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Full Description
'It's bad luck to catch a black swan.' Eileen Harrison grew up at the Lake Tyers Aboriginal Mission Station in the 1950s as one of eleven children in a tight-knit and loving family. When the new assimilation policy comes in, they are wrenched from the Mission and sent off to Ararat in the hope that they will become part of that community. Unable to build a stable life in the face of isolation and discrimination, the family is torn apart. Eileen must become the protector and the peacemaker. As a child, Eileen set free a black swan caught in a hessian bag. Now the story of the magical black swan from her childhood provides an uncanny map for her life as she struggles to find her path. After many years she discovers her talent as a painter and builds a new life for herself. Powerfully told in Eileen's words, her experiences speak eloquently of what has happened to Aboriginal people over the last half-century. 'Both heart-wrenching and hopeful, Eileen Harrison's story demonstrates that while policies of assimilation may have taken families from country and community, they could never take the memories that kept them connected.' - Dr Anita Heiss, award-winning author and activist
Contents
Prologue: The White Dress Part I: Innocence Routines Freedom Black Swan Bung Yarnda Part II: Change Coming Whitefella Lessons Miss Binny Politics Leaving Lake Tyers Ararat Part III: Experience Layers of Events Work Nothin' but a Black Gin Escape Runaway Part IV: Gathering the Pieces That Piece of Paper They've Taken my Babies! Cedric and Maria What's the Use? Part V: Awakening Out of the Shadows Jenny Koorie Culture Day Epilogue: Forty-thousand Year Old Soul
