entire eveningâs proceedings were a little hazyâexcept for three words that kept echoing in my brain, âPassed with distinctionâ. And at that moment I realised the full impact of those words. I actually made it. You hear that, Kent Williamson, âPassed with distinctionâ. It felt so good I wrapped my arms around myself, as pride and self-satisfaction began to swell within my breast. A most gratifying feeling indeed.
I was so engrossed in my own thoughts that I didnât hear David approaching until he put his arms around me and kissed my cheek. âBeautiful, eh,â he said. I nodded in agreement and turned towards him and embraced and kissed him. But this time, however, it was different. I felt an old familiar emotion stirring within me; a sensation I thought was dead, gone forever, when all this time it was just lying dormant waiting for the right moment.
Well that special moment has come. Winter is over.Spring is here. My spirits soar higher. I am alive! I am vibrant! I am Caprice, a Stockmanâs Daughter.
Black Australian Writing Series
Since 1988 with the establishment of the David Unaipon competition, which discovers new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers, UQP has built up an international reputation as the largest publisher of books by Indigenous authors in Australia. UQPâs Black Australian Writing series evolved out of the Unaipon Award and today includes Indigenous-authored books ranging from novels, poetry, and life stories to nonfiction, and young adult fiction. Through the combined expertise of our authors, cultural advisors and specialist staff, UQP continues its commitment to Indigenous writing as a valued contribution to the literature of a nation.
Available in UQPâs Black Australian Writing Series are:
DORIS PILKINGTON/NUGI GARIMARA
CAPRICE: A stockmanâs daughter
A fictional account of one womanâs journey to find her family and heritage, Caprice is Doris Pilkington Garimaraâs first book. Set in the towns, pastoral stations and orphanage-styled institutions of Western Australia, this story brings together three generations of Mardu women. The narrator Kate begins her journey with the story of her grandmother Lucy, a domestic servant, then traces the short and tragic life of her mother Peggy.
Winner of the 1990 David Unaipon Award
Fiction
DORIS PILKINGTON/NUGI GARIMARA
FOLLOW THE RABBIT-PROOF FENCE
âA marvellous adventure story and thriller, celebrating the courage and the resilience of the human heart.â
âPhillip Noyce, Director of âRabbit-Proof Fenceâ
This book is the basis of the internationally released film âRabbit-Proof Fenceâ. Based on her mother Mollyâs life story, Doris Pilkington Garimaraâs narrative tells of three young girlsâ remarkable journey home across the length of Western Australia.
Non-fiction
VIVIENNE CLEVEN
HER SISTERâS EYE
Powerful and sinister, this is the second book by the brilliant Murri writer whose comedy novel Bitinâ Back (2001) won the David Unaipon Award and was shortlisted in the 2002 South Australian Premierâs Award for Fiction. Clevenâs facility with noir is every bit as biting as her wit. Her Sisterâs Eye is a haunting descent into the tragedies of lives both black and white in a small town community with a legacy of shame.
Fiction
VIVIENNE CLEVEN
BITINâ BACK
This is a rollicking comedy novel that blends in nimbly the realities of small town prejudice and racial intolerance. When football-playing Nevil awakens one morning determined to don a frock and âeyeshadaâ to better understand the late novelist Jean Rhys, his motherâs idle days at the bingo hall are ended forever. Neither fist fights at the Two Dogs Pub, bare knuckle boxing in the back paddock, Bootyâs pig dogs or a police siege can slow the countdown on this human time bomb.
Winner of the 2000 David Unaipon