image of person or book cover 1393728078271769969.png
Cover image courtesy UQP
y separately published work icon Swallow the Air selected work   short story  
Alternative title: Dust on Waterglass
Issue Details: First known date: 2003... 2003 Swallow the Air
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

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.

Exhibitions

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6943740
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Reading Australia

Reading Australia

This work has Reading Australia teaching resources.

Unit Suitable For

AC: Year 11 (English Unit 2). Note: activities can be adapted for Year 10 or Year 12.

Themes

Aboriginality, belonging, change, discovery, family, identity, journey

General Capabilities

Critical and creative thinking, Ethical understanding, Information and communication technology, Intercultural understanding, Literacy, Personal and social

Notes

  • Dedication:

    For You
    For the words that were whispered
    Something mellifluous
    For the Moondance
    For love
    Somewhere distant, silent, gone.

  • The short stories in Swallow the Air are inter-connected, so that the work can also be read as a novel.
  • Dedication (University of Queensland Press, 2021 ed.) :

    In loving memory of my brother Billy Joe

    1979-2018

Contents

* Contents derived from the St Lucia, Indooroopilly - St Lucia area, Brisbane - North West, Brisbane, Queensland,:University of Queensland Press , 2006 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Swallow the Air, Tara June Winch , single work short story (p. 1-9)
Grab, Tara June Winch , single work short story (p. 11-17)
At the End of the Rainbow Cloud Busting Cloudbursting, Tara June Winch , single work short story (p. 19-28)
My Bleeding Palm, Tara June Winch , single work short story (p. 29-37)
Bushfire, Tara June Winch , single work short story (p. 39-47)
Leaving Paradise, Tara June Winch , single work short story (p. 49-60)
To Run, Tara June Winch , single work short story (p. 61-74)
Territory, Tara June Winch , single work short story (p. 75-89)
The Block, Tara June Winch , single work short story (p. 91-105)
Chocolate, Tara June Winch , single work short story (p. 107-116)
Wantok, Tara June Winch , single work short story (p. 117-123)
Painted Dreaming, Tara June Winch , single work short story (p. 125-132)
Mapping Waterglass, Tara June Winch , single work short story (p. 133-141)
Just Dust, Tara June Winch , single work short story (p. 143-148)
Cocoon, Tara June Winch , single work short story (p. 149-154)
Bila Snake, Tara June Winch , single work short story (p. 155-161)
Mission, Tara June Winch , single work short story (p. 163-173)
Country, Tara June Winch , single work short story (p. 175-184)
The Jacaranda Tree, Tara June Winch , single work short story (p. 185-190)
Home, Tara June Winch , single work short story (p. 191-198)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

First known date: 2003

Other Formats

  • Also sound recording.
  • Large print.

Works about this Work

The Regional Novel in Australia Emily Potter , Brigid Magner , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Cambridge History of the Australian Novel 2023;
Kinship in Fiction and the Genre Blur of Swallow the Air as Novel in Stories Ellen van Neerven , 2021 single work criticism
— Appears in: Reading Like an Australian Writer 2021;
Precarious Relations in Tara June Winch’s Swallow the Air Dorothee Klein , 2021 single work criticism
— Appears in: Poetics and Politics of Relationality in Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Fiction 2021;
​Indigenous Transnational : Pluses and Perils and Tara June Winch​ Paul Sharrad , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: Transnational Literature , November no. 12 2020;
'In the context of the "transnational turn" in Australian literary studies, I consider the dynamics of writing and reading by and around Aboriginal literature. Positioning of authors, books and readings across, through and beyond nation spaces has particular challenges for Indigenous writers who locate identity on "country", with reception determined largely by a national framing. Informed by work from Lynda Ng, Chadwick Allen and others, the article examines the transnational movements of and around the fiction of Tara June Winch.' (Publication abstract)
Australia In Three Books Amy McQuire , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Meanjin , Spring vol. 79 no. 3 2020;

— Review of The White Possessive : Property, Power, and Indigenous Sovereignty Aileen Moreton-Robinson , 2015 multi chapter work criticism ; Finding Eliza : Power and Colonial Storytelling Larissa Behrendt , 2016 multi chapter work criticism ; Swallow the Air Tara June Winch , 2003 selected work short story

'In times of crisis I take comfort in the words of black women in whatever form, whether it’s poetry, fiction, memoir, academia, journalism or a Twitter feed. When a white police officer killed an African-American man on camera in May, and ignited the fury of the world, I found strength in the activism of Aboriginal women who continued to break through the stifling silences to shout black lives matter on our own shores too. The writing of black women is powerful because, as Distinguished Professor Aileen Moreton-Robinson writes, although we come from a diversity of backgrounds and circumstances, we also share common experiences:

All Indigenous women share the common experience of living in a society that deprecates us. We share the experience of having different cultural knowledges.

We share in the experience of the continual denial of our sovereignties. We share experiences of the politics of dispossession. We share our respective countries’ histories of colonisation. We share the experience of multiple oppressions. We share in the experiences of living in a hegemonic white patriarchal society.

(Introduction)

Snapshots of a Life Katharine England , 2006 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 29 April 2006; (p. 12)

— Review of Swallow the Air Tara June Winch , 2003 selected work short story ; Madonna of the Eucalypts Karen Sparnon , 2006 single work novel
Some Rough Diamonds Are Best Left Unpolished Kathy Hunt , 2006 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 13-14 May 2006; (p. 14-15)

— Review of Swallow the Air Tara June Winch , 2003 selected work short story
Promising Debut Shows a Writer to Watch Diane Stubbings , 2006 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 20 May 2006; (p. 13)

— Review of Swallow the Air Tara June Winch , 2003 selected work short story
Sparkling Journey Starts with a Punch Alexa Moses , 2006 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 20-21 May 2006; (p. 35)

— Review of Swallow the Air Tara June Winch , 2003 selected work short story

This review discusses Swallow the Air's narrative structure, characterisation and dialogue, and the prose style.

The Eyes Have It Juliette Hughes , 2006 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 3 June 2006; (p. 21)

— Review of Swallow the Air Tara June Winch , 2003 selected work short story ; Careless Deborah Robertson , 2006 single work novel
Tara: Star on the Horizon Nicole Mason , 2004 single work column
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 20 October no. 337 2004; (p. 16)
The Face : Tara June Winch : Writer Rosemary Neill , 2006 single work column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 6-7 May 2006; (p. 3)
Up Close Lizzie Corser , 2006 single work column
— Appears in: Brisbane News , 10 - 16 May no. 586 2006; (p. 5)
Woman of the World Sunanda Creagh , 2006 single work biography
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 13-14 May 2006; (p. 3-31)
[Review] Swallow the Air and Some Rough Diamonds Are Best Left Unpolished Madonna Duffy , 2006 single work correspondence
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 27-28 May 2006; (p. 2)
Madonna Duffy, managing editor at University of Queensland Press, takes issue with some of the claims made by Kathy Hunt in Hunt's review of Swallow the Air. Duffy states that '[t]his is not just an issue of a reviewer passing comment on an editorial process to which she was not privy; it is also a case of ill-informed assumptions about the nature of indigenous writing and what it should or shouldn't be.'
Last amended 21 Aug 2024 20:43:51
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