If you (anyone) go looking for mines you'll find them. I wouldn't just drag any indigenous person in off the train/street/phonebook and assume they're full of mystic knowledge. I would look for someone prepared to teach us something specific (yes ancient folklore - why not?), and I like the idea of it coming from the horse's mouth, so to speak. A passionate horse, even. Plenty of authors already "steal" lore for spec fic. I'd really like to hear a response from the people of that culture, by which I mean a representative who *identifies themselves* as a keeper and teacher of that lore.

It can't be less relevant to spec fic than the (admittedly lots of fun) stripper lessons we had a couple of years ago!

Man, I hate minefields. I bet I just dug myself into a hole. Peace :-)

BTW I learned recently that Cathy Freeman has both English and Chinese ancestry. For reasons I find difficult to identify I thought this was fabulous.