The following reflection was written at the Cairns Narrative Therapy Interest Group shortly after Michael White's passing. As a group activity, each individual was interviewed about the effects of Michael White's work on their therapeutic work. Each of the responses were manually recorded and then a member of the group developed the collective document to share back with the whole group. The document was a way to capture the atmosphere that was shared at the interest group that day upon reflection of Michael. The document also enables a way to remember the influence that a collective document can produce for a group of people.

This article, which appears in a special 30-year anniversary edition of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, reflects on the legacies of the work of Michael White. It begins by looking back on Michael's time as editor of the Australian Journal of Family Therapy. Of the many themes that were discussed in the Editorials and Letters to the Editor section of this journal in the early 1980s, this article focuses on three in particular to explore the legacies of the work of Michael White. The author describes how Michael has bequeathed not only a profound body of work, but also a distinctive spirit of originating, and ways of working that consider the effects of social issues and that examine the politics of experience. It is the author's hope that this approach to considering Michael White's legacies honours his work and also honours the contributions of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy in its 30th year.

A reflection written on the 20th anniversary of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy and around the first anniversary of the death of its first editor and respected Narrative therapist, author and theorist Michael White. This article reviews the influence of Michael White on the work and life of the author. In this reflection, it reviews some of the significant features of Michael White's teaching, which allows a consideration of claims of ‘guru-ism’ occasionally related to Michael White's work.