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2019 Longlist

Terra Nullius

ABOUT
THE BOOK

Jacky was running. There was no thought in his head, only an intense drive to run. There was no sense he was getting anywhere, no plan, no destination, no future. All he had was a sense of what was behind, what he was running from. Jacky was running. The Natives of the Colony are restless. The Settlers are eager to have a nation of peace and to bring the savages into line. Families are torn apart, reeducation is enforced. This rich land will provide for all. This is not Australia as we know it. This is not the Australia of our history. This Terra Nullius is something new, but all too familiar. This is an incredible debut from a striking new Australian Aboriginal voice.

 

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Claire
G. Coleman

Claire Coleman is a writer from Western Australia. She identifies with the South Coast Noongar people. Her family is associated with the area around Ravensthorpe and Hopetoun. Claire grew up in a Forestry settlement in the middle of a tree plantation, where her dad worked, not far out of Perth.
She wrote her black-and-white! fellowship-winning manuscript Terra Nullius while traveling around Australia in a caravan.

Claire Coleman is a writer from Western Australia. She identifies with the South Coast Noongar people. Her family is associated with the area around Ravensthorpe and Hopetoun. Claire grew up in a Forestry settlement in the middle of a tree plantation, where her dad worked, not far out of Perth.
She wrote her black-and-white! fellowship-winning manuscript Terra Nullius while traveling around Australia in a caravan.

NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

Terra Nullius is a striking debut from a new Australian Aboriginal voice. The speculative–fiction lens reframes European invasion, shifting and unsettling the reader’s perspective. The devastation of colonisation and displacement is explored with originality, compassion and insight.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Date published
29/08/2017

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