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y separately published work icon My Own Sweet Time single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1994... 1994 My Own Sweet Time
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Wanda, an Aboriginal girl makes it in the tough city counter culture of the mid-sixties and early seventies. Writing song lyrics and working odd jobs she travels between cities, passing a sardonic eye on the hippie culture around her.

Notes

  • Published as the autobiography of an Aboriginal women, this work won the Nita May Dobbie Award for women writers before being revealed as a hoax in March 1997. Its actual creators were neither women nor Aboriginal. Leon Carmen and his literary agent John Bayley give their account of the hoax in Bayley's Daylight Corroboree, and Carmen's article 'Wanda and Me' .

  • Epigraph: I look as if I'm winning because I am alive but I am in the same night as you. (Albert Camus, Notebooks)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

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Works about this Work

The Top Four Literary Hoaxes 2012 single work column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 5 - 6 May 2012; (p. 4)
The Trial of Andrew Bolt : II : Real Aborigines Verses Phoneys Keith Windshuttle , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Quadrant , December vol. 54 no. 12 2010; (p. 20-25) 'The decision by a group of Aboriginal political activists to sue Andrew Bolt in the Federal Court for racial vilification is a surprising one that may backfire in ways they hadn’t expected. The case itself cannot avoid examining closely what constitutes Aboriginal identity. The minute that question is opened for serious discussion there are awkward political issues that follow. In fact, with a constitutional amendment currently being flagged by the Gillard government, this case may provide an opportunity to bring the vexed question of Aboriginal identity out into the open. Moreover, depending on the outcome of the case, it could provide a green light for the emergence of many more claimants who other Aborigines regard as completely phoney.' (p. 20)
Aboriji'nariti saikō Wataru Sato , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Eigo Seinen/Rising Generation , February vol. 154 no. 11 2009; (p. 646)
Great Literary Frauds Rob Broadfield , 2007 single work column
— Appears in: The West Australian , 15 September 2007; (p. 37)
Home and (Taken) Away Sue Hosking , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Regenerative Spirit : Volume 2 : (Un)settling, (Dis)locations, (Post-)colonial, (Re)presentations - Australian Post-Colonial Reflections 2004; (p. 141-149) Hosking compares the life stories of two Aboriginal women raised at Colebrook home in South Australia, noting the different ways in which they perceived their removal from their families, and the differences in the public reception of their stories.
Untitled Connie Mercer , 1995 single work review
— Appears in: Fiction Focus : New Titles for Teenagers , vol. 9 no. 1 1995; (p. 22)
— Review of My Own Sweet Time Wanda Koolmatrie , 1994 single work novel
The Perky Spirit of a Talented Survivor Veronica Sen , 1995 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 12 March 1995; (p. 22)
— Review of My Own Sweet Time Wanda Koolmatrie , 1994 single work novel
A Positive New Voice Suzanne Donisthorpe , 1995 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 169 1995; (p. 28)
— Review of My Own Sweet Time Wanda Koolmatrie , 1994 single work novel
A Picaresque Ride with a Shrewd Innocent Morag Fraser , 1995 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 8 April 1995; (p. 11A)
— Review of My Own Sweet Time Wanda Koolmatrie , 1994 single work novel ; The Dead Heart Douglas Kennedy , 1994 single work novel
Tribes that Bind Penelope Nelson , 1995 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 22-23 April 1995; (p. rev 10)
— Review of My Own Sweet Time Wanda Koolmatrie , 1994 single work novel ; Bulmurn : A Swan River Nyoongar : A Novel Richard Wilkes , 1994 single work novel
Writing Wrongs Debra Jopson , 1997 single work column biography
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 15 March 1997; (p. 38)
Duped Publisher Calls in Lawyers Adrian Bradley , 1997 single work column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 15-16 March 1997; (p. 3)
Award-Winning Aboriginal Author Outs 'Herself' as White Male Andrew Stevenson , Ava Hubble , 1997 single work column biography
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 13 March 1997; (p. 1-2) The Courier-Mail , 13 March 1997; (p. 1,4) The Daily Telegraph , 13 March 1997; (p. 1,8,9)
Another Australian Literary Hoax? You Bet Your Sweet Time 1997 single work column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 14 March 1997; (p. 3)
Whitefella's Words Leon Carmen , 1997 single work column biography
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 15 March 1997; (p. 3) The Courier-Mail , 15 March 1997; (p. 27)
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Awards

1996 winner Kibble Literary Awards — Nita May Dobbie Award Nita May Dobbie Award prize money was later retrieved from the author after it was revealed that 'Wanda Koolmatrie' was a hoax perpetrated by Leon Carmen and his literary agent John Bayley.
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Last amended 18 Oct 2013 15:48:22
Subjects:
  • Sydney, New South Wales,
  • Melbourne, Victoria,
  • Adelaide, South Australia,
Settings:
  • 1960-1970
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