Butterfly Song

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Description

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

Author Bio

Terri Janke is a descendant of the Meriam people of the Torres Strait Islands and the Wuthathi people of mainland Australia. She was born in Cairns and now lives with her husband and two children in Sydney, where she runs her own legal firm specialising in Indigenous cultural and intellectual property. She has written widely about these issues, and her short stories have been published in Island and Southerly. Butterfly Song is her first novel.