About
Josephine Emery spent her earliest years on a coconut plantation on the north coast of the tropical island of New Guinea. Then her parents resettled on an isolated farm on the southeast coast of South Australia. It was here that she first knew, without a doubt, that she was a girl and realised that everyone else thought she was a boy.
If she had been born and raised in some cultures, this dilemma would have been celebrated. But postwar Australia was not one of those. Whilst she wrestled with the dilemma she also had to grow up. This took her a long time. She tried out being a gold miner, a construction worker, a forest worker: always posing as male. But she became a writer of stories, novels and movies. She ran a screenwriting department and a government literature development unit. She used her creativity in the service of business.
She discovered her rich inner world and the blessings of being born ‘twin-souled’. She wanted to bring what she had gained through resolving her dilemma to the world. For it is a rare privilege to have walked this earth as two quite different people: man and woman. It is a rare privilege to give up everything you have in order to gain the one thing you really need.
When Martin Luther faced the wrath of his church for speaking his truth, he is quoted as replying, “Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me. Amen.” Those words helped Josephine as she stood alone for her truth. They still do. As do TS Eliot’s final words in The Four Quartets.
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
