Cirrus@Austlit

'The killing times were barely over in the Kimberley.
What I knew, even as a small boy, was that no-one argued with a whitefella. People talked in whispers.
I was still so small.
This is the story of the early years of my life. The story of a boy who was taken away from his mother and his family forever when he was just six years old. He had no say in it. His family had no say in it. The government had all the say in everything.

'A memoir of boyhood by a man who was removed as a child – from country, from culture and language, from family, from his mother.

'Filled with surprises and unlikely fun, this is more than just a story of surviving. From hiding out from the Japanese in spring-fed caves in the deep Kimberley, to being let loose in a paddock just like a poddy calf at Moola Bulla, to cowboy comics at the Beagle Bay mission.

'A story of white bosses, of priest bosses, of black stockmen and of staying out of trouble.

'With honesty and unexpected graciousness, Frank reminds us of a not-so-distant past and of how things happened for Aboriginal people in the North West.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'I have left the grandsons in bed rather than wake them. My daughter texts to say there are tears. The plane takes off.

'As we hover over Alice Springs I notice a maze of brown twisting threads.

'Creativity requires isolation, time, practice, concentrated and undisturbed effort. It will be a quiet New Year’s Eve.

'Another friend has died – she simply ran out of breaths … the woman serving in Bunnings takes it in her stride that I have fronted up with tek screws and washers … I can’t decide what to do with the Indian yellow oil paint.

'I look at my own body and it is a map of my journey. It shows I have lived and loved and am not ready to give it up yet.

'Poetic fragments from the journal of an artist, spanning the closing months of a year in the remote desert town of Alice Springs.

'In the quiet space of a house, with a new set of bold paints and Rumi and Basho as companions, life unfolds.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In this new collection of central Australian writing, Campfire Satellites, Ptilotus Press approaches questions about 'inland' from the voices of four women. Through poetry, short story and memoir, the authors enter into a landscape where cultures meet, revealing the power of family and the tender connections between women.'  (Publication summary)