Swallow the Air
Dust on Waterglass
2003
St Lucia
:
University of Queensland Press
,
2006
Z1265164
2003
selected work
short story
(taught in 33 units)
Swallow the Air follows the life of 15-year-old May Gibson, an Aboriginal girl from New South Wales whose mother commits suicide. May and her brother go to live with their aunt, but eventually May travels further afield, first to Redfern's Block in Sydney, then to the Northern Territory, and finally into central New South Wales. She travels to escape, but also in pursuit of a sense of her own history, family, and identity.
Snake Dancing
St Leonards
:
Allen and Unwin
,
1998
Z38672
1998
single work
autobiography
(taught in 1 units)
"Snake Dancing chronicles [Sykes's] increasing politicisation and involvement in the Black movement to the time of her invitation from Harvard to take up postgraduate study in the United States. She details the dangerous, demanding and sometimes lonely life of an itinerant activist, and brings human perspective to events that were often headline news around the world."
