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More About This Textbook
Overview
Looking at the views and experiences of three generations of indigenous Australians, this autobiography unearths political and societal issues contained within Australia's indigenous culture. Sally Morgan traveled to her grandmother’s birthplace, starting a search for information about her family. She uncovers that she is not white but aborigine—information that was kept a secret because of the stigma of society. This moving account is a classic of Australian literature that finally frees the tongues of the author’s mother and grandmother, allowing them to tell their own stories.
This powerful autobiography of three generations of Aborigines by one of their own is an "historical document which should be on every black studies and women's studies course round the world . . . a wonderfully luminous and entertaining prose poem."--New York Times.
Editorial Reviews
Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
Growing up in Perth, Australia, in an impoverished, but lively and chaotic household dominated by her mother and grandmother, Morgan was 15 before she realized that she and her four siblings were of mixed Aboriginal descent. In this autobiography, she describes her efforts to identify with and record her family heritage. Oral histories gathered from her reticent and still fearful mother and grandmother, anxious to shield their children from the social stigma of their origins, are supplemented with accounts from relatives she tracked down in Northwest Australia's Aboriginal Reserves and livestock stations. They vividly describe the suffering caused by a government policy that took half-caste Aboriginal children away from their mothers. Although some Aborigines have successfully competed in Australian society, the author seems to agree with her uncle's contention that colonialism is not yet over and does not accord Aborigines either equalityes pecially land rightsor freedom to pursue their own way of life. (September)Library Journal
Morgan is 15 when she discovers that she is not white but aboriginea fact that has been kept secret because of society's stigma. Rather than tell the children about their heritage, her mother and grandmother have let them believe early ancestors emigrated to Australia from India. The teen-aged Morgan, having been an indifferent student at best, throws herself into her studies and then single-mindedly embarks on a search for her roots. Her quest is hampered by her grandmother's refusal to discuss the past but helped by an elderly great uncle, who is an accomplished raconteur, and leads her to the past and to other people. Morgan is a gifted storyteller, and this story is sad, triumphant, hilarious, and sensitive. For all public library collections. Joan Hinkemeyer, Englewood P.L., Col.Product Details
Meet the Author
Sally Morgan is the director for the Centre for Indigenous History at the University of Western Australia as well as an artist whose works are in numerous private and public collections in the United States and Australia. She is the author of Dan's Grandpa, My Place for Younger Readers: Arthur Corunna's Story, My Place for Younger Readers: Mother and Daughter, Speaking from the Heart, and Heartsick for Country.