A Piece of Red Cloth (Leonie Norrington, Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, Djawa Burarrwanga & Djawundil Maymuru, A&U)

The best fiction allows the reader to enter times, cultures and places otherwise inaccessible. Children’s fiction writer Leonie Norrington was commissioned by her adoptive mother, Yolŋu woman Clare Bush, to share this piece of pre-colonial history—a story passed down through generations of Yolŋu oral tradition—with a wider audience. Norrington and cultural custodians and collaborators Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, Djawundil Maymuru and Djawa Burarrwanga have crafted a rich and transportive novel in the vein of Hannah Kent or Tara June Winch. Before the white settlement of this country, the Yolŋu conducted trade with overseas neighbours, including the Macassans, who were under Dutch rule in the 1600s. In the novel, Batjani’s granddaughter, Garritji, is promised to Djapalitjarri once she has undergone her puberty ceremonies. But last season’s trade with the Foreigners brought freely flowing arrack (alcohol) that has caused division within the Yolŋu and created fear for their young women. Batjani suspects that Garritji is under threat and will do whatever she can to protect her. Pre-colonial northern Australia is conjured here in exquisite detail, the landscape woven into every fibre of this novel. Layers of spiritual and quotidian life sit atop each other as we see hunting, foraging, cooking, managing relationships and creating ceremony through Yolŋu eyes. The novel captures the resilience, dignity and power of the Yolŋu people as they face foreign vices such as arrack and opium and the far greater threat of ideological greed embodied by the Barbarians, who now accompany the Foreigners. Capitalism is wielded as a cudgel, set to destroy this carefully managed equilibrium, but the Yolŋu’s strength is not to be underestimated.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Annie Waters sells books, writes about books and podcasts about books. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

Category: Friday Unlocked reviews Reviews Think Australian top reviews