Cirrus@Austlit

'When you know that you need help but conventional means have failed you, what is left is the unexpected.

'MDMA is a drug made from the oil of the root of the sassafras tree. It is known as a party drug, taken by people who want to have a good time, to dance, to shed their inhibitions.

'It has also, since early 2023, been authorised in Australia for use in treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder that has not responded to treatment. For those with PTSD, the goal is not to have a good time and dance: it is to come back to themselves. To the person they were before they were traumatised.

'Around the same time, renowned author and social researcher Rebecca Huntley experienced her first of three illegal MDMA sessions, delivered by an underground healer from the Northern Rivers district of New South Wales. Rebecca wanted to stop the crushing cycle of intergenerational trauma not just for herself but for her children.

'This treatment would do nothing less than change her life, impacting her personal and professional views of the world, the way she saw the past, present and future. It helped Rebecca see herself and the world around her with greater wisdom, compassion and awareness of the connections between humans and the natural world.

'Sassafras is the story of a woman determined to confront her traumatic past head on. In doing so she discovered something that could be of great benefit to us all.' (Publication summary)

'This delightful children's story will almost certainly lead to a gnocchi-making session at your house. Make sure you have some potatoes in the cupboard! Subtly it reinforces the importance of traditional knowledge and of how it is passed from one generation to another. Sofia is learning just as her mother also learnt from Nonna. The illustrations are charming and the warm kitchen will be familiar to many readers.' (Publication summary)

'A true story of love, loss and mothers and daughters across generations In 2001 Rebecca Huntley's maternal grandmother - her Italian nonna - died.

This sparked a decade-long search for the "truth" about her grandmother's life, and the lives of the men and women in her family from Innisfail, Northern Queensland, during the hard times of World War II. The nonna Rebecca knew was a kind-hearted and quiet individual. Short and slight, she was a wonderful cook who embroidered every day of her life. Rebecca loved her dearly but saw her as a conservative, pliant and generally uninteresting Italian woman. After her death, however, incredible stories of her nonna as a young woman surfaced and Rebecca realised that she didn't know her at all. Learning more about nonna stirred up old ghosts in Rebecca's relationship with her mother and challenged Rebecca's own sense of self as she, pregnant with her first child, had to wonder what it really means to be a mother. With evocative stories and tender honesty, Rebecca takes us on this significant search.' Source: http://uqp.com.au (Sighted 03/04/2012).