About me

"When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be." - Lao Tse

My story

I am driven to achieve and meaningfully contribute towards social impact; whether through action or education, to help people. I recognise I need to stop being quiet out of fear in order to elevate not just my voice, but also amplify the voices and experiences of others who may not otherwise have the opportunity, platform or readiness to do so for themselves. I want to allow myself to be seen and heard and express myself for healing and recognise my stories could help others and perhaps, one day, be compelling enough to plant seeds for action.
Nose and lips with pink lipstick, breaking through a pink piece of paper. Photograph by Ian Dooley
Adele Aria. Author and owner of Adele Purrsisted Website and content.
I have “always wanted to be a writer” but was told that it wasn’t a safe nor viable aspiration. I came to accept and feel this way too. I need to defy this. I look back now and I question if, instead I had found and developed more “acceptable” ways to channel my urges to write. Now, I commit myself to breaking away from writing exclusively “for others”, in ways that the dominant culture tells us is acceptable. I want to allow My Voice to be present and available. I want to support others to see that their voices are valid and valuable. I am committed to being a part of a brighter future for all.

Adele: A Bookworm

My reading had, for a long time, been strongly dominated by non-fiction. I realised this was very much influenced by my work, studies, and human rights advocacy and project commitments and I am trying to balance my reading differently nowadays.

Some of my reading choices are driven by a desire to revisit stories I’ve read before to see how my perspective and experience of them change as I am changing. My reading list will often include such a trip to an old haunt, not necessarily a favourite, and not necessarily one from a particularly long time ago.

  • After Australia, anthology edited by Michael Mohammed Ahmad
  • You Belong Here, by Laurie Steed
  • The Historian’s Daughter, by Rashida Murphy
  • The Paper Menagerie, by Ken Liu
  • The Found and the Lost, by Ursula K. Le Guin
  • Wormwood, by Poppy Z. Brite
  • The Three-Body Problem, by Liu Ci Xin
  • Stories of Your Life and Others, by Ted Chiang
  • Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances, by Neil Gaiman
  • Children of Virtue and Vegeance, by Tomi Adeyemi
  • + Latest issues of Overland, Westerly, Australian Book Review, Meanjin
  • Trauma and Recovery, by Judith Herman
  • How to Be an AntiRacist, by Ibram X. Kendi
  • Invisible Women: Exposing data bias in a world designed for men, by Caroline Criado Perez
  • when things fall apart, by pema chodron
  • Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott
  • See What You Made Me Do, by Jess Hill
  • The Sense of Style, by Steven Pinker
  • Chaos Protocols, by Gordon White
  • all about love: new visions, by bell hooks
  • The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma, by Bessel van der Kolk
  • Growing up Aboriginal in Australia, edited by Anita Heiss
  • No Friends But the Mountains, by Behrouz Boochani
  • Imperfect, by Lee Kofman
  • Always Another Country: A Memoir of Exile and Home, by Sisonke Msimang
  • Dark Emu, by Bruce Pascoe
  • Chasing the Scream, by Johann Hari
  • Stop Caretaking the Borderline or Narcissist, by Margalis Fjelstad
  • Disfigured, by Amanda LeDuc
  • No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us, by Rachel Louise Snyder
  • Permanent Resident, by Roanna Gonsalves
  • Growing Up Asian in Australia, edited by Alice Pung
  • Tao Te Ching, translation by Ursula K. Le Guin
  • On Writing Well, by William Zinsser
  • Salt: Selected Stories and Essays, by Bruce Pascoe
  • The Yield, by Tara June Winch
  • The Dictionary of Lost Words, by Pip Williams
  • The will to change, by bell hooks
  • Circe, by Madeline Miller
  • Children of Blood and Bone, by Tomi Adeyemi
  • Australia Day, by Stan Grant
  • Finding the Heart of the Nation: The Journey of the Uluru Statement Towards Voice, Treaty and Truth, by Thomas Mayor
  • Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, by Reni Eddo-Lodge
  • The Tattooist of Auschwitz, by Heather Morris
  • The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
  • Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope, by bell hooks
  • Witches, Sluts, Feminists, by Kristen J. Sollee
  • American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
  • Growing Up Queer in Australia, edited by Benjamin Law (published on Singapore Review of Books)
  • Lost Connections, by Johann Hari
Books arranged to create a circular window with hands holding a book in the middle. Photograph by Allie Smith

Creating in the age of a Global Pandemic

As many of you are probably increasingly aware and facing in a personal way, our global community is rapidly evolving in response to the challenges represented by COVID-19. Many of my typical avenues for paid work have greatly diminished or have become high-risk for me, as someone living with chronic illness and disability.

If you find any of my creations, be they words, artforms, or podcasts, to be meaningful, valuable, or in some way helpful, please consider making a donation.

Please also consider sharing my articles, posts, and podcasts (with attribution) because spreading the word is also a great way to support my work. Thank you for visiting and thank you for your time.

Two hands holding a papercut heart. Image by Kelly Sikkema
Paypal Adele Aria
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Acknowledgements and Gratitude

Black dog holding a greeting card with the words Thank You! Photograph by Howard Riminton

Podcast

Thank you to Oli at Odd Voiceovers for the audio engineering assistance in the production of the podcast.

WebSite

Thank you to Monolith Industries, Sebastian Frost, Matthew Boyle, and Nathan Baxter, for your support of this website and my art.

Images

Images in the Gallery portion are my own and all rights are reserved.

Other images throughout the site are sourced from Unsplash.com and image attribute information contains details of the contributing photographer or creative entity.