What inspired you to write Sunbirds?

A few years ago, my cousin introduced me to a fellow whose Indonesian-Dutch father had been rushed out of the Dutch East Indies during WWII by his own father, who was a Dutch pilot, and I almost immediately had the idea of writing a character who must choose between two loved ones to evacuate. Also, of course, my father is Chinese-Indonesian, and writing about the cross-cultural world of the colonial period in Indonesia was of immense interest and joy to me. 

What were the most challenging and enlightening aspects of writing your book?

It’s always challenging to write about past atrocities or injustices without being heavy handed. Therefore I try to write those aspects from the personal point of view of the character, so that is as revelatory and personal to them, as it might be to the reader. For instance, Anna only really sees the harsh colonial context of a family photo and other photos when she contemplates them in the company of a native Indonesian man. Also, Anna is reading about the murder of another Eurasian woman, and while she feels sympathetic and horrified, she is also a witness to others’ disdain for the victim’s lot. I had this idea when reading about the place of Eurasian women in the Dutch East Indies by the academic Tineke Hellwig, who outlines the real murder case of a Eurasian woman in Batavia in the 1920s.  

In what ways do you think the characters in Sunbirds might be empowering figures for women and young girls?

I hope that Diah demonstrates how some women, despite cultural or gendered restraints, can use their own strength and determination to move forward within the context of their own lives. I want my characters to challenge in what way certain women in the past were represented negatively or elided all together – I think there is empowerment in women re-telling and holding those stories. Also, despite my characters finding their own versions of empowerment, historical fiction that highlights past restraints on women is a good reminder of what we do not want to see returned in our lifetime. Historical fiction is great in showing what has changed, but also what things really haven’t changed sufficiently.

How do you think literature helps to shape our understanding of ourselves and others?

Literature shapes how readers see the world and, especially in the past, that included very racist and sexist portrayals of certain people. So I feel it’s possible for literature to re-shape how we see the world too, return our knowledge or understanding of certain people or situations to something more accurate, hopefully with the sense of what Tony Birch terms as ‘an ethical imagination’ (‘Past Tense, History: what is it good for?’ Write Around the Murray). Also, what I realised when writing this novel, and what I tried to convey, is that all stories are merely versions. There will be others.  

What was the most recent book you’ve read about women or girls that moved you?

I have read two books recently that have moved me in different ways: 

I was enormously stirred by Emily Maguire’s Rapture, which is about Agnes, a woman of immense strength of faith and courage; and Melanie Cheng’s beautiful The Burrow, in which Amy, a mother, depicts a quieter, compassionate strength.