Two Sisters
Trade Paperback
Ngarta and Jukuna lived in the Great Sandy Desert. They traversed country according to the seasons, just as the Walmajarri people had done for thousands of years. But it was a time of change. Desert people who had lived with little knowledge of European settlement were now moving onto cattle stations. Those left behind were vulnerable and faced unimaginable challenges. In 1961, when Jukuna leaves with her new husband, young Ngarta remains with a group of women and children. Tragedy strikes and Ngarta is forced to travel alone. Her survival depends on cunning and courage as she is pursued by two murderers in a vast unforgiving landscape.
Jukuna s rich account may be the first autobiography written in an Aboriginal language. Presented in English and Walmajarri, her determination to see her language written has made her one of our most valued authors.Buy now!
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- ISBN: 9781925936780
- Author: Ngarta Jinny Bent
- Pub date: 01.01.16
- RRP: $29.99
- Format: Paperback / softback
Author
Ngarta Jinny Bent
As a member of the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL), Eirlys Richards worked in Fitzroy Crossing in the Kimberley region of Western Australia for sixteen years, studying Walmajarri, compiling a dictionary and teaching speakers of the language to read their own language. In 1983, she transferred to SIL headquarters in Darwin, moving back to the Kimberley in 1991 to continue her involvement with the Walmajarri people through Karayili Adult Education Centre as a freelance teacher and linguist. Eirlys is a non-Indigenous contributor to the books Two Sisters and Out of the Desert: Stories from the Walmajjarri Exodus.
Jukuna Mona Chuguna (deceased) was a Walmajarri woman from the Great Sandy Desert in Western Australia. She left the desert with her husband in the 1950s to live and work on cattle and sheep stations in the Kimberley's Fitzroy Valley. In middle age, Jukuna took up painting and became a well-regarded artist, holding exhibitions of her work around Australia and overseas. She was a natural teacher and great storyteller. She died in 2011.Ngarta Jinny Bent (deceased) spent her early years as a hunter and gatherer. As a young woman, she moved onto stations in the Kimberley. Ngarta s art work has been exhibited in Austalia and overseas. She died in 2002.Pat Lowe was born and grew up in England but dreamed of migrating to Australia, which she did in 1972. She worked as a teacher in Africa and as a prison psychologist in Australia, but writing has always been her passion. She met Jimmy Pike in 1979 and a few years later set up camp with him in the desert. What followed was a collaboration with Jimmy on a number of books. She also worked with Jukuna Mona Chuguna and Ngarta Jinny Bent on their stories. She now spends her time in Broome.