WEST AUSTRALIANA Aboriginal –
Examines the politics of the day and its affect on the indigenous people of the Pilbara, Western Australia. The Flying Foam Massacres of the 1860’s gave Gerry the surname Moses. Inspirational grandparents Molly and Billie (famed for his involvement in Pilbara
Strikes,1948), their’s is a story of love, loss and survival.
Gerry Moses is Nyiyaparli, born deaf and blind he was abandoned at birth. His grandmother raised him, teaching him to see the stars and listen to the ancestors. She died leaving him to face the violence of township life. After operations to restore his hearing he learnt to speak by listening to ABC radio. Horror visited his young life, like having to listen to his little brother being set alight while trying to save Gerry. Denied an education, Gerry sat nosed up to a TV believing that his ancestors were speaking to him through iconic Hollywood movies.
Kutalaani is a touching portrayal of a courageous life. It interprets the lived experience behind government lingo and reveals indigenous omens seen in the cosmos.
This is a true indigenous story
During a time of political upheaval and dire warnings from the cosmos, a tiny baby is abandoned in the heart of the remote Australian Pilbara. Gerry is a child who can neither see nor hear, but he believes in love, kindness and magic: both the deep ancestral, cultural and spiritual magic and also the magic of Hollywood. Having the courage to be different Gerry faces incredible brutality, however, he overcomes all that the universe thrusts upon him to lead a truly remarkable and poetic life: A life that exemplifies happiness, kindness and compassion… these qualities inspire a magic of their own.
This is an enchanting, entertaining and honest intergenerational tale which exquisitely weaves together the real history of the Pilbara – both indigenous and colonial – into utterly spell-binding truth-telling. You were never taught this at school!
This is Gerry’s truth.
pp. xix, 139, illusts. #290926