871) prevented him from leaving Victoria again. A precursor to the Federal Government White Australia Policy, the Aboriginal Protection Act was in place in Victoria from 1869 to 1910. A passionate advocate for Indigenous Rights, Unaarrimin played cricket at state level, including playing against England in Victoria in 1879, until his death at age 50. He is buried in Harrow, Victoria.
The first sanctioned marriage between a convict and an Aboriginal person occurred in 1824 when Maria (daughter of Yarramundi) married Robert Lock, an illiterate carpenter who was assigned to her as convict labour. She earned the right to have him placed under her supervision in rare circumstances. The fictional Bassett/Merindah marriage would be unlikely to have been officially recognised.