NAIDOC Week must-reads

Praiseworthy by Alexis Wright

2024 MILES FRANKLIN LITERARY AWARD WINNER

In a small town dominated by a haze cloud, which heralds both an ecological catastrophe and a gathering of the ancestors, a crazed visionary seeks out donkeys as the solution to the global climate crisis and the economic dependency of the Aboriginal people. His wife seeks solace from his madness in following the dance of butterflies and scouring the internet to find out how she can seek repatriation for her Aboriginal/Chinese family to China. One of their sons, called Aboriginal Sovereignty, is determined to commit suicide after being labelled a paedophile. The other, Tommyhawk, wishes his brother dead so that he can pursue his dream of becoming white and powerful. When the town is overrun by donkeys, the residents and their strange religious sects react with anger, led by the Mayor, the albino Aboriginal named Ice Pick, and his outlandishly dressed Ice Queens.

Edenglassie by Melissa Lukashenko

When Mulanyin meets the beautiful Nita in Edenglassie, their saltwater people still outnumber the British. As colonial unrest peaks, Mulanyin dreams of taking his bride home to Yugambeh Country, but his plans for independence collide with white justice. Two centuries later, fiery activist Winona meets Dr Johnny. Together they care for obstinate centenarian Grannie Eddie, and sparks fly, but not always in the right direction. What nobody knows is how far the legacies of the past will reach into their modern lives.

Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe

Dark Emu argues for a reconsideration of the ‘hunter-gatherer’ tag for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians and attempts to rebut the colonial myths that have worked to justify dispossession. Accomplished author Bruce Pascoe provides compelling evidence from the diaries of early explorers that suggests that systems of food production and land management have been blatantly understated in modern retellings of early Aboriginal history, and that a new look at Australia’s past is required.

Homecoming by Elfie Shiosaki

WINNER, 2022 WESTERN AUSTRALIAN BOOK AWARDS, THE PREMIER’S PRIZE FOR AN EMERGING WRITER

Our grandmothers’ stories teach us about Aboriginal women’s ways of being in our many worlds. Some of the stories in this collection are held in spoken histories, others in archival material, recontextualised with living katitjin. Homecoming pieces together fragments of stories about four generations of Noongar women. It explores how they navigated the changing landscapes of colonisation, protectionism, and assimilation to hold their families together. This seminal collection of poetry, prose and historical colonial archives, tells First Nations truths of unending love for children — those that were present, those taken, those hidden and those that ultimately stood in the light. This elegant and extraordinary form of story work amplifies Aboriginal women’s voices, enabling four generations of women to speak for themselves.

Jandamarra and the Bunuba Resistance by Howard Pedersen

A tiny outpost of colonial administration is planted on the desolate mudflats of King Sound, at Derby. Leases are marked on a map covering huge areas, and the push into the north begins. Vast herds of cattle and sheep move across the land and with it, a new future. In the remote Kimberley, in the late nineteenth century, on the ancient lands of the Bunuba, the last stages of an invasion are about to be played out. Amidst the ensuing chaos and turmoil, extraordinary relationships grow. The thrilling story of the great warrior, Jandamarra, who turned from police assistant to resistance fighter. Thought to be unstoppable, he led the Bunuba against the forces invading their land. A legend, forever etched into the history of the Kimberley, Jandamarra’s courage and fighting spirit made him one of the region’s most wanted men. Jandamarra and the Bunuba Resistance is a grand story with a grand theme.

Kunyi by Kunyi June-Anne McInerney

Kunyi June Anne McInerney was just four years old when she and three of her siblings were taken from their family to the Oodnadatta Children’s Home in South Australia in the 1960s. Through an extraordinary collection of over 60 paintings, accompanied by stories, Kunyi presents a rare chronicle of what life was like for her and the other Children’s Home kids who became her family. Her paintings are a healing trove of memories that reveal the loneliness, fear and courage of the Stolen Generation children. This is a collection of tender and honest stories that will educate children on our nation’s history and remind adult readers of the real impact of the Stolen Generations.

Personal Score: Sport, Culture, Identity by Ellen van Neervan

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 DOUGLAS STEWART PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 

Award-winning writer Ellen van Neerven plays football from a young age, learning early on that sport can be a painful and exclusive world. The more she plays, the more she realises about sport’s troubled relationship with race, gender and sexuality – and questions what it means to play sport on stolen, sovereign land. With emotional honesty and searing insight, van Neerven shines a light on sport in Australia from a queer First Nations perspective, revealing how some athletes have long challenged mainstream views and used their roles to effect change not only in their own realm, but in society more broadly.

Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington

The film Rabbit-Proof Fence is based on this true account of Doris Pilkington’s mother Molly, who as a young girl led her two sisters on an extraordinary 1,600 kilometre walk home. Under Western Australia’s removal policy of the 1930s, the girls were taken from their Aboriginal families and transported halfway across the state.

Growing Up Wiradjuri: Stories from the Wiradjuri Nation by Anita Heiss

Growing up Wiradjuri is a collection of personal stories by Wiradjuri Elders. The writers are Uncles and Aunties who came of age in New South Wales in the 1950s and 1960s. In a strong collective voice, they share the difficulties of growing up under the rule of the welfare board. Some describe their experiences of evading capture by the welfare mob, or of being stolen and forced into state care away from their families. Some describe experiencing racism in school, the trials of poverty and family separation.