Snake Dancing

Snake Dreaming: Autobiography of a Black Woman #2

by Roberta B. Sykes

Book by Sykes, Roberta B

Genres: Biography, Biography Memoir

270 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Roberta "Bobbi" Sykes (b. 1943) is an Australian poet and author. Although she is the daughter of a white Australian mother and an African-American father, she has always identified as, and until recently was accepted as, an indigenous Australian. She has been a life-long campaigner for indigenous land rights, as well as human rights and women's rights.Awards and nominations

1982: Patricia Weickert Black Writers Award
1994: Australian Human Rights Medal
1997: Age Book of the Year for Snake Cradle
1998: National Biography Award for Snake Cradle
1998: Nita B. Kibble Literary Award for Snake Cradle

Bibliography

Love Poems and other Revolutionary Actions (Cammeray: The Saturday Centre, 1979)
Mum Shirl: An Autobiography (with Colleen Shirley Perry) (Melbourne, 1981)
Love Poems and other Revolutionary Actions (St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1989) ISBN 0-7022-2173-2
Eclipse. (Queensland, Australia: Univ of Queensland Press, 1996) ISBN 0-7022-2848-6
Incentive, Achievement and Community (Sydney: Sydney University Press, 1986)
Black Majority (Hawthorn, Australia: Hudson, 1989) ISBN 0-949873-25-X
Murawina: Australian Women of High Achievement (Sydney: Doubleday, 1993) ISBN 0-86824-436-8
Snake Cradle (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1997) ISBN 1-86448-513-2
Snake Dancing (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1998) ISBN 1-86448-513-2
Snake Circle (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2000) ISBN 1-86508-335-6

External links

http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/cms/china... for an analysis of the controversy about her identity.

Reviews

[Ruth Forbes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative read published in 1998 painting a clear picture of Australian racism in particular for Black people. A biographical tale of struggle as an activist and young mother. Engrossing! Couldn't put it down.

[Kt · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This review is for the Snake Dreaming Triology as a whole, rather than for the individual books Snake Cradle, Snake Dancing and Snake Circle that make up the trilogy.

Born in the 1940s to a black father she never knew and a white mother, Roberta Sykes did not have an easy life. Growing up in poverty in Townsville, Queensland; she was a sick child who was bullied, exposed to domestic violence and her mother’s narcissism, and gang raped at seventeen. She was also a person who never gave up, relying on her totem the Snake for strength and courage.

Growing into adulthood, she searched to establish her paternity whilst dealing with the challenges of becoming a young mother as a result of being raped, only to end up in two toxic relationships. Working hard to better herself and forge a life her two children, Sykes became involved in Aboriginal health and activism at a time when much of Australia was against her, including many of her so called friends and family. Not content with being the first Secretary at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra; Sykes would go on to gain both a Masters and PhD from Harvard University in the 1980s, making her the first black Australian to have gained a PhD worldwide and only the fourteenth Australian to earn one from Harvard.

What an interesting read the autobiographical Snake Dreaming trilogy was. Sykes’ determination to leave the world a better place than she found it leapt off the page in all three books as she shares a no holds barred account of her first forty years. The fact that she was able to accomplish so much given her terrible and traumatic childhood is nothing short of remarkable; especially in a time when Aboriginal people were subjected to significant racism and the ‘protection’ of the Government.

I did struggle a little with the way all three books were written though, as reading them was like reading someone’s diary. They all contained a lot of information that didn’t add to the narrative in my opinion, and on occasion took away from it. Instead, I wished for a lot less of the day to day stuff and more about what happened once she obtained the PhD she worked so hard for and how she ultimately told her son Russell about his conception as a result of being gang raped given the lengths she went to hide it from him as he grew up.

An eye opening read from one of Australia’s most well known Aboriginal activists; the Snake Dreaming trilogy is an inspiring read about a very resilient woman that everyone should read.

The Snake Dreaming Trilogy is my twentieth read in #ktbookbingo, category ‘A Trilogy.’ To play along with my book bingo and to see what else I’m reading, go to #ktbookbingo or @kt_elder on Instagram.

[Joan Garvan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great to have read this second autobiography by Roberta Sykes. I haven't read the first Snake Cradle though there are pointers to a trauma in her early life. Sykes had become an icon of the indigenous movement in Australia during those early and heady years of the Land Rights Movement during the 1960s and 70s; and good to see a woman among these ranks. I knew of her central involvement but not just how much leadership that Roberta took on, travelling to both the UK and to the USA, as well as numerous trips around various parts of Australia.