Finding our heart

Author: Thomas Mayor

Language: English

Summary: A story about the Uluru Statement from the Heart for young Australians by Thomas Mayor, Illustrated by Blak Douglas.

This book is about understanding Australia’s past, so we can have a shared future. ’When we all came together at Uluru, we invited all Australian people to accept our voice and culture as a gift.’

Can you help us find the heart of the nation? Thomas Mayor is a Torres Strait Islander man born on Larrakia country in Darwin. He is also the author of Finding the Heart of the Nation: Journey of the Uluru Statement towards Voice, Treaty and Truth.

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Red Dog

Author: Louis de Bernières

Language: English

Summary: Red Dog is a West Australian, a lovable friendly red kelpie who found widespread fame as a result of his habit of travelling all over Western Australia, hitching rides over thousands of miles, settling in places for months at a time and adopting new families before heading off again to the next destination and another family – sometimes returning to say hello years later.

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Born to run: my story

Author: Cathy Freeman

Language: English

Summary: “Hi guys, ever since I was little I only had one dream – to win a gold medal at the Olympics. When I was twenty-seven years old, my dream came true. I’ll never forget that night at the Sydney 2000 Games – as I crossed the finish line, it was as if the whole of Australia was cheering for me. Sometimes I still wonder how it happened.

When I was growing up, I felt no different to anyone else. I loved having fun with my brothers, sleeping over at nanna’s and going horse riding with my dad. But I especially loved to run. With the help of my family, coaches and teachers, I became the best female 400-metre runner in the world. I hope you enjoy my story, and that it inspires you to chase after your dreams too!” (from the blurb)

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Growing up African in Australia

Author: Edited by Maxine Beneba Clarke, Magan Magan, Ahmed Yussuf

Language: English

Summary: ‘I was born in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe.’
‘My dad was a freedom fighter, waging war for an independent state: South Sudan.’
‘We lived in a small country town, in the deep south of Western Australia.’
‘I never knew black people could be Muslim until I met my North African friends.’
‘My mum and my dad courted illegally under the Apartheid regime.’
‘My first impression of Australia was a housing commission in the north of Tasmania.’
‘Somalis use this term, “Dhaqan Celis”. “Dhaqan” means culture and “Celis” means return.’ Continue reading “Growing up African in Australia”

traveling with ghosts

Traveling with ghosts, a memoir

Author: Shannon Leone Fowler

Language: English

Summary: From grief to reckoning to reflection to solace, a marine biologist shares the solo journey she took—through war-ravaged Eastern Europe, Israel, and beyond—to find peace after her fiancé suffered a fatal attack by a box jellyfish in Thailand.

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Review

My Place, the memoir by Sally Morgan, Aboriginal writer

I know very little of Australian literature. Apart from the splendid autobiography of Janet Frame, some novels by Elizabeth von Arnim and the splendid book that someone had sent from Australia in one of Expatclic’s literary rounds, The Secret River by Kate Greenville, I can’t tell you much. Recently, however, I came across My Place by Sally Morgan, a famous Aboriginal writer. My place is … Continue reading My Place, the memoir by Sally Morgan, Aboriginal writer