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A Piece of Red Cloth
'A big Yolngu story, rich with Yolngu knowledge and world view, and with the vivid language and narrative excitement to appeal to everyone... a breathtaking re-imagining of history and place.' - Nicholas Jose
It's early in the wet season. A flock of crested terns sweeps into the bay and dives towards Batjani. The birds are saying the foreigners are coming, as they do every year, but why are they so full of menace?
Batjani's beloved granddaughter Garritji is on the cusp of womanhood, about to go through the rituals preparing her for marriage. Batjani uses all means at her disposal to protect her granddaughter from the visiting Macassan trepang fishers, but she is betrayed. Can Garritji be saved?
This powerful and unique novel is based on oral history and told through Yolngu eyes, with ancestors as the Yolngu remember them: proud, strong, resilient people in control of their world and interacting with foreigners on their own terms.
'We've been waiting a long time for a book like this that tells a big Yolngu story, rich with Yolngu knowledge and world view, and with the vivid language and narrative excitement to appeal to everyone...[A] breathtaking re-imagining of history and place.' - Nicholas Jose, editor of the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature
'With all the colour and sensuality of slow-paced life on Country, the novel suddenly moves towards its action-filled resolution.' - Stephen Muecke, Nulungu Research Institute, Broome
It's early in the wet season. A flock of crested terns sweeps into the bay and dives towards Batjani. The birds are saying the foreigners are coming, as they do every year, but why are they so full of menace?
Batjani's beloved granddaughter Garritji is on the cusp of womanhood, about to go through the rituals preparing her for marriage. Batjani uses all means at her disposal to protect her granddaughter from the visiting Macassan trepang fishers, but she is betrayed. Can Garritji be saved?
This powerful and unique novel is based on oral history and told through Yolngu eyes, with ancestors as the Yolngu remember them: proud, strong, resilient people in control of their world and interacting with foreigners on their own terms.
'We've been waiting a long time for a book like this that tells a big Yolngu story, rich with Yolngu knowledge and world view, and with the vivid language and narrative excitement to appeal to everyone...[A] breathtaking re-imagining of history and place.' - Nicholas Jose, editor of the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature
'With all the colour and sensuality of slow-paced life on Country, the novel suddenly moves towards its action-filled resolution.' - Stephen Muecke, Nulungu Research Institute, Broome
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
March 8, 2025
This is very well told historical fiction. It takes a little while to warm up, especially given the cast is large, but by halfway through I was thoroughly hooked. Set in the early 17th Century, the authors switch between the perspectives of Yolnju characters and the Macassan fishers, who are wrestling with their own pressures from Dutch colonialism. In this world, sexual violence and exploitation are rife, and Batjani struggles to decide how to protect her granddaughter Garratji, while others have the opposite intent. Meanwhile Garratji is navigating puberty and the changes that brings in her life. The book builds towards a conflagaration we can see coming, but most of the characters have less certainty about, making it a page-turner.
It is rare - possibly unique - to see books grounded in Yolnju societies and lore, which makes it fairly special. This is a celebration of women and elders, which never patronises or smooths over the messiness of lives. It gives a real sense of the resilience of Yolnju life, while never diverting from the story for exposition. It is, in short, good fiction.
It is rare - possibly unique - to see books grounded in Yolnju societies and lore, which makes it fairly special. This is a celebration of women and elders, which never patronises or smooths over the messiness of lives. It gives a real sense of the resilience of Yolnju life, while never diverting from the story for exposition. It is, in short, good fiction.
March 10, 2025
What a privilege it is, to be allowed this insight. Fiction or not, this storytelling is alive with Yolŋu culture, language and truth. A story that lingers, teaches, and asserts the power of cultural survival.
April 5, 2025
What a great book... really felt so drawn to this story and characters that brought this time and places alive. I feel like I learned a lot about Yolngu culture too, it was really insightful. I think this story will stay with me for a long while.
July 21, 2025
A Piece of Red Cloth is said to be a ground-breaking work of historical fiction for two reasons: partly because of the way it has been written and partly because it is a story based on Australia's pre-colonial history.
The novel was written collaboratively by Leonie Norrington, best-known for her award-winning children's picture story books, and Yolngu cultural custodians Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, Djawa Burarrwanga and Djawundil Maymuru. (Merrkiyawuy and Djawundil have collaborated with Norrington before, to co-author Welcome to My Country and Songspirals.)
But, as explained in the Author's Note, the novel was inspired by Leanie Norrington's mentor Clare Bush (deceased) — who adopted Norrington, not in the Western sense, but took charge of the Norrington family's Yolngu cultural education when they were growing up in the 1960s in a remote community in southern Arnhem Land. It was subsequently Clare Bush who worked with Norrington to help her create numerous children's books set in remote northern Australia featuring Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal kids.
Clare, keen to redress the negative and patronising depiction of traditional Aboriginal people and lifestyles in the media, also...
Together, they worked on an outline for the book, based on pre-colonial oral history about the kidnapping of a Yolngu girl by Makassan traders, but Clare Bush* died before the novel could progress. Never very confident about making the transition to writing for adults, Norrington let the story lapse until some years later when she was asked to finish it by Clare's family, and encouragement and guidance was provided by book's co-authors and Yolngu knowledge holders, Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, Djawa Burarrwanga and Djawundil Maymuru.
As you can see from the Non-Fiction and Memoir page of my First Nations Reading List, there are other examples of collaborative First Nations writing but I have not come across a fictional narrative before.
The other distinctive feature of A Piece of Red Cloth is that it's historical fiction based on oral history and a culture unfamiliar to most of us. As teachers of Indonesian or Australian history know, there is plenty of empirical evidence about Makassan trepang traders making contact with coastal Aborigines — and since at least 2007 there has been a Wikipedia page 'Makassan Contact with Australia' which provides information about physical evidence of Makassan contact, including rock art, archaeological evidence from plants to pottery, written accounts in Indonesia, language exchange and technology borrowings from the Makassans such as the dug-out canoe.
But —as portrayed in this novel — the relationship with the land, the patriarchal nature of Yolngu society and the kinship system with its complex rules and protocols, is as unfamiliar as is their hunter-gatherer lifestyle, their diet, their cooking methods, their tool-making, their ceremonies and rituals, and their beliefs.
To read the rest of my review, please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2025/07/21/a...
The novel was written collaboratively by Leonie Norrington, best-known for her award-winning children's picture story books, and Yolngu cultural custodians Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, Djawa Burarrwanga and Djawundil Maymuru. (Merrkiyawuy and Djawundil have collaborated with Norrington before, to co-author Welcome to My Country and Songspirals.)
But, as explained in the Author's Note, the novel was inspired by Leanie Norrington's mentor Clare Bush (deceased) — who adopted Norrington, not in the Western sense, but took charge of the Norrington family's Yolngu cultural education when they were growing up in the 1960s in a remote community in southern Arnhem Land. It was subsequently Clare Bush who worked with Norrington to help her create numerous children's books set in remote northern Australia featuring Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal kids.
Clare, keen to redress the negative and patronising depiction of traditional Aboriginal people and lifestyles in the media, also...
... wanted Australian fiction to include narratives that presented Aboriginal people as they saw themselves, from a point of view that enacted their motives, ambition and philosophy. (p.369)
Together, they worked on an outline for the book, based on pre-colonial oral history about the kidnapping of a Yolngu girl by Makassan traders, but Clare Bush* died before the novel could progress. Never very confident about making the transition to writing for adults, Norrington let the story lapse until some years later when she was asked to finish it by Clare's family, and encouragement and guidance was provided by book's co-authors and Yolngu knowledge holders, Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, Djawa Burarrwanga and Djawundil Maymuru.
As you can see from the Non-Fiction and Memoir page of my First Nations Reading List, there are other examples of collaborative First Nations writing but I have not come across a fictional narrative before.
The other distinctive feature of A Piece of Red Cloth is that it's historical fiction based on oral history and a culture unfamiliar to most of us. As teachers of Indonesian or Australian history know, there is plenty of empirical evidence about Makassan trepang traders making contact with coastal Aborigines — and since at least 2007 there has been a Wikipedia page 'Makassan Contact with Australia' which provides information about physical evidence of Makassan contact, including rock art, archaeological evidence from plants to pottery, written accounts in Indonesia, language exchange and technology borrowings from the Makassans such as the dug-out canoe.
But —as portrayed in this novel — the relationship with the land, the patriarchal nature of Yolngu society and the kinship system with its complex rules and protocols, is as unfamiliar as is their hunter-gatherer lifestyle, their diet, their cooking methods, their tool-making, their ceremonies and rituals, and their beliefs.
To read the rest of my review, please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2025/07/21/a...
December 11, 2025
3.8 stars
This is a narrative that provides profound cultural insight that is invaluable to all those who live on this land. I think it should be read by everyone that calls Australia home. It awoke a consciousness in me about the deep history of this land well before colonization and the histories we have been narrowly taught. It engages with the depictions of gender roles, hierarchies, marriages, traditions, honour and ceremonies, the hunting, the respect for nature, domestic violence, the introduction of alcohol and drugs etc. In this sense, this is a five star read. But when I consider my personal enjoyment of the experience I have to admit, I struggled to get absorbed in the first 40 pages with an overwhelming amount of names and narratives that didn’t clearly intersect (of course they do and it becomes clearer later on), the slower pace in numerous moments (but none the less culturally reflective of their lifetimes) and the sense of dread about the outcome. It was a tough read. Triggering for some, no doubt but an important one to tell.
This is a narrative that provides profound cultural insight that is invaluable to all those who live on this land. I think it should be read by everyone that calls Australia home. It awoke a consciousness in me about the deep history of this land well before colonization and the histories we have been narrowly taught. It engages with the depictions of gender roles, hierarchies, marriages, traditions, honour and ceremonies, the hunting, the respect for nature, domestic violence, the introduction of alcohol and drugs etc. In this sense, this is a five star read. But when I consider my personal enjoyment of the experience I have to admit, I struggled to get absorbed in the first 40 pages with an overwhelming amount of names and narratives that didn’t clearly intersect (of course they do and it becomes clearer later on), the slower pace in numerous moments (but none the less culturally reflective of their lifetimes) and the sense of dread about the outcome. It was a tough read. Triggering for some, no doubt but an important one to tell.
August 11, 2025
I loved this book, informative as to the Yolnu peoples' cultural traditions, beliefs and then the historical impact of disrespectful invaders. A familiar story.
Highly recommend! 🙌
Highly recommend! 🙌
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March 9, 2026Read Around the World #9: Australia 🇦🇺
Very well written historical fiction. As other people, at the start it was a bit difficult to follow due to the big cast of characters and not being used to the kinship system.
Nevertheless, a very nice and interesting read :)
Very well written historical fiction. As other people, at the start it was a bit difficult to follow due to the big cast of characters and not being used to the kinship system.
Nevertheless, a very nice and interesting read :)
April 22, 2025
Powerful and beautiful, should be essential reading for all Australians.
August 6, 2025
This creation would not be possible without the knowledge and permission of our country's elders. Thank you.
May 18, 2026
Couldn’t recommend this book more highly - the depictions of Yolngu culture are incredibly vivid, and the story itself gives us insight into an important piece of Australian history which devastatingly remains untold in mainstream education. There’s nothing better than a great piece of historical fiction and this is just that!
April 6, 2025
Calling this a historical novel might be accurate to a point. The novel is about historical events, things that happened (or might have happened) long ago. But it is a misnomer, if it suggests the kind of work that springs from archival research, from reading books about historical periods or personalities, from speaking with or reading the work of recognised historians. No amount of academic research, no ordinary life experience, and no other Australian author, no matter how gifted or creative, could have written a work like this. The novel is, quite simply but accurately, unique.
The novel tells a story from a time before European colonisation of Australia, and before written records – a time known sketchily in some historical accounts, and thoroughly only in the oral history of the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land. At this time, Macassan traders sailed at the beginning of the Wet Season in their praus, with the prevailing winds and currents, from their islands in Indonesia, to trade trepang or turtle-shell with the Yolngu for iron and sometimes, alcohol or tobacco,. They came for several hundred years, and fought or made love or ceremonies with the local people, and integrated themselves more thoroughly than most Europeans have ever done with the intricate kinship systems and looping, never-ending local tales. Occasionally, Yolngu made the journey the other way – willingly or perhaps kidnapped – to Sulawesi. Occasionally too, the Macassans broke the local laws – perhaps under the influence of the Dutch or Portuguese, who had colonised the Indonesian islands by the 1600s, or of the far-away Chinese, who prized the trepang as an aphrodisiac. When this happened, fighting broke out.
The novel tells the story of Garritji, a teenage Yolngu girl whose grandmother, Batjani, is trying to prepare her for the secret ceremonies of coming of age. At the same time, Batjani is trying to protect Garritji and her cousin-sister, Lingiyara, from something far more sinister – being sold off, or traded, to be raped or sexually enslaved by the rapacious and sexually perverse Macassan trader Agah Zayd. Batjani has strong grounds for this fear. This is exactly what had happened, the year before, to Garritji’s sister Marrdiwani, who is now spiritually dead, ‘dead inside’, the life gone from her eyes. Batjani suspects her brother-in-law, Waditju, of being involved in Marrdiwani’s rape – of selling her as part of a deal involving arrack, the Macassan liquor, which is threatening to poison relations between Macassans and the Yolngu, and upend traditional Law. Even more dangerously, she is beginning to suspect that her own husband Djoli, a good man who is also Waditju’s brother, of somehow being implicated in the awful events surrounding Marrdiwani, or at least of helping cover it up.
Lending emotional richness to this story is a cast of complex characters. There is Djapalitjarri, Garritji’s promised-husband, a young man already skilled in spiritual power, but who is haunted by his voyage to Makassar, a season or two before, and the spiritual corruption he had experienced there. There is Nakhoda Istarb, a traditional Macassan man, who had made many successful voyages to the Yolngu countries they call Marege, but whose authority is threatened by unscrupulous younger men. There is Nambatj, a senior elder and Yolngu lawman, who has great psychic power, making spiritual journeys through time and space, communicating with ancestors, but whose rigidity makes it hard for him to negotiate the changes the Macassans have wrought. Perhaps the most interesting character is Djoli – a man truly torn between loyalty to his Law, and to his wife Batjani, whom he loves, and on the other to his brother Waditju, whose dark schemes he finds himself fatally unable to betray.
And yet, even to describe the novel in these terms is to reduce it somehow to non-Indigenous frames of reference. The novel is an epistemological leap – a leap of the imagination into another world, another Law. It is complex. The names are unfamiliar. Even more, the relationships and kinship systems are unfamiliar, and depicted in all their complexity without the condescension of a glossary. The language of second-wife, sister-wife, cousin-sister is interwoven throughout the story without explanation, leaving the reader to work it out – or, just as likely, fail to work it out – for themselves. This is exactly how it would be if the reader were flung, in reality, into the Yolngu world.
Interwoven, too, are elements of a worldview which jars fundamentally with the secular, rationalist, liberal viewpoint likely reflexively possessed by most non-Indigenous readers. There are the psychic powers of the lawman Nambatj, for example, which enable him to speak with his ancient ancestor Tarritji, who was present when the first Macassans, known as the Lilambarri, arrived on Yolngu shores. There is the force-field, the continuous shield of energy created with song, which protects the Yolngu lands from Barbarian invasion, making them look desolate and uninhabitable, so that the foreign ships sail along the Yolngu shores, their crews unable to see land.
And there are statements, too, about Law, particularly the relations between men and women, which some non-Indigenous readers might find challenging. Discussing Marrdiwani’s rape, the women are overcome by a ‘defeated silence’, for ‘[a]ll of them – beautiful and plain, old and young, clever or practical – are governed by their men. The Law protects them against violence or meanness, but they all must defer to their men’s decisions’ (p. 92). At the same time, as Old Lady Marrngitj says towards the end of the story, ‘Our Law forbids all abuse. There are clear dictates about who can hit a person and why. Rape is illegal. Always!’ (p. 255).
But while so much is unfamiliar, its themes are universal and human, as much of the twenty-first century as of the late 1600s, when the novel is set. There are observations, such as that an ‘abused woman, like an abused dingo, cannot be trusted. The husband’s fist is always in her mind, her fear so acute that she will sometimes endanger her own children to keep herself safe’ (p. 194). There is the conflict which destroys Djoli, between loyalty to his brother and loyalty to his Law and his wife. There is the battle between good and evil, between the forces of Law and the forces of chaos and destruction, symbolised by the power of arrack, but even more by the power of the mixture of opium and tobacco they call madak, deliberately introduced by Agah Zayd to turn ‘the trading partner into a slave, begging to do the Barbarians’ bidding’ (p. 250). Madak destroys the power of the mind, preventing even Nambatj from exercising his psychic powers. Ultimately – if allowed to spread – it would destroy traditional Yolngu society and law.
The novel has four authors – Leonie Norrington, a non-Indigenous woman raised among the Yolngu, and three senior Yolngu elders, Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, Djawa Burarrwanga, and Djawundil Maymuru. As a note states towards the end, the story is based on an ancient historical Yolngu story. As a general rule it may be true, as a non-Indigenous writer (Phillip Gwynne, the author of Australian Rules) once said, ‘this consultation thing means books by committees’, and most ‘books by committees’ are mediocre at best. How, exactly, this one works is not explained in detail – whether, for example, the details of each personality, or of the narrative and dialogue, form part of the Yolngu oral history, or how exactly the writing process itself worked between the authors. But work it does. The story is powerful, to the extent that we have, for the first time as far as I am aware, a Yolngu story presented in all its richness – a gift not just for Australian literature, but for Australian politics and cultural and environmental life.
The novel tells a story from a time before European colonisation of Australia, and before written records – a time known sketchily in some historical accounts, and thoroughly only in the oral history of the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land. At this time, Macassan traders sailed at the beginning of the Wet Season in their praus, with the prevailing winds and currents, from their islands in Indonesia, to trade trepang or turtle-shell with the Yolngu for iron and sometimes, alcohol or tobacco,. They came for several hundred years, and fought or made love or ceremonies with the local people, and integrated themselves more thoroughly than most Europeans have ever done with the intricate kinship systems and looping, never-ending local tales. Occasionally, Yolngu made the journey the other way – willingly or perhaps kidnapped – to Sulawesi. Occasionally too, the Macassans broke the local laws – perhaps under the influence of the Dutch or Portuguese, who had colonised the Indonesian islands by the 1600s, or of the far-away Chinese, who prized the trepang as an aphrodisiac. When this happened, fighting broke out.
The novel tells the story of Garritji, a teenage Yolngu girl whose grandmother, Batjani, is trying to prepare her for the secret ceremonies of coming of age. At the same time, Batjani is trying to protect Garritji and her cousin-sister, Lingiyara, from something far more sinister – being sold off, or traded, to be raped or sexually enslaved by the rapacious and sexually perverse Macassan trader Agah Zayd. Batjani has strong grounds for this fear. This is exactly what had happened, the year before, to Garritji’s sister Marrdiwani, who is now spiritually dead, ‘dead inside’, the life gone from her eyes. Batjani suspects her brother-in-law, Waditju, of being involved in Marrdiwani’s rape – of selling her as part of a deal involving arrack, the Macassan liquor, which is threatening to poison relations between Macassans and the Yolngu, and upend traditional Law. Even more dangerously, she is beginning to suspect that her own husband Djoli, a good man who is also Waditju’s brother, of somehow being implicated in the awful events surrounding Marrdiwani, or at least of helping cover it up.
Lending emotional richness to this story is a cast of complex characters. There is Djapalitjarri, Garritji’s promised-husband, a young man already skilled in spiritual power, but who is haunted by his voyage to Makassar, a season or two before, and the spiritual corruption he had experienced there. There is Nakhoda Istarb, a traditional Macassan man, who had made many successful voyages to the Yolngu countries they call Marege, but whose authority is threatened by unscrupulous younger men. There is Nambatj, a senior elder and Yolngu lawman, who has great psychic power, making spiritual journeys through time and space, communicating with ancestors, but whose rigidity makes it hard for him to negotiate the changes the Macassans have wrought. Perhaps the most interesting character is Djoli – a man truly torn between loyalty to his Law, and to his wife Batjani, whom he loves, and on the other to his brother Waditju, whose dark schemes he finds himself fatally unable to betray.
And yet, even to describe the novel in these terms is to reduce it somehow to non-Indigenous frames of reference. The novel is an epistemological leap – a leap of the imagination into another world, another Law. It is complex. The names are unfamiliar. Even more, the relationships and kinship systems are unfamiliar, and depicted in all their complexity without the condescension of a glossary. The language of second-wife, sister-wife, cousin-sister is interwoven throughout the story without explanation, leaving the reader to work it out – or, just as likely, fail to work it out – for themselves. This is exactly how it would be if the reader were flung, in reality, into the Yolngu world.
Interwoven, too, are elements of a worldview which jars fundamentally with the secular, rationalist, liberal viewpoint likely reflexively possessed by most non-Indigenous readers. There are the psychic powers of the lawman Nambatj, for example, which enable him to speak with his ancient ancestor Tarritji, who was present when the first Macassans, known as the Lilambarri, arrived on Yolngu shores. There is the force-field, the continuous shield of energy created with song, which protects the Yolngu lands from Barbarian invasion, making them look desolate and uninhabitable, so that the foreign ships sail along the Yolngu shores, their crews unable to see land.
And there are statements, too, about Law, particularly the relations between men and women, which some non-Indigenous readers might find challenging. Discussing Marrdiwani’s rape, the women are overcome by a ‘defeated silence’, for ‘[a]ll of them – beautiful and plain, old and young, clever or practical – are governed by their men. The Law protects them against violence or meanness, but they all must defer to their men’s decisions’ (p. 92). At the same time, as Old Lady Marrngitj says towards the end of the story, ‘Our Law forbids all abuse. There are clear dictates about who can hit a person and why. Rape is illegal. Always!’ (p. 255).
But while so much is unfamiliar, its themes are universal and human, as much of the twenty-first century as of the late 1600s, when the novel is set. There are observations, such as that an ‘abused woman, like an abused dingo, cannot be trusted. The husband’s fist is always in her mind, her fear so acute that she will sometimes endanger her own children to keep herself safe’ (p. 194). There is the conflict which destroys Djoli, between loyalty to his brother and loyalty to his Law and his wife. There is the battle between good and evil, between the forces of Law and the forces of chaos and destruction, symbolised by the power of arrack, but even more by the power of the mixture of opium and tobacco they call madak, deliberately introduced by Agah Zayd to turn ‘the trading partner into a slave, begging to do the Barbarians’ bidding’ (p. 250). Madak destroys the power of the mind, preventing even Nambatj from exercising his psychic powers. Ultimately – if allowed to spread – it would destroy traditional Yolngu society and law.
The novel has four authors – Leonie Norrington, a non-Indigenous woman raised among the Yolngu, and three senior Yolngu elders, Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, Djawa Burarrwanga, and Djawundil Maymuru. As a note states towards the end, the story is based on an ancient historical Yolngu story. As a general rule it may be true, as a non-Indigenous writer (Phillip Gwynne, the author of Australian Rules) once said, ‘this consultation thing means books by committees’, and most ‘books by committees’ are mediocre at best. How, exactly, this one works is not explained in detail – whether, for example, the details of each personality, or of the narrative and dialogue, form part of the Yolngu oral history, or how exactly the writing process itself worked between the authors. But work it does. The story is powerful, to the extent that we have, for the first time as far as I am aware, a Yolngu story presented in all its richness – a gift not just for Australian literature, but for Australian politics and cultural and environmental life.
April 9, 2026
This is my 2nd reading of "A piece of red cloth" as it was chosen as a book for discussion by my Book Club. I enjoyed my first reading as a good story, but this time I found it more challenging, perhaps because I was looking for discussion points. Again I found the number of characters confusing, but was deeply involved with the main characters, along the way learning lots about First Nations history without it being felt as a lesson.
Because there are so many characters, at first I found it hard to follow. But I am glad I persevered as the story grew more engaging and the characters more intriguing. The author depicted many cultural aspects of the Yolngu peoples including bush foods and medicines, spirituality, family structures and laws, and reliance on and respect for the land.
Once again greed and power resulting in cruelty and brutality are shown to be the cause of so much unhappiness and unfairness when newcomers interfere in the simple but kind and caring lifestyle of the Yolngu peoples.
In addition to the story, the author included an historical background of the times in which it was set, as well as some Yolngu words.
A wonderful story.
'A big Yolngu story, rich with Yolngu knowledge and world view, and with the vivid language and narrative excitement to appeal to everyone... a breathtaking re-imagining of history and place.' - Nicholas Jose It's early in the wet season. A flock of crested terns sweeps into the bay and dives towards Batjani. The birds are saying the foreigners are coming, as they do every year, but why are they so full of menace? Batjani's beloved granddaughter Garritji is on the cusp of womanhood, about to go through the rituals preparing her for marriage. Batjani uses all means at her disposal to protect her granddaughter from the visiting Macassan trepang fishers, but she is betrayed. Can Garritji be saved? This powerful and unique novel is based on oral history and told through Yolngu eyes, with ancestors as the Yolngu remember them: proud, strong, resilient people in control of their world and interacting with foreigners on their own terms. 'We've been waiting a long time for a book like this that tells a big Yolngu story, rich with Yolngu knowledge and world view, and with the vivid language and narrative excitement to appeal to everyone...[A] breathtaking re-imagining of history and place.' - Nicholas Jose, editor of the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature 'With all the colour and sensuality of slow-paced life on Country, the novel suddenly moves towards its action-filled resolution.' - Stephen Muecke, Nulungu Research Institute, Broome
Because there are so many characters, at first I found it hard to follow. But I am glad I persevered as the story grew more engaging and the characters more intriguing. The author depicted many cultural aspects of the Yolngu peoples including bush foods and medicines, spirituality, family structures and laws, and reliance on and respect for the land.
Once again greed and power resulting in cruelty and brutality are shown to be the cause of so much unhappiness and unfairness when newcomers interfere in the simple but kind and caring lifestyle of the Yolngu peoples.
In addition to the story, the author included an historical background of the times in which it was set, as well as some Yolngu words.
A wonderful story.
'A big Yolngu story, rich with Yolngu knowledge and world view, and with the vivid language and narrative excitement to appeal to everyone... a breathtaking re-imagining of history and place.' - Nicholas Jose It's early in the wet season. A flock of crested terns sweeps into the bay and dives towards Batjani. The birds are saying the foreigners are coming, as they do every year, but why are they so full of menace? Batjani's beloved granddaughter Garritji is on the cusp of womanhood, about to go through the rituals preparing her for marriage. Batjani uses all means at her disposal to protect her granddaughter from the visiting Macassan trepang fishers, but she is betrayed. Can Garritji be saved? This powerful and unique novel is based on oral history and told through Yolngu eyes, with ancestors as the Yolngu remember them: proud, strong, resilient people in control of their world and interacting with foreigners on their own terms. 'We've been waiting a long time for a book like this that tells a big Yolngu story, rich with Yolngu knowledge and world view, and with the vivid language and narrative excitement to appeal to everyone...[A] breathtaking re-imagining of history and place.' - Nicholas Jose, editor of the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature 'With all the colour and sensuality of slow-paced life on Country, the novel suddenly moves towards its action-filled resolution.' - Stephen Muecke, Nulungu Research Institute, Broome
August 26, 2025
One of the best Australian novels I've read in a long time.
May 12, 2025
I would be pretending if I said this was an easy read. It was difficult for many reasons. On a practical level, tracking a complex system of familial relationships, the concept of moieties, and unfamiliar names for people and places, made total concentration a must. Secondly, and more importantly, the history of the use and abuse of women as the property of men, made worse with the introduction of foreign alcohol and drugs, was very confronting.
On the first page of the book, guiding us into the story, Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs provides some explanatory notes. She briefly explains the history of Yolŋu trade with various foreign interests, and reminds us that culturally different groups can co-exist without the need for one to swallow the other whole, obliterating every part of their lives and culture. Whilst those initial trade relationships were not completely without issue, they were able to learn from each other and maintain largely friendly relationships. This is in stark contrast to colonising cultures who aim to dominate and suppress indigenous peoples and their culture.
This story highlights one case where unscrupulous individuals disrespected the conventions of their trade relationship, and midway through the book, I became thoroughly invested in the story. We are shown how deeply connected First Nations peoples are with country, and all living things in their environment; with ancestors, and ceremony, and with a spirituality that underpins everything they do. We are taken on a journey through songlines - narratives that cross linguistic boundaries, and serve to pass knowledge backwards and forwards through time.
Thank you for allowing us to share this experience - both devastating and uplifting, and deeply satisfying.
3.5⭐️
On the first page of the book, guiding us into the story, Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs provides some explanatory notes. She briefly explains the history of Yolŋu trade with various foreign interests, and reminds us that culturally different groups can co-exist without the need for one to swallow the other whole, obliterating every part of their lives and culture. Whilst those initial trade relationships were not completely without issue, they were able to learn from each other and maintain largely friendly relationships. This is in stark contrast to colonising cultures who aim to dominate and suppress indigenous peoples and their culture.
This story highlights one case where unscrupulous individuals disrespected the conventions of their trade relationship, and midway through the book, I became thoroughly invested in the story. We are shown how deeply connected First Nations peoples are with country, and all living things in their environment; with ancestors, and ceremony, and with a spirituality that underpins everything they do. We are taken on a journey through songlines - narratives that cross linguistic boundaries, and serve to pass knowledge backwards and forwards through time.
Thank you for allowing us to share this experience - both devastating and uplifting, and deeply satisfying.
3.5⭐️
June 24, 2025
Quite epic as my friend Lisa said. I think it should be on very HS Australian English Literature/ Societies curriculum. I have studied Aboriginal Ethnography at uni, but many of our ( the settlers) beliefs and what we thought we knew about Australian indigenous society has been rightfully challenged. We are learning all the time, we need to revise and listen and learn. This book is quite amazing….as it says on the dust cover “Told through the voices f the people who know it best, all those deeply important events from times ,long before Cook imagined a Southern Land”.
It is balanced in its portrayal of weak and greedy humans in every culture on earth. It is of Moslem beliefs and shows the importance of Law in culture.
P. 161: Duolingo and Namatjira retyurn to the Meeting ground the Lawmen say:
If the Barbarians are born without a homeland, they would have no eternal spirit…..without and eternal spirit, they would have no Law, no history,no ceremony, no song…..No ethical code to give moral structure to their lives.
Other men chime in: They are continually dead……They die and are born without responsibility, without connection..
Dead but still living.
Primitive lawless people…
They have no ceremony to sing the warrior spirit into themselves. No Lawmen to take the warrior spirit out again. For them, warrior violence is there all the time.
This is so powerful, and is such a clear explanation of their connection to Country and Law and Dreaming and Culture.
I loved this book and what it taught me, Leonie Norrington and authors.
It is balanced in its portrayal of weak and greedy humans in every culture on earth. It is of Moslem beliefs and shows the importance of Law in culture.
P. 161: Duolingo and Namatjira retyurn to the Meeting ground the Lawmen say:
If the Barbarians are born without a homeland, they would have no eternal spirit…..without and eternal spirit, they would have no Law, no history,no ceremony, no song…..No ethical code to give moral structure to their lives.
Other men chime in: They are continually dead……They die and are born without responsibility, without connection..
Dead but still living.
Primitive lawless people…
They have no ceremony to sing the warrior spirit into themselves. No Lawmen to take the warrior spirit out again. For them, warrior violence is there all the time.
This is so powerful, and is such a clear explanation of their connection to Country and Law and Dreaming and Culture.
I loved this book and what it taught me, Leonie Norrington and authors.
March 9, 2025
Brutal, heartbreaking, breathtaking.
A fictional recount of an ancient historical Yolŋu story, this novel transports the reader to the heartbreaking brutality of the treatment of women at the hands of foreigners who were trying to live a peaceful life in Arnhem Land.
The power and resilience of all the women left me inspired and distraught.
That humans can treat each other this way is devastating, but historically proven.
Thank you for giving voice to those who had none.
A must read.
A fictional recount of an ancient historical Yolŋu story, this novel transports the reader to the heartbreaking brutality of the treatment of women at the hands of foreigners who were trying to live a peaceful life in Arnhem Land.
The power and resilience of all the women left me inspired and distraught.
That humans can treat each other this way is devastating, but historically proven.
Thank you for giving voice to those who had none.
A must read.
April 6, 2025
Excellent historical fiction, based on an ancient Yolŋu tale of the heartbreaking brutality of the treatment of women and children (and sometimes men) at the hands of foreigners. Interesting to learn some of the customs, rituals and trading practices of the Yolŋu [of Arnhem Land] and Macassan fishermen [from Sulawesi (now Indonesia)] who had a long-term pre-colonial trading relationship for trepang (sea cucumber).
May 1, 2025
This is the first fiction book I’ve read set with a historical indigenous setting and story.
I have to say in the beginning it was a bit of a slog, needing to look up certain terms and I didn’t have any back ground knowledge, but after the story really kicked in, I was in!
Note to publishers - some footnotes or a glossary would be helpful! Even a family tree/ s and a map? I get there are western constructs but it would help understand context of many of the story’s components .
I have to say in the beginning it was a bit of a slog, needing to look up certain terms and I didn’t have any back ground knowledge, but after the story really kicked in, I was in!
Note to publishers - some footnotes or a glossary would be helpful! Even a family tree/ s and a map? I get there are western constructs but it would help understand context of many of the story’s components .
March 27, 2025
A fantastic and immersive story of Yolnu and Makassar trade relationships.
April 10, 2025
The first half of the book was hard to follow but I’m so glad i made it through because the second half pulled it all together and was great.
May 2, 2025
A fascinating read (for a whitefella), being immersed in Aboriginal culture pre-British invasion. Original, suspenseful.
December 19, 2024
A Piece of Red Cloth
This book should come with a trigger warning, as some of the subject matter can be triggering for victims of abuse and trauma. I found this story to be triggering and emotional, and still persisted with reading it, as it is also a story of strong women and oral history.
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This is a powerful oral story of the Yolngu people of North-East Arnhem Land. This is a rich and vivid story that passes knowledge of the Yolngu people. It is about a grandmother who stops at nothing to protect her granddaughter. The culture, women’s business and men’s business, are explored as well as the rich history of the cycle and challenges of a girl becoming a woman in the family. The ceremonies, traditions and implications of those on the young and old. The wise words of the elders to the young antics of the children. The oral history that is passed through generations whilst at the camp fires and the in tales that they tell one another.
A Piece of Red Cloth is a coming of age story that is full of oral history of the Yolngu people and looks at the perversion of man towards women. It is beautifully written and captures the voices of the Elders past in the telling of the stories, lores and in life generally. I don’t want to give a lot away, as it is amazing to read and it does provide a glimpse into the lore of the Yolngu people and how they interacted and incorporated the changes in their society with the introduction of white man, not only the English, but also the Dutch and Portuguese peoples who frequented their land, but also of the betrayal that the family faces.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
This book should come with a trigger warning, as some of the subject matter can be triggering for victims of abuse and trauma. I found this story to be triggering and emotional, and still persisted with reading it, as it is also a story of strong women and oral history.
********
This is a powerful oral story of the Yolngu people of North-East Arnhem Land. This is a rich and vivid story that passes knowledge of the Yolngu people. It is about a grandmother who stops at nothing to protect her granddaughter. The culture, women’s business and men’s business, are explored as well as the rich history of the cycle and challenges of a girl becoming a woman in the family. The ceremonies, traditions and implications of those on the young and old. The wise words of the elders to the young antics of the children. The oral history that is passed through generations whilst at the camp fires and the in tales that they tell one another.
A Piece of Red Cloth is a coming of age story that is full of oral history of the Yolngu people and looks at the perversion of man towards women. It is beautifully written and captures the voices of the Elders past in the telling of the stories, lores and in life generally. I don’t want to give a lot away, as it is amazing to read and it does provide a glimpse into the lore of the Yolngu people and how they interacted and incorporated the changes in their society with the introduction of white man, not only the English, but also the Dutch and Portuguese peoples who frequented their land, but also of the betrayal that the family faces.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
May 18, 2025
A Piece of Red Cloth weaves Yolngu oral history and stories of pre-colonial trade and contact with Macassan trepangers into this excellent novel. Perhaps it falls within historical fiction.
The story is fictional, and deeply interesting and gripping. Offering insight into Yolngu culture, language, and society.
This novel is significant as, if I remember the info section correctly, it is co-authored with Yolngu knowledge holders to tell this story in a way that is accurate to Yolngu knowledge. It also brings light to the incredible richness of aspects of Yolngu life, and in the Australian context where we don't often see fictional works like this, I think that it does a great job in highlighting those more 'hidden' stories that really should be a part of the fabric of Australia's story more broadly.
I would highly recommend this as an easy and enjoyable read, but also one with, I think, broader significance.
The story is fictional, and deeply interesting and gripping. Offering insight into Yolngu culture, language, and society.
This novel is significant as, if I remember the info section correctly, it is co-authored with Yolngu knowledge holders to tell this story in a way that is accurate to Yolngu knowledge. It also brings light to the incredible richness of aspects of Yolngu life, and in the Australian context where we don't often see fictional works like this, I think that it does a great job in highlighting those more 'hidden' stories that really should be a part of the fabric of Australia's story more broadly.
I would highly recommend this as an easy and enjoyable read, but also one with, I think, broader significance.
March 20, 2026
So glad my book club picked this to read .
This book takes a while to get into. The horror of people using and abusing others makes it disturbing but we need much more of this sort of truth telling about colonialism in Asia and the pacific.
This book also provides rare insight into Australian indigenous culture and social order.
Leonie is a great story teller and seems to have been in a unique position to write a historical novel about this complex oral culture.
This book takes a while to get into. The horror of people using and abusing others makes it disturbing but we need much more of this sort of truth telling about colonialism in Asia and the pacific.
This book also provides rare insight into Australian indigenous culture and social order.
Leonie is a great story teller and seems to have been in a unique position to write a historical novel about this complex oral culture.
March 20, 2026
Even though I am Australian, this felt like being immersed in a foreign world. The culture of precolonial Arnhem Land was beautifully realised, with its social complexity and deep connection to the land.
There were some very likeable characters and a truly vile bad guy. It explores themes of family, respect and honour, through gentle slice-of-life scenes and gripping adventure.
I've always hoped for a novel set in precolonial Australia, and now I hope these authors write more.
There were some very likeable characters and a truly vile bad guy. It explores themes of family, respect and honour, through gentle slice-of-life scenes and gripping adventure.
I've always hoped for a novel set in precolonial Australia, and now I hope these authors write more.
March 23, 2025
This is a novel based on one of the stories of the Yolnu people. It is good to have the opportunity to read these stories as it increases our undertanding of Indigenous Culture. There was a lot of involvement of Yolnu people in the writng of this and it was done with their permission. There should be more of these stories told by Indigenous people to help us understand their culture.
October 11, 2025
it took a while to get into this book due to the number of characters and the set-up feeling a bit like a YA romance story. I was going to give up but I am so glad I kept going. Such a privilege to learn about the interaction between Yolngu and Macassans from the Yolngu point of view, especially a story that has been passed down for so many years.
April 28, 2026
What a fascinating insight into the history of Yulnu culture pre colonialism. It took a while to get a handle on all the characters but is very hard to put down once the story comes together. It’s confronting at times but told with such matter of fact humility that I felt I got to know the characters through their eyes. I feel privileged to have read this one…loved it.
May 20, 2026
This is the best novelisation of pre-colonial Australia I’ve read yet. Not many authors would be in the position to write a novel (which is a Western form) that gives such an insight into First Nations Australian culture, and I note that it was written with collaboration from the holders of Yolgnu stories and knowledge.
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