Interview with Bonita Mason, writer/lecturer, author of Anencephaly
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Bonita Mason is a WA-based writer who has worked for Aboriginal organisations and is a part-time journalism lecturer. Enrolled in a Master of Arts at UTS, Bonita was also the recipient of a Walkley award and the George Munster award for freelance journalism in 1997.
Bonita says that like other writers, personal experiences move her to tell stories, because 'that's what we do.'
Her story Anencephaly, which was based on her friend's experience of pregnancy and birth, was featured in the 2007 UTS Writers' Anthology.
Writer/lecturer Bonita Mason
HSS: What made you want to tell this story?
Bonita: I think it's a kind of story that doesn't very often get told, stories of these kinds of births, where a deformed baby will die at birth or soon after, but also stories about the kind of relationship I had with the young mother, a young Aboriginal woman. I got asked this question by the young mother - 'Why do you want to write this?' and I said what I've just said but also, 'Because I'm a writer and that's what we do.'
It's like the story somehow gets inside you and that's how you get it out, if you're a writer. So on lots of different levels, in lots of different ways, the story was just there, waiting to be written. There were these strong personal reasons why I wanted to write the story, and because I'm a writer, but also because I hadn't read many stories that actually talk about that experience in that way. I was also interested in the issue of culture, how different people experience things differently. How that hospital was incredibly caring and well-intentioned but they weren't always appropriate for Monique (the pseudonym for Bonita's friend and the protagonist in Anencephaly). So it was interesting to see an institution try its best in that way, but actually they still couldn't really meet her where she needed to be met.
HSS: Perhaps it's one of those times where it is hard to accommodate someone unless you've experienced what they're going through and even then it is different for everyone...
Bonita: That's another thing about writing a story like that - it's a vicarious way of experiencing it, of actually understanding what that experience might be like for someone. And that's just one version of it - it's not like everybody's going to have the same experience of that particular situation.
But it just felt like an important story to tell. And a story that I could tell. It's clearly from my point of view and that's the only way I could do it - but also I did my best not to assume I could tell what was going on for the young mother, but to just observe her experience and the relationship between her and the hospital and speak to that as well.
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