There are stories and characters from varying cultures in this novel. I’d like to acknowledge the generous friends, experiences, and resources I consulted, drew from and used to write them.
In the opening chapter the line, life is lived forward, but only understood backward, was inspired by the work of Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard.
Candy’s favourite fairytale, about a queen who waits for so long for her lover to return to her that she turns into the orchid on her gown, was inspired by the Filipino fairytale, The Legend of Waling-Waling.
The Indian stories of Sita and Draupadi that one of the Flowers shares with Alice were shared with me by Tanmay Barhale.
The story of the king’s daughter who always wore the same shade of blue was inspired by Alice Roosevelt Longworth, daughter of Theodore Roosevelt, who always wore the same pale tint of azure, and was known for never abiding by the rules of her society.
The Bulgarian fairytale Oggi refers to in his letter to Alice, about the wolf and fox, was inspired by a version of the Bulgarian folktale, The Sick and the Healthy, which was translated and shared with me by Iva Boneva.
Lulu’s stories of monarch butterflies, fire warriors and daughters of the sun were inspired by Mexican tales shared with me by Viridiana Alfonso-Lara.
It was important to me that I fictionalised the central Australian settings Alice visits, lives and works in because to set those parts of this novel in existing places would be telling stories that aren’t mine to tell. I consulted Ali Cobby Eckermann, Yankunytjatjara woman and internationally acclaimed poet, about creating such settings. She agreed that it was a wise thing to do.
Kililpitjara, or Earnshaw Crater, and everything to do with it – its name, its story, its landscape – is fictional. The place name Kililpitjara is fictional in the sense that I made it up, but the Pitjantjatjara I used to create it, and that is used throughout the novel, is the language spoken by Anangu. Kililpi (noun), means star. Tjara (noun), means some or part of a larger group or thing. Basic translation of the combination in English is belonging to stars. The main reference text I used was the IAD Press Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara to English Dictionary.
To create a sense of Kililpitjara’s geological structure I was inspired by images of Kandimalal (Wolfe Creek Crater) and Tnorala (Gosse Bluff) but its enormity, energy, and presence has been informed by my experience living in the central desert.
In 2016 I met with Dr John Goldsmith in Perth, who talked me through his first-hand experiences of Kandimalal and photographing western desert stars. Dr Goldsmith was also a great help in enlightening me to the concentric circles of stars and craters, and the very likelihood of a patch of desert peas growing in the formation I have described.
Kililpitjara’s creation story was inspired by the public Arrernte creation story of Tnorala, the crater where a baby fell from its wooden carrier in the stars to the earth, and its parents in the sky who search for it eternally.
The returned sorry flowers and accompanying letters from tourists that Ruby shows Alice are inspired by the ‘sorry rocks’ received by park staff every day at Uluru, sent by guilty tourists around the world.
Ruby’s poem, Seeds, is written by Ali Cobby Eckermann, who gave me full permission to use it in this context. While I lived in the desert I had the pleasure of meeting and knowing many women like Ruby. They shared their stories and their spirits with me, which taught me lessons I hadn’t learned anywhere else. Australia has a black history. It always was and always will be Aboriginal land.