The structural recipe calls for opening with a single most-cited work, but the FACTS list contains no named work — no title, no recording, no film. What the facts do confirm is that James Oswald Little was an Australian Aboriginal musician and actor, and those facts will carry the opening forward as best they can.

James Oswald Little was born on 1 March 1937 on the Cummeragunja Reserve. He worked as a musician and as an actor, with his acting work extending to film. An Australian citizen who worked in the English language, he built a career that eventually drew formal recognition at the highest levels of public life in Australia.

That recognition took two distinct forms. Little was named an Australian National Living Treasure, and he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia — honours that placed him among a small number of people the country chose to single out in this way. He died on 2 April 2012 in Dubbo. The authorized catalogue record for his name fixes his dates as 1937 to 2012, marking the span of a life that moved from the Cummeragunja Reserve to the receipt of one of Australia's most significant civilian honours.