Read a message penned by Elizabeth Weiss, publisher of A Piece of Red Cloth.
When I started reading the manuscript of A Piece of Red Cloth, very quickly I realised this was something very special, unlike any novel I had read before.
The novel parachuted me into the coast of Arnhem Land in the past, before the arrival of Europeans, and I was experiencing rather than just reading about traditional Yolŋu life. As the story unfolds, we see the rhythms of daily life, relationships between elders and younger people, and how the arrival of Macassan trepang fishers disrupted the coastal community. The landscapes of the sea, the beaches, and the inland billabongs with their waterlilies are portrayed vividly, giving readers insight into what it means to live on Country and be part of Country. We also see how ceremony and spirituality are integral to community life. The drama of grandmother Batjani’s efforts to protect her granddaughter Garritji propels the story to its powerful ending.
I’m not aware of any other Australian First Nations novel that is set entirely in pre-colonial times. Among the Yolŋu of Arnhem Land, a rich body of oral history stories has been maintained, and traditional culture has been kept alive. Cultural custodians Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, Djawundil Maymuru and Djawa Burarrwanga have generously shared these stories with Leonie Norrington, and checked every line of A Piece of Red Cloth to ensure it is authentic.
Read an interview in The Guardian about the collaboration behind A Piece of Red Cloth here.
And here is what some early reviewers have said about A Piece of Red Cloth:
'Told through the voices of the people who know it best, all those deeply important events from times long before Cook imagined a Southern Land.' Debra Dank
'This riveting novel based on Yolŋu oral history takes the reader inside a coastal Arnhem Land community in the 1600s, at a point of crisis... As we watch the situation unfold with dread, we also experience the everyday joy of Yolngu life, the strength of culture and the wonder of their cosmology.' The Guardian
‘The best fiction allows the reader to enter times, cultures and places otherwise inaccessible… a rich and transportive novel in the vein of Hannah Kent or Tara June Winch.’ Annie Waters Books+Publishing
'We've been waiting a long time for a book like this ... [A] breathtaking re-imagining of history and place.' Professor Nicholas Jose
Elizabeth Weiss, Publisher
A Piece of Red Cloth
by Leonie Norrington, Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, Djawa Burarrwanga and Djawundil Maymuru
A powerful, unique novel based on the oral history of the Yolŋu people from north-east Arnhem Land that tells the story of a grandmother who stops at nothing to protect her granddaughter.
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