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Calypso Summer
Calypso Summer is a story told by Calypso, a young Nukunu man, fresh out of high school in Rastafarian guise. After failing to secure employment in sports retail, his dream occupation, Calypso finds work at the Henley Beach Health Food shop where his boss pressures him to gather native plants for natural remedies. This leads him to his Nukunu family in southern Flinders Ranges and the discovery of a world steeped in cultural knowledge. The support of a sassy, smart, young Ngadjuri girl, with a passion for cricket rivalling his own, helps Calypso to reconsider his Rastafarian façade and understand how to take charge of his future.
224 pages, Paperback
First published March 30, 2014
3 people are currently reading
110 people want to read
About the author
Jared Thomas
25 books14 followersJared Thomas was born in Port Augusta in 1976. Both his parents have Aboriginal heritage, and he identifies as Nukunu due to being raised on Nukunu land and with Nukunu culture. He has published many books and his writing explores the power of belonging and culture. In 2015 his novel Calypso Summer joined the 2015 International Youth Library White Raven list of books that deserve worldwide attention because of their universal themes and exceptional artistic and literary style. His recent releases include Songs That Sound Like Blood and the Game Day series written with NBA player Patty Mills.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 10, 2014
Calypso is fresh out of high school and working at Henley Beach Health Food shop where his boss likes him to really put on the Rastafari and do a Bob Marley impersonation (good for sales, he says). One day his boss asks if any of Calypso’s people have secret Aborigine remedies they could sell in the Health Food shop, for a price.
Wanting to please his boss, Calypso goes to his mother who sends him to Nukunu auntie in the Flinders Ranges, to learn healing remedies that he can maybe bring home to sell. But while there Calypso finds that the family are in the middle of land-owning discussions, he meets a Ngadjuri girl called Clare and starts to feel a connection to his past …
‘Calypso Summer’ is the debut young adult novel from Jared Thomas, and winner of the black&write! Award from the State Library of Queensland.
‘Calypso Summer’ starts out slow – we meet Calyspo and his cousin, Run, whose mooching on Calypso’s couch after heartache leaves him lazy. Calypso recently finished high school and had dreams of working in a sports store (being a Usain Bolt and Michael Jordan fan, Calypso knows all there is to know about Puma and Nike sportswear) but nobody would employ him, a half-white half-Nukunu man with dreadlocks and a penchant for Rastafari culture. For a little while it looked as though no one in Adelaide would give Calypso a job, until he stumbled into work at a video rental store which owner Gary then turned into a Health Food store – where Calypso’s exotic looks helped sell everything from potent corn to healing crystals.
Calyspo sets the stage for readers and while it does read as slow-burn, the set-up is important for the transformation Calypso undergoes throughout the book. Knowing about his employment history, we learn how hard it was for Calypso and how depressed he felt having to turn to Centrelink, even though he knew he was a capable and willing employee. So when his Health Food boss, Gary, suggests Calyspo asks ‘his people’ for healing Aborigine bush medicines to sell in the shop, we understand why Calypso goes above and beyond and reaches out to his estranged Nukunu to learn about these recipes.
Except Calypso ends up learning a whole lot more, about his family and the land they call home, about his mother and why she lost touch with his Aunty Janet … but above all, Calypso learns about himself.
When Calypso arrives in Port Germein, one of his uncles notes that; “you’re here but you don’t understand what being here means yet.” And the whole book becomes about Calypso and his family addressing this issue, teaching Calypso what being here means. It’s a really beautiful thought, especially because Calypso has been so disconnected from his past and his mob for so long. At one point early on, he remembers a school excursion to Tandanya, the National Aboriginal Cultural Institute in Adelaide.
I knew Tandanya, I’d been there on a school excursion. In the gallery there were all of these surfboards that an artist had put his designs on, patterns from his mob. I could tell that even some of the white kids thought they were deadly. And then this fella taught us things about Aboriginal Australia, pointing to a map of the continent and explaining how there are hundreds of different language groups with different cultures. Then he explained how the didgeridoo comes from just one small part of the country in Arnhem Land. Then he played the didg. He was deadly and I felt good to be a Nunga that day until we were riding back to school on the bus and Kelly Simkin said, ‘Well that was different, I was expecting to just see drunk Aborigines.’ Everyone laughed. Some of them looked straight at me when they laughed too and I was so angry I felt like flogging ‘em.
That’s such a heartbreaking scene, but it’s one that I’m sure many Aboriginal children can relate to when their culture collides with current stereotypes and ingrained racism. It goes to show what Calypso is up against, why he’s taken on the Rastafarian identity instead of his Aboriginal one.
There is a romance in the book, when Calypso meets Clare – a young hairdresser with a love for cricket and her Ngadjuri background, who also helps Calypso find his true identity. The love interest is a nice balance to a quite intense story, and is likewise a good remedy for Calypso’s somewhat lonely life.
This is a really great book for anyone to read who would like to know more about Aboriginal culture. Jared Thomas covers a lot of history for Calypso and readers – from learning about ‘The Dreaming’, to discussing native land titles and the exploitation of the First People’s histories (in the book it’s called, “taking away” which is a hard but true summary).
The earth, the moon and the stars are round and time goes round in a circle. Our past, present and future are all connected to each other. What we did yesterday affects today, and what we do today affects tomorrow.
Jared Thomas has so perfectly captured the voice of Calypso – a young man torn between cultures but blind to his own identity. It’s a book about family, above all else, and coming to the realisation that to go forward you have to first look back.
Wanting to please his boss, Calypso goes to his mother who sends him to Nukunu auntie in the Flinders Ranges, to learn healing remedies that he can maybe bring home to sell. But while there Calypso finds that the family are in the middle of land-owning discussions, he meets a Ngadjuri girl called Clare and starts to feel a connection to his past …
‘Calypso Summer’ is the debut young adult novel from Jared Thomas, and winner of the black&write! Award from the State Library of Queensland.
‘Calypso Summer’ starts out slow – we meet Calyspo and his cousin, Run, whose mooching on Calypso’s couch after heartache leaves him lazy. Calypso recently finished high school and had dreams of working in a sports store (being a Usain Bolt and Michael Jordan fan, Calypso knows all there is to know about Puma and Nike sportswear) but nobody would employ him, a half-white half-Nukunu man with dreadlocks and a penchant for Rastafari culture. For a little while it looked as though no one in Adelaide would give Calypso a job, until he stumbled into work at a video rental store which owner Gary then turned into a Health Food store – where Calypso’s exotic looks helped sell everything from potent corn to healing crystals.
Calyspo sets the stage for readers and while it does read as slow-burn, the set-up is important for the transformation Calypso undergoes throughout the book. Knowing about his employment history, we learn how hard it was for Calypso and how depressed he felt having to turn to Centrelink, even though he knew he was a capable and willing employee. So when his Health Food boss, Gary, suggests Calyspo asks ‘his people’ for healing Aborigine bush medicines to sell in the shop, we understand why Calypso goes above and beyond and reaches out to his estranged Nukunu to learn about these recipes.
Except Calypso ends up learning a whole lot more, about his family and the land they call home, about his mother and why she lost touch with his Aunty Janet … but above all, Calypso learns about himself.
When Calypso arrives in Port Germein, one of his uncles notes that; “you’re here but you don’t understand what being here means yet.” And the whole book becomes about Calypso and his family addressing this issue, teaching Calypso what being here means. It’s a really beautiful thought, especially because Calypso has been so disconnected from his past and his mob for so long. At one point early on, he remembers a school excursion to Tandanya, the National Aboriginal Cultural Institute in Adelaide.
I knew Tandanya, I’d been there on a school excursion. In the gallery there were all of these surfboards that an artist had put his designs on, patterns from his mob. I could tell that even some of the white kids thought they were deadly. And then this fella taught us things about Aboriginal Australia, pointing to a map of the continent and explaining how there are hundreds of different language groups with different cultures. Then he explained how the didgeridoo comes from just one small part of the country in Arnhem Land. Then he played the didg. He was deadly and I felt good to be a Nunga that day until we were riding back to school on the bus and Kelly Simkin said, ‘Well that was different, I was expecting to just see drunk Aborigines.’ Everyone laughed. Some of them looked straight at me when they laughed too and I was so angry I felt like flogging ‘em.
That’s such a heartbreaking scene, but it’s one that I’m sure many Aboriginal children can relate to when their culture collides with current stereotypes and ingrained racism. It goes to show what Calypso is up against, why he’s taken on the Rastafarian identity instead of his Aboriginal one.
There is a romance in the book, when Calypso meets Clare – a young hairdresser with a love for cricket and her Ngadjuri background, who also helps Calypso find his true identity. The love interest is a nice balance to a quite intense story, and is likewise a good remedy for Calypso’s somewhat lonely life.
This is a really great book for anyone to read who would like to know more about Aboriginal culture. Jared Thomas covers a lot of history for Calypso and readers – from learning about ‘The Dreaming’, to discussing native land titles and the exploitation of the First People’s histories (in the book it’s called, “taking away” which is a hard but true summary).
The earth, the moon and the stars are round and time goes round in a circle. Our past, present and future are all connected to each other. What we did yesterday affects today, and what we do today affects tomorrow.
Jared Thomas has so perfectly captured the voice of Calypso – a young man torn between cultures but blind to his own identity. It’s a book about family, above all else, and coming to the realisation that to go forward you have to first look back.
August 6, 2016
This was pretty fantastic.
I think this book does a really great job of balancing the personal and the political. It's a coming of age/finding yourself story. It's a falling-in-love story. It's also an unflinching look at the injustice and racism faced by Indigenous Australians, both in the past and today.
I smiled, I cringed, I got angry. I am left hopeful.
I think this book does a really great job of balancing the personal and the political. It's a coming of age/finding yourself story. It's a falling-in-love story. It's also an unflinching look at the injustice and racism faced by Indigenous Australians, both in the past and today.
I smiled, I cringed, I got angry. I am left hopeful.
May 30, 2020
Kyle struggles with two things; the way white people respond to his brown skin and dreadlocks and knowing who he is. He goes by the name Calypso and loves all things Caribbean—West Indian Cricket team, Usain Bolt, Bob Marley and Reggae music.
Calypso struggles to find work and is rewarded for helping Gary at the local DVD shop with a job there. Gary changes the shop to selling health and natural products and the shop does well. With the change comes a request from Gary for Calypso to find Aboriginal remedies and medicines from his family.
This request sends Calypso to find family and links he’s not had a lot of contact with; his mother was Stolen Generation.
The journey of discovery is a lively read. The characters are rich and complex.
2013 Winner State Library of Queensland Black & Write Prize Winner
Published by Magabala Books 2014
Recommended for 13+
Calypso struggles to find work and is rewarded for helping Gary at the local DVD shop with a job there. Gary changes the shop to selling health and natural products and the shop does well. With the change comes a request from Gary for Calypso to find Aboriginal remedies and medicines from his family.
This request sends Calypso to find family and links he’s not had a lot of contact with; his mother was Stolen Generation.
The journey of discovery is a lively read. The characters are rich and complex.
2013 Winner State Library of Queensland Black & Write Prize Winner
Published by Magabala Books 2014
Recommended for 13+
November 15, 2018
This would be a great addition to any high school library. The novel is about a young Indigenous man called Calypso as he tries to work out who he is. Some discussion points for students include - stereotypes, Indigenous culture, land rights. This novel is definitely worth a read.
March 28, 2021
This read like a book they’d make you study in school - packs in all the issues in an okay-ish story. It dragged in the middle and the ending was abrupt with a couple of loose ends (what happened to Run?).
January 14, 2019
Really enjoyable coming of age and back to country tale.
July 15, 2020
Read this for uni and really enjoyed it. A fantastic voice.
July 11, 2021
I wanted to really like this one but it was a bit too YA-y for me
Read
March 29, 2024Met jared Thomas at work last week, he’s incredible.
This story takes place around South Australia and it’s nice reading and knowing exactly where they are!
I enjoyed this one.
This story takes place around South Australia and it’s nice reading and knowing exactly where they are!
I enjoyed this one.
January 20, 2016
Calypso Summer is a YA title which was published under the auspices of the black&write! Indigenous Writing and Editing Project sponsored by the State Library of Queensland. As it says on the black&write website
black&write! is a national project and the first of its kind in Australia. It was developed to foster a significant Indigenous writing community. Launched by author Boori Monty Pryor and actor Ernie Dingo at the 2010 Cairns Indigenous Arts Fair, it is a bold, inspiring project designed to nurture talent, flex the creative imagination and change the landscape of Indigenous writing in Australia.
Why?
While Australia is active in supporting its Indigenous athletes, artists and dancers, there is a recognised lack of long-term strategies to encourage and develop its Indigenous writing talent. This imbalance is recognised in many recent writing and publishing surveys and government-funded research studies.
About
black&write! is made up of the Indigenous writing fellowships and the Indigenous editing mentorships. The project is designed to recruit, train and mentor Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander editors to develop Indigenous authored manuscripts. In 2012 and 2013, black&write! also offers training in onscreen editing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through the Indigenous Onscreen Trainee Editor program.
black&write! aims to:
•train, mentor and promote outstanding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers and editors,
•encourage lifelong Indigenous learning and literacy and foster a love of reading, writing and ideas in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Well, if Calypso Summer is anything to go by, this project will be a resounding success. I really enjoyed this book, and I think its engaging character Calypso will appeal to many young people, indigenous or not.
Calypso is not long out of school, living in the beachside suburb of Henley Beach and finding it hard to get work. He wants to work in a sports store, but youth unemployment is high, and although he did well at school it’s not hard to work out why he’s one of the first to be eliminated. He’s a young Nukunu man, and because he’s crazy about cricket, he’s adopted a Rasta persona. Not every employer likes dreadlocks, but it’s obvious that it’s not his hair that’s the problem.
Even dressed up flash, those bosses looked at me like I was going to rob their shop.
I tried and tried, I really did and I applied everywhere too, not just sports stores. After months of interviews and not getting anywhere, I just gave in. No one in Adelaide was going to give me a job … not Calypso the blackfella. I felt like a real no-hoper. Most of my friends from school were doing apprenticeships, or going to uni or working. I started to see less and less of them. They were getting cars and girlfriends and I wasn’t doing much at all. Even the special kids had places to go. (p. 14)
Who could blame him for getting discouraged?
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2014/06/24/ca...
black&write! is a national project and the first of its kind in Australia. It was developed to foster a significant Indigenous writing community. Launched by author Boori Monty Pryor and actor Ernie Dingo at the 2010 Cairns Indigenous Arts Fair, it is a bold, inspiring project designed to nurture talent, flex the creative imagination and change the landscape of Indigenous writing in Australia.
Why?
While Australia is active in supporting its Indigenous athletes, artists and dancers, there is a recognised lack of long-term strategies to encourage and develop its Indigenous writing talent. This imbalance is recognised in many recent writing and publishing surveys and government-funded research studies.
About
black&write! is made up of the Indigenous writing fellowships and the Indigenous editing mentorships. The project is designed to recruit, train and mentor Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander editors to develop Indigenous authored manuscripts. In 2012 and 2013, black&write! also offers training in onscreen editing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through the Indigenous Onscreen Trainee Editor program.
black&write! aims to:
•train, mentor and promote outstanding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers and editors,
•encourage lifelong Indigenous learning and literacy and foster a love of reading, writing and ideas in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Well, if Calypso Summer is anything to go by, this project will be a resounding success. I really enjoyed this book, and I think its engaging character Calypso will appeal to many young people, indigenous or not.
Calypso is not long out of school, living in the beachside suburb of Henley Beach and finding it hard to get work. He wants to work in a sports store, but youth unemployment is high, and although he did well at school it’s not hard to work out why he’s one of the first to be eliminated. He’s a young Nukunu man, and because he’s crazy about cricket, he’s adopted a Rasta persona. Not every employer likes dreadlocks, but it’s obvious that it’s not his hair that’s the problem.
Even dressed up flash, those bosses looked at me like I was going to rob their shop.
I tried and tried, I really did and I applied everywhere too, not just sports stores. After months of interviews and not getting anywhere, I just gave in. No one in Adelaide was going to give me a job … not Calypso the blackfella. I felt like a real no-hoper. Most of my friends from school were doing apprenticeships, or going to uni or working. I started to see less and less of them. They were getting cars and girlfriends and I wasn’t doing much at all. Even the special kids had places to go. (p. 14)
Who could blame him for getting discouraged?
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2014/06/24/ca...
April 22, 2016
Also reviewed on my Youtube channel.
This is the story of Calypso, a young Nukunu man, and how he meets his extended family and visits Nukunu land for the first time. It's also the story of Calypso falling in love with a girl named Claire. And it's ALSO the story of Calypso's mum - who was part of the Stolen Generation - working through her guilt and her anger about her past, and reconnecting with her family and her Indigenous heritage. And it's ALSO ALSO about Calypso trying to save his job by finding Aboriginal remedies that he and his boss can sell in their health food shop.
So while I enjoyed the writing and I liked the characters, this effectively felt like three separate stories combined into one, and none of them were fleshed out QUITE as well as I would have liked them to be. If the story had focused exclusively on the return-to-country elements of the story rather than adding in a bunch of additional background plots, it would have been much stronger for me.
I also found that the ending was rather more abrupt than I would have liked, and it effectively felt like that scene at the end of a rom-com where you see everyone's happily ever afters for a split second. That said, I liked that Jared Thomas didn't pull any punches in regards to the reality of life for Indigenous youth - the racism they face on a daily basis, the way they're treated by police, and how Calypso finds life much easier when he pretends to be Jamaican.
So it's an important story, and it's wonderful to have Indigenous stories told by Indigenous voices. I just wish this could have been a little more fleshed out than it was.
This is the story of Calypso, a young Nukunu man, and how he meets his extended family and visits Nukunu land for the first time. It's also the story of Calypso falling in love with a girl named Claire. And it's ALSO the story of Calypso's mum - who was part of the Stolen Generation - working through her guilt and her anger about her past, and reconnecting with her family and her Indigenous heritage. And it's ALSO ALSO about Calypso trying to save his job by finding Aboriginal remedies that he and his boss can sell in their health food shop.
So while I enjoyed the writing and I liked the characters, this effectively felt like three separate stories combined into one, and none of them were fleshed out QUITE as well as I would have liked them to be. If the story had focused exclusively on the return-to-country elements of the story rather than adding in a bunch of additional background plots, it would have been much stronger for me.
I also found that the ending was rather more abrupt than I would have liked, and it effectively felt like that scene at the end of a rom-com where you see everyone's happily ever afters for a split second. That said, I liked that Jared Thomas didn't pull any punches in regards to the reality of life for Indigenous youth - the racism they face on a daily basis, the way they're treated by police, and how Calypso finds life much easier when he pretends to be Jamaican.
So it's an important story, and it's wonderful to have Indigenous stories told by Indigenous voices. I just wish this could have been a little more fleshed out than it was.
Read
October 3, 2016What a great book :)
I loved that it was an honest reflection of an Indigenous boy growing up in the city being judged for his culture but not letting it define him!
Definitely worth a read, especially with any young readers struggling to accept themselves for who they are born to be
I loved that it was an honest reflection of an Indigenous boy growing up in the city being judged for his culture but not letting it define him!
Definitely worth a read, especially with any young readers struggling to accept themselves for who they are born to be
June 14, 2014
I enjoyed this story of a young man coming to terms with his identity and family relationships. It portrays a realistic unsentimental view of young aboriginal Australians.
May 27, 2015
Wished I'd read this much sooner - great coming of age story; urban Aboriginal boy who pretends to be Jamaican and learns who he really is
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews