First, Second, Third, Forth single work   life story  
Issue Details: First known date: 2018... 2018 First, Second, Third, Forth
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

First, looking up, there is the dance. How long ago? A long time ago. Growing up, I knew my father's family came from a long time ago. All rime, from time travel, yet we were severed from the knowledge of the dance — where the feet go, the arms bent, the hips, the line of spine. We didn't have the carriberrie or corroboree, nor the song with it. We were living on saltwater country, not freshwater, not from those rivers and lakes where history sat beyond the escarpment in a slouched pose, defeated. There was no dance handed down, it had been cast into the four winds, yet I saw the dance. My cousin is the dancer still and there, that early memory is of her at a family gathering — in one of those blip moments, I am looking up at an impromptu modern dance, fluid, mad, yet articulate. I think she'd just graduated from dancing with the Martha Graham School in New York and returned to our slip of coast. I looked up from where I sat and saw all the possibility in the world. My cousin evoking a dance long buried. From those child's eyes she was the most incredible person I knew. I wondered how it was that she salvaged the dance? I wondered, had she read about it, had someone whispered it to her, did she time travel to find the moves, did the ancestors visit her in her dreams? Would they visit Ma too?  (Introduction)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia Anita Heiss (editor), Collingwood : Black Inc. , 2018 12263094 2018 anthology life story autobiography Indigenous story

    'What is it like to grow up Aboriginal in Australia? This anthology, compiled by award-winning author Anita Heiss, attempts to showcase as many diverse voices, experiences and stories as possible in order to answer that question. Each account reveals, to some degree, the impacts of invasion and colonisation – on language, on country, on ways of life, and on how people are treated daily in the community, the education system, the workplace and friendship groups.

    'Accounts from well-known authors and high-profile identities sit alongside newly discovered voices of all ages, with experiences spanning coastal and desert regions, cities and remote communities. All of them speak to the heart – sometimes calling for empathy, oftentimes challenging stereotypes, always demanding respect.

    'This groundbreaking anthology aims to enlighten, inspire and educate about the lives of Aboriginal people in Australia today.' (Publication Summary)

    Collingwood : Black Inc. , 2018
    pg. 278-281
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Growing Up in Australia Black Inc. (editor), Carlton : Black Inc. , 2021 21936408 2021 anthology autobiography

    'This special collection is the perfect introduction to Black Inc.’s definitive 'Growing Up' series. Featuring pieces from Growing Up AsianGrowing Up AboriginalGrowing Up AfricanGrowing Up Queer and Growing Up Disabled in Australia, it captures the diversity of our nation in moving and revelatory ways.

    'Growing Up in Australia also features gems from essential Australian memoirs such as Maxine Beneba Clarke’s The Hate Race, Rick Morton’s 100 Years of Dirtand Stan Grant’s Talking to My Country.

    'Contributors include Tim Winton, Benjamin Law, Melissa Lucashenko, Magda Szubanski, Christos Tsiolkas and many more.

    'With a foreword by Alice Pung, this anthology is a wonderful gift for adult and adolescent readers alike.'

    Source : publisher's blurb

    Carlton : Black Inc. , 2021
Last amended 13 Feb 2024 09:52:40
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