image of person or book cover 5843988564893886313.jpg
Cover image courtesy of publisher.
y separately published work icon Snake Cradle single work   autobiography  
Is part of Snake Dreaming : Autobiography of a Black Woman 1997 series - author (number 1 in series)
  • Author:agent Roberta Sykes http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/sykes-roberta
Issue Details: First known date: 1997... 1997 Snake Cradle
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Units Teaching this Work

Text Unit Name Institution Year
y separately published work icon Snake Cradle Roberta Sykes , St Leonards : Allen and Unwin , 1997 Z328748 1997 single work autobiography (taught in 1 units)

'Snake Cradle is the first volume of Roberta Sykes's three volume autobiography, Snake Dreaming. Snake Cradle chronicles the early years of one of Australia's best known activists for Aboriginal rights, from the time of her birth in Townsville in the 1940s through to the birth of her son when she was 17, and the trial of the men who raped her.

Roberta's voice is strong and true as she describes far north Queensland of the time, her battles with a series of childhood illnesses, and her growing awareness that hers was not an ordinary Australian childhood. Born to a white mother and a father whose identity she did not know, her passion and commitment to the struggles of the Aboriginal people was shaped by the racism her dark skin invoked. A powerful and moving autobiography about a history that must never be forgotten.' (Allen and Unwin)

Australian Literature and the Postcolonial Challenge University of Notre Dame 2009
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