Trouwerner | Aunty Patsy Cameron and Martin Flanagan

14 Mar Friday Starts 05:30PM

Fullers Bookshop, 131 Collins Street, Hobart, TAS 7000

“Down the gravel road where Patsy lived as a child is a stretch of tall bush. Like a stage curtain, it hides the vista of Franklin Sound. Walking through that bush with Patsy is like entering a crowded room where you are a stranger and your companion seems to know everyone.”

Trouwerner is an inviting yarn between Elder Aunty Patsy Cameron, the 28th Tasmanian Governor Kate Warner, and journalist Martin Flanagan. It weaves through the coming-into-being time, Trouwerner’s colonisation and the lies of history, to the power of truth-telling and hope for the future. It is a story of kinship and respect, of realism and optimism, welcoming the reader into the conversation.

This is a book for the YES people – the 6.5 million Australians who voted YES in the Voice referendum. It is a book of many stories but ultimately it is the story of one person: a strong, wise Indigenous woman who continues giving her strength and wisdom to others in a frighteningly uncertain world.

Aunty Patsy Cameron grew up on Flinders Island and can trace her Aboriginal heritage through her mother’s line to four Ancestral grandmothers; Pleenpereener, Wyerlooberer, Teekoolterme and Pollerelbrener. At the head of her family is Teekoolterme’s father, the revered Pairrebeenne/Trawlwoolway Clan leader, formidable warrior and seer, Mannalargenna. Patsy has a Master of Arts in Tasmanian Aboriginal History and an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Tasmania. She was inducted onto the Tasmanian Women’s Honour roll in 2006 and was invested with an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2017 for distinguished service to Indigenous communities in Tasmania.

Martin Flanagan was born in Tasmania in 1955 and graduated with a law degree in 1975. He is the author of 20 books. Among them is a biography of Aboriginal footballer Michael Long (The Short Long Book, Penguin Random House). In 2006, an adaptation of his novel The Call was staged by Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre with Indigenous actors, stage manager and choreographer. From 1985 to 2017 he wrote for the Melbourne Age. He has written for numerous other publications both in Australia and overseas.

Join Aunty Patsy and Martin at the Afterword Cafe.

Attendance is free; please RSVP below.