Butterfly Song

by Terri Janke

This novel opens in 1992, the year of the High Court's decision on Indigenous land rights in Australia. Tarena Palson has just finished her law degree at Sydney University and although she doesn't have her results yet, she's already been thrown into her first case. Her family, who hail from the Torres Strait, are claiming ownership of an exquisite and valuable pearl shell, for sale as part of the deceased estate of a white doctor. But Tarena isn't sure she wants to be a lawyer after all. What place does a black lawyer have in a white legal system? Does she really want to live in Sydney? She loves the buzz of city life, but is it her? Does everyone have this much trouble keeping up with life?

Genres: Fiction, Australia, Historical Fiction, Indigenous

292 pages, paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Terri Janke was born in Cairns in Far North Queensland and is of Wuthathi and Meriam heritage. Her family moved to Canberra in 1976, and she now lives in Sydney with her husband and two kids, where she runs a successful legal practice. The firm is well known for its work with Indigenous business and intellectual property. She is the author of the novel Butterfly Song and has also written many articles about Indigenous cultural and intellectual property. Terri believes in the power of stories to inspire, connect and heal. Her proudest moment was being awarded NAIDOC Person of the Year in 2011.

Reviews

[Catherine Maughan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Butterfly Song is a beautiful book that is easy to read. I kept wondering if Terri Janke was writing a biographical novel because of the similarities between herself and her character Tarena - both Meriam people and both lawyers. The doubts that Tarena has about herself as a lawyer - are they doubts shared by Terri, a very successful lawyer?

Butterfly Song raises important questions about the ownership of Indigenous artifacts. The story made me think about how artifacts, that are held in universities and museums around the world, were acquired.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gently engaging tale that skips back and forth in time and place, between Thursday Island and Cairns, the 1940s and the modern day. Janke paints an evocative world with some love and care, this is at the end of the day a feelgood tale, which doesn't stint to provide a window into the toxic effects of racism.

[Georgia Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a wholesome book - I am about to write a uni assignment on

[Kylie Purdie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Butterfly Song is a good exploration of ownership of artefacts. If something has been in your family for a long time, is possessing it enough or is how your family came to possess that item important? However for me it did fall down in what appeared to the miraculous, simplistic ending. The appearance of the long estranged relative to support the claim just in the nick of time is too contrived for me
The real value of the book is in bringing some of the history of the Torres Strait to light. I felt for Tarena everytime she had to try and explain that Torres Strait Islander and Australian Aboriginal are not the same thing. I also felt for during her experiences at uni - so very different from mine.
Butterfly Song is a good read, but I feel it could have been more.

[Ben Thurley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A gentle, and simply-told, story of a young Torres Strait Islander woman, Tarena Shaw, about to argue her first case as a new law graduate and Torrest Strait Islander woman from Thursday Island in an overwhelmingly white legal system.

Through flashbacks across three generations of her family's history and connections to islands and ocean, we discover that the case has more to do with Tarena's own personal and family history and, also, to Australia's great founding lie, Terra Nullius, the legal fiction that the continent was nobody's, available for the finding and taking by the English colonial power.

There are a few moments of lyricism in Janke's evocation of place, culture, family and history and some powerful, but often a bit heavyhanded, reflections on racism and exclusion.

It's a decent, if workman-like, first novel.

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really lovely book. The story is beautifully written in an almost dreamlike way, capturing the balmy, almost lazy feel of life in the tropics. It provides insights into the way Australian indigenous women were treated (and often still are) along the back drop of life in Thursday Island and in Sydney. That said, it is not the focus of the book as it follows the journey of a young lawyer to reconnect with her past.

I would recommend this book lying next to a beach with a cocktail in hand.

[Cathryn Wellner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Warm and engaging, Butterfly Song asks important questions about ownership. Does possession for 40 years (and even longer, in the case of many museums and collections) outweigh original ownership? Should the way something is acquired be taken into account when determining to whom it belongs?

The book requires attention, jumping around, as it does, from the 1940s to the 1990s. Janke uses the device to build the proof Tarena will need to build the case for her family's ownership of an exquisitely carved butterfly. The quick read was only slightly marred by a too-pat ending.

[Lorraine]

Accessible to all and warm-hearted, this story brings home the myriad instances of prejudice and discrimination in one Torres Strait Islander woman's youthful experience and those suffered by members of her extended family, incidentally to telling an engaging story about seeking to regain a lost piece of personal and culturally significant property. This should be on school reading lists for all Australian students.

[l · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about Australian Aboriginal/TSI history and rights. It's a very good, very accessible book.

[Katherine Thornley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant !

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

An engaging story, full of insights about the challenges of being an ethnic and cultural "outsider" and how family connections and rich traditions can help an individual face them.

[Kathryn Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful story, and I loved Tarena's journey to believe in herself.

[Patricanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A David and Goliath story with a rather predictable ending, although there was a small twist that I thought was a nice touch

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

It started out well. A sweet, funny naive young law student from Thursday Island called Tarena is summoned home by her mother. She's not confident that she's passed her exams, and she's a shy person anyway, and she's not sure what she's going to do with her life. That seems a bit odd after she's spent so much time to get a degree, but she's harassed by other black friends who think that practising white law is a cop-out.
The message, however, seems to be that education - and writing - in the system is empowering. For there is a butterfly brooch, a family heirloom that went missing a long time ago when grandma died in hospital, and it's now turned up at auction.
Despite her misgivings, lack of confidence and pitiful inexperience, everyone expects Tarena to get it back, and with a rather unikely bit of luck she does. The doctor had 'collected' it, and although his daughter initially fights the claim, after the judge hands down his decision, this daughter acknowledges its rightful ownership and embraces the idea of restoring it to them. A message of reconciliation perhaps, a metaphor for the land rights litigation that takes years in the courts and then people have to negotiate anyway?
But some of the poetic structures are a bit overwrought and there's a flat bit in the middle. The book has a good plot line and characterisation but it's lacking in depth. I wanted it to be better than it is.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning. The descriptive passages are deft and evocative of a part of Australia that few of us know much about.

The setting is provoking (law school before Mabo - as a post Mabo law student, I find the setting marvellous) and the themes brilliant. This is totally going on my 101 list, because what is in this book - from the examples of how Indigenous people are treated over and over (such as her experience in the court room) to the pre-Mabo experience, which is so very important for a post Mabo generation (I was in year 8 when Mabo was decided. Because I'm not Indigenous, the pre-Mabo reality never really impacted on me, but this book managed to make me immerse myself in that reality, and that is an experience that I needed.

The depth and specificity of the TSI culture through this book sang through, to what I know of that culture through TV and the odd actual accquaintance. The stupidity of Australian society rang true. The whole book speaks of utter and complete truth. I will be recommending this book to absolutely everyone, because they need to read it. They need to live Tarena's life, if only for the time while they are reading the book. I needed to know this. And so does the rest of this country.

[Che!sea · Rating 4 out of 5]

the front cover shows that this book is going to be about a butterfly and its adventure around the world.Postcards also show that there is going to be travelling in this story.The blurb explains that Tarena Shaw has just finished her Law Degree but she is not really sure that she should go on and be a lawyer after all.

after reading the first page i wondered if there would be a problem during this book. i started to read the second page and found out that living on an island for a long tome can lead you to being involved with the island alot more.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this an interesting read, reminding me that not everyone approaches things the same way I do (for example, my experience of university was very different from that of the main character). The basic idea of the story is also very intriguing, and the central characters are likeable and sympathetic. However, I found the pace of the book very slow, and some of the descriptions and dialogue felt a bit twee or superficial.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The interwoven stories of 3 women from different generations of a Torres Strait Islander family. It raises lots of issues of racism and inequality but doesn't feel angry like, say, The Boundary by Nicole Watson. An interesting legal mystery of sorts propels the family history narrative. And the setting is beautifully depicted - I felt like I was in Cairns especially, and TI too.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully written story of a lost family heirloom, how it came to be made and the people who fought to regain it. It gives an insight into the amazing history of the indigenous people of the Torres Straits, their relationships with pearl divers and traders, and their fight for land rights which culminated in the Mabo High Court decision.

[Jo-Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better than the blurb makes it sound. Palpable throughout is the sense of exclusion from education and legal institutions experienced by Indigenous Australians, but this illuminates rather than overshadows the plot.

[Jess]

Great book. Didn't want to put it down as I wanted to know what was going to happen next. The story was great and truly inspiring even though it was fiction.

[Mindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book, devoured it in just over a day. A beautiful story, beautifully told.

[Lorielle Cortes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good easy read, loved the going back and forth in the timeline. The ending was predictable but I enjoyed this book