Smashing Serendipity (Louise K Hansen, Fremantle Press)

Proud Binjareb Nyoongar woman Louise K Hansen unfortunately passed away before her profound memoir, Smashing Serendipity: The story of one Moordtj Yorga, was published. But the strong stories from her life ripple into Australian mainstream literature with power and hope. Connecting themes of family, pain and determination, Hansen’s memoir is written as a thoughtful yarn with her children and grandchildren about the lived experiences of their Elders, ancestors and the author herself. With soul-shattering frankness, Hansen provides a unique insight into the journey of an Aboriginal girl growing up in the 1950s—an era drenched in racism, discrimination and white colonial domination. She hauntingly recalls the removal of her cousins when she was a child and then her own children as an adult, describing the police’s role in enforcing the law and government policy that pushed Hansen and her people into generational trauma. Hansen recounts how her mother bellowed that the cops were ‘supposed to be protecting us’. However, threaded within her yarn are glimmers of hope, as Hansen fights for her family and children: ‘I have found that in times of crisis, sheer determination and anger can save your life.’ This poignant memoir is a reminder that there are generations of Aboriginal women who, in addition to experiencing trauma and pain at the hands of settlers, also have stories of perseverance and strength.

Sela Ahosivi-Atiola is a Tongan writer from Blacktown and a member of Sweatshop Literacy Movement. Her work has been featured in SBS Voices, Colournary Magazine and StoryCasters and TEDx Nuku’alofa. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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