Cattle Camp : Murrie Drovers and Their Stories
St Lucia
:
University of Queensland Press
,
1994
Z271270
1994
selected work
prose
biography
(taught in 2 units)
Wharton's stories, based on interviews and conversations with Murri stockmen and women, document the contribution of Aboriginal workers to Australia's pastoral history. Wharton says: 'I felt honoured to be allowed to write the stories of these Aborigines, whose names are now recorded as part of the history of Australia' (Foreword to Cattle Camp).
Bitin' Back
Just Call Me Jean
St Lucia
:
University of Queensland Press
,
2001
Z669132
2001
single work
novel
(taught in 7 units)
'When the Blackout's star player Nevil Dooley wakes one morning to don a frock and 'eyeshada', his mother's idle days at the bingo hall are gone forever. Mystified and clueless, single parent Mavis takes bush-cunning and fast footwork to unravel the mystery behind this sudden change of face... Hilarity prevails while desperation builds in the race to save Nevil from the savage consequences of discovery in a town where a career in footy is a young black man's only escape. Neither pig shoots, bust-ups at the Two Dogs, bare-knuckle sessions in the shed or even a police siege can slow the countdown on this human time bomb.' (Source: Publisher's blurb)
Ruby Moonlight
Ruby Moonlight : A Novel of the Impact of Colonisation in Mid-North South Australia Around 1880
Broome
:
Magabala Books
,
2012
Z1861301
2012
single work
novel
(taught in 2 units)
'A verse novel that centres around the impact of colonisation in mid-north South Australia around 1880. Ruby, refugee of a massacre, shelters in the woods where she befriends an Irishman trapper. The poems convey how fear of discovery is overcome by the need for human contact, which, in a tense unravelling of events, is forcibly challenged by an Aboriginal lawman. The natural world is richly observed and Ruby’s courtship is measured by the turning of the seasons.'
Source: Magabala Books.
This course introduces you to examples of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writing in novels, essays, songs, blogs, and more. You will learn to contextualise this writing within broader social and cultural concerns, and to identify themes and devices in the writing. The course emphasis on reflective practice will also give you the opportunity to better understand yourself as a reader, and to better understand how you make your own meanings through reading this writing. The course will encourage you to imagine this writing as potential sources for lifelong learning.
