![]() ![]() For her the land and its quietness give her a welcome space, away from the clamor of other people. She is working hard to restore it for herself, her daughter, her siblings, and her beloved horses. Jo has bought a small, neglected farm near Mullumbimby. ![]() They simply do not take European institutions and world views as the norm. Her views and Lukashenko’s do not romanticize Indigenous life or view it as uniformly tragic. At her core, she views the world from an Indigenous perspective which shapes her values and her dreams. Yet her perspective is shaped by what she learned from the Indigenous aunt who raised her. Her major character in Mullumbimby, Jo Breen, faces the same problems as many single mothers coping with her teenage daughter, working to make ends meet, and deciding if she dares fall in love with a man again. In doing so she challenges the assumed normality of whiteness. As a child, she could pass for white, but as an adult she has committed herself to the culture and values of Indigenous Australians. Melissa Lucashenko is the daughter of Indigenous and European parents. University of Queensland Press (2013), Kindle Edition, 288 pages.Ī beautiful, brilliant novel that provides insight into the life of a contemporary Indigenous woman, raising her daughter on the lands of her Bandjalung ancestors in northern New South Wales. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |