Publisher's synopsis
“Most people call me Auntie Rita, whites as well as Aboriginal people. Auntie is a term of respect of our older women folk. You don’t have to be blood-related or anything. Everyone is kin. That’s a beautiful thing because in this way no one is ever truly alone, they always have someone they can turn to.”
Rita Huggins told her memories to her daughter Jackie, and some of their conversation is in this book. We witness their intimacy, their similarities and their differences, the ‘fighting with their tongues’. Two voices, two views on a shared life
Jackie Huggins, a member of the Pitjara/Bidjara and Birri Gubba Juru people, is the Deputy Director, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Unit at the University of Queensland. In popular demand as a speaker on Aboriginal issues, she is a well-known historian and author, with articles published widely here and internationally. Her work in race and gender studies is taught in universities. Her acclaimed biography of her mother Auntie Rita, published in 1994, has been translated into German and French. In 1993 her play Maarkkings was performed by the Contact Youth Theatre and toured to Copenhagen, Amsterdam and other parts of Europe. She is a member of the National Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, the State Library Board of Queensland and a Commissioner for Queensland for the Stolen Generation Inquiry, and for several years was a judge of the national David Unaipon Award for unpublished Indigenous writers
