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A heartbreaking, darkly funny and deeply moving memoir from a fearlessly talented writer Delivered on the banks of the Mainoru River by her two full-blood grandmothers, Marie Munkara was born with light skin which meant one thing - it would only be a matter of time before she would be taken by the authorities and given to a white family to be raised. Then twenty-eight years later an old baptismal card falling out of a book changed the course of her life forever. It was a link to her past. Knowing that she had to follow her heart or forever live to regret it Marie set out to find the family that she had lost, leaving her strict white Catholic parents aghast - why dig up the past? With devastating honesty, humour and courage, the award-winning author of Every Secret Thing shares her extraordinary journey of discovery to find her origins.
When culture and faith collide . . . nothing is sacred In the Aboriginal missions of far northern Australia, it was a battle between saving souls and saving traditional culture. Every Secret Thing is a rough, tough, hilarious portrayal of the Bush Mob and the Mission Mob, and the hapless clergy trying to convert them. In these tales, everyone is fair game. At once playful and sharp, Marie Munkara's wonderfully original stories cast a taunting new light on the mission era in Australia. 'told with biting wit and riotous humour' Judges' comments, Queensland Premier's Literary Awards (2008)
A Most Peculiar Act casts a sardonic eye at the protectionist policies of the early 20th century from the perspective of an Aboriginal fringe-camp dweller by the name of Sugar. Against the background of the Aboriginal Ordinances Act and the "White Australia" policy, Sugar's resistance to assimilation turns into a protracted battle with the authorities and the chief protector Horatio Humphris (or Horrid Hump). Interspersed with illicit affairs, stolen children and unwelcome foreigners, A Most Peculiar Act sees Sugar and her oppressors finally meet on a level playing field with an outcome neither side could have foreseen.
Winner of the David Unaipon Award, an engaging, moving and often funny yarn about growing up in the home of two Aunties running a sheep farm in rural Gundagai. Growing up in the shifting landscape of Gundagai with her Nan and Aunties, Sunny spends her days playing on the hills near their farmhouse and her nights dozing by the fire, listening to the big women yarn about life over endless cups of tea. It is a life of freedom, protection and love. But as Sunny grows she must face the challenge of being seen as different, and of having a mother whose visits are as unpredictable as the rain. Based on Jeanine Leane's own childhood, these funny, endearing and thought-provoking stories offer a snapshot of a unique Australian upbringing.
Throughout Bobby Wabalanginy's young life the ships have been arriving, bringing European settlers to the south coast of Western Australia, where Bobby's people, the Noongar people, have always lived. Bobby, smart, resourceful and eager to please, has befriended the settlers, joining them as they hunt whales, till the land, and work to establish their new colony. He is welcomed into a prosperous white family and eventually finds himself falling in love with the daughter, Christine. But slowly - by design and by hazard - things begin to change. Not everyone is so pleased with the progress of the white colonists. Livestock mysteriously starts to disappear, crops are destroyed, there are 'accid...
Kindred, Kirli Saunders debut poetry collection, is a pleasure to lose yourself in. Kirli has a keen eye for observation, humour and big themes that surround Love/Connection/Loss in an engaging style, complemented by evocative and poignant imagery. It talks to identity, culture, community and the role of Earth as healer. Kindred has the ability to grab hold of the personal in the universal and reflect this back to the reader
In September 2013, just before the weather turned even more intense, a group of intrepid writers made their way to three Australian desert settings to work with groups and individuals wishing to write. Both Aboriginal people with a profound connection to country and residents of more recent arrival who had made the choice to live in remote places participated in workshops. You'll read new voices and hear perspectives on living in extreme geographical and climactic regions in today's Australia. In the variety presented here we welcome you into the vitality of remote communities, often isolated but full of commitment and hope for the future.
My Place begins with Sally Morgan tracing the experiences of her own life, growing up in suburban Perth in the fifties and sixties. Through the memories and images of her childhood and adolescence, vague hints and echoes begin to emerge, hidden knowledge is uncovered, and a fascinating story unfolds - a mystery of identity, complete with clues and suggested solutions. Sally Morgan's My Place is a deeply moving account of a search for truth, into which a whole family is gradually drawn; finally freeing the tongues of the author's mother and grandmother, allowing them to tell their own stories.
A young school teacher is posted to a remote Aboriginal community, and through his experiences, his encounter with the local people, his discovery of the history of the community, his own history and his Aboriginality are revealed. Like many others in the novel, Billy is struggling to find a meaningful cultural identity and to create a better future from the wreckage of the recent history of Aboriginal people. What he finds at Karnama is a disintegrating community, characterised by government handouts, alcoholism, wife-beating, petrol-sniffing and an indifference to traditional beliefs and practices. It is a depressingly familiar litany of social problems which confirms the smug racial stereotypes of the white community to which Billy initially belongs. True Country offers no clear-cut solution to the realities of powerlessness. What it leaves us with is Billy's vision of the 'true country' which he shares with the unnamed Aboriginal narrator in the final pages of the novel.
Aboriginal literature is a growing field with a rapidly expanding global audience. The book represents a range of writers; it includes highly acclaimed Aboriginal writers whose works are widely recognised (Kim Scott, Doris Pilkington Garimara, Melissa Lucashenko) and other writers whose works are on the ascendancy (Romaine Moreton and Jeanine Leane). This book contributes to the understanding of Aboriginal literature and of how these writers developed as writers. See www.cambriapress.com/books/9781604979114.cfm for reviews, author bio, and more book information on this Cambria Press publication. "This book is an essential resource for anyone with more than a passing interest in Aboriginal writing and Australian literature." - Philip Morrissey, Head of Australian Indigenous Studies, University of Melbourne