Mazin' Grace: First Nations Classics

(Paperback, 2nd ed.)

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Description

Now included in UQP's First Nations Classics series with an introduction from Claire G Coleman, Mazin' Grace is a moving reimagining of a mother's girlhood, told by her daughter. Growing up on the Mission isn't easy for clever Grace Oldman. When her classmates tease her for not having a father, she doesn't know what to say. Papa Neddy says her dad is the Lord God in Heaven, but that doesn't help when the Mission kids call her a bastard. As Grace slowly pieces together clues that might lead to answers, she struggles to find a place in a community that rejects her for reasons she doesn't understand. In Mazin Grace, Dylan Coleman fictionalises her mother's childhood at the Koonibba Lutheran Mission in South Australia in the 1940s and '50s. Woven through the narrative are the powerful, rhythmic sounds of Aboriginal English and Kokatha language, Mazin Grace is the inspirational story of a feisty girl who refuses to be told who she is, determined to uncover the truth for herself.

Author Bio

Dylan Coleman is a Kokatha Aboriginal-Greek woman who grew up in Thevenard on the far west coast of South Australia. She is the award-winning author of Mazin Grace, and has a PhD in creative writing from the University of Adelaide, where she teaches Indigenous health at Yaitya Purruna Indigenous Health Unit. Her book Mazin Grace won the David Unaipon Award in 2011, and was longlisted for the Stella Prize in 2013, and shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize in 2013. Dylan has worked for over twenty years across Aboriginal education, health, land rights, and the Arts, with a focus on Aboriginal community engagement and social justice.