Elsie Roughsey was born into the the Lardil tribe of Aborigines from Mornington Island or Goonana, in the southern Gulf of Carpentaria, in 1923. She tells of Aboriginal life soon after the first missionaries arrived in the tribe.
Raised in a dormitory mission and in the traditional life of her tribe, she writes about power, religion, love and marriage, childbirth, medicine, education, crime and punishment across both worlds.
This is a book of great charm - and a rare and significant portrait of an Aboriginal life during a period of acute and often traumatic change.
Cover art by the author's artist husband, Dick Roughsey.