Byron Writers Festival is thrilled to present Robyn Davidson, author of the international bestseller Tracks, for an intimate conversation with Zacharey Jane about her memoir Unfinished Woman.
Hailed as ‘an absorbing record of human endeavour and courage’ Unfinished Woman is an unforgettable investigation of time and memory, and a powerful interrogation of how we can live with, and find beauty, in the uncertainty and strangeness of being. Here’s a glimpse into who Robyn is.
You’ve mentioned previously that you didn’t want to write a memoir. What changed to inspire you to share your life story?
I did not want to write about my life at all. The book began in fits and starts, as an investigation of my mother, who was obliterated from my memory. She died when I was little, but when I approached the age she was when it happened, she started to return to me, little wisps of memory, which began as memories of music. So I had to return to my own past. The content of the book is not so much ‘my life story’, as the search for the remains and traces of my mother in me. In my fate.
Unfinished Woman is a powerful title. What’s the meaning behind these two words?
Well, it’s nicely ambiguous. It is me, or my mother, or both of us who are unfinished? Nothing concludes in a tidy way, all of our pasts are lost and unfinished and infinitely interpretable.
How did writing this memoir compare to writing your other works? Did you come across any challenges or rewards that you haven’t experienced before?
This is the most challenging thing I’ve ever written. For reasons of structure, tone, the fallibility of memory, and the moral aspects of writing about other people. Memoir is a really slippery genre. It has unique challenges. You have to struggle with the ego all the time, to try to get behind it, to find something true.
Many people will know you from Tracks, your epic journey across the Australian Outback with five camels and a dog. What was it that called you to the deserts of the Northern Territory and Western Australia?
I knew that I needed to do something big and challenging, in order to make an individual of myself, to pull together the unprepossessing bits of a rather unformed girl. It was self-proving in a way, and a very private gesture. Choosing the desert was an instinctive thing. And what an exquisite desert. Not at all the harsh emptiness of, say, the Sahara. But a place that brings you into it, and looks after you if you know its rules.
You have travelled extensively and have dedicated your life to exploration. What does exploration mean to you and how has it shaped you into the woman you are today?
I don’t see myself as an explorer, except in the metaphorical sense. By that I mean, I am intensely curious about the world and time I live in, and the relationship between my own little bit of consciousness, and the vast realities that other minds make collectively. I always travelled to try to understand other ways of thinking and being. To immerse myself in difference, in order to test my own prejudices.
In Unfinished Woman, you investigate how we, as humans, can learn to be ‘at home everywhere’. How has the meaning of ‘home’ changed for you over the years and what, if anything, has brought you home within yourself?
I am seldom at home within myself. It is an aspiration, rather than a constant reality. Sometimes it happens that I’m entirely at peace in the present moment, which is the only home any of us have. I am grateful to have been born in Australia, with all the privileges and ease that accident has given me. And I probably feel most ‘at home’ when I am in the Australian bush. But India feels, or rather felt, like a home to me too. As did London for a while. Again, being at home everywhere is an aspiration. A philosophical goal.
What advice would you give to someone who is looking to set off on a solo trip to get to know themselves on a deeper level?
I wouldn’t presume to give any advice. If they wish to do it, they will find a way. I suppose I would say not to expect comfort, or ’success’ or revelation. But possibly to discover all kinds of hidden abilities you didn’t know you had.
Join Davidson as she discusses her brave and revealing memoir, which asks the eternal question: how do we learn to be ‘at home everywhere’? Don’t miss this special event with one of the most adventurous writers in Australian literature. Friday, 8 December, 6pm at Byron Theatre. Bookings essential via byronwritersfestival.com/whats-on.
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