A well-crafted memoir of a young woman who spends two years teaching at the school at Aurukun in Cape York paints a colourful picture of life in a remote Aboriginal community in the sweltering tropics.
Paula Shaw recounts her experiences of two years teaching at the school at Aurukun in Cape York. She paints a colourful picture of life in a remote Aboriginal community in the sweltering tropics. With the place itself as much of a character as her colleagues, the traditional owners and the eccentric whitefellas who congregate in faraway places, it is a taste of the intensity of relationships in a small community.
Seven Seasons in Aurukun also offers an insight into the everyday realities of alcoholism, violence and welfare dependency in Aboriginal communities, and the struggle to make a difference in the face of such chronic problems. Yet we also see the persistence efforts of community leaders to improve their circumstances and maintain culture, and the small achievements that make the difference between survival and going under.
Seven Seasons in Aurukun is the runner up to the 2007 Iremonger Award for Writing on Public Issues.
Author bio:
Paula Shaw has taught in schools in Brisbane and Sydney as well as in the remote Aboriginal community of Aurukun in Cape York. She now works as a social researcher in Sydney.
Category:
Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:
9781741757071
Awards:
Long-listed The John Button Prize 2009 AU
Table Of Contents:
Author's note
Eight streets
FIRST TERM
1 Aurukun arrival
2 Ugly face fuckin' arsehole slut
3 Roll call
4 Wide blue sky
5 Big river country
6 Love River
TERM TWO
7 Pigs and honey
8 Season of plenty
9 Henny the coconutter
TERM THREE
10 Open house
11 Friday
12 Frankie versus the PM
TERM FOUR
13 Giving chase
14 Mango season
15 Up river
16 Rich task
17 Dance with me
18 Halfway
19 Away
TERM ONE
20 Oh crappy day
21 Kaap - wet season
22 History project
23 Election day
24 Mr Mayor
TERM TWO
25 J-A-M spells honey
26 One less thing
27 Netball season
28 Last chance Raymond
TERM THREE
29 Big blue
30 Burial ground
31 The kiss
32 End of term - Sydney
TERM FOUR
33 Letting go
34 Home straight
35 Believe
Acknowledgments
Publisher:
Allen & Unwin
Imprint:
Allen & Unwin
Pub Date:
March 2009
Page Extent:
264
Format:
Paperback - B format
Age:
0 - 0
Subject:
Autobiography: general