Mudrooroo

'… a boy born long ago in 1938 who was named Balga or Black Boy. He had an Aboriginal mother and an African-American father who bequeathed to him the spiky mop of hair which gave him his name. So it is said. Now read on.' Balga Boy Jackson is the long awaited new novel of Mudrooroo. He returns to his roots to give us a vivid life story of an Australian Black Boy – naturally with a pun, Balga is the Australian grass tree called in Western Australia, the Black Boy. Mudrooroo, who...

The young Wooreddy recognised the omen immediately, accidentally stepping on it while bounding along the beach: something slimy, something eerily cold and not from the earth. <i>Since it had come from the sea, it was an evil omen.</i><br /><i>Soon after, many people died mysteriously, others disappeared without a trace, and once-friendly families became bitter enemies. The islanders muttered, &apos;It&apos;s the times&apos;, but Wooreddy alone knew more: the world was...

(from Afterword)<br />&apos;My interest in this, what can I call him, this Australian psycho, came about because of my efforts at writing and publishing accounts of the cases of the famous Queensland detective, Doctor Watson Holmes Jackamara. Unfortunately my interest in the case from the position of my subject palled, for as Jackamara said: ‘This bloke left a trail that you could follow in a four wheel driver.’ Because of this, I was about to conclude that there was little interest in...

From its initial appearance, Wild Cat Falling was recognised as a profoundly important work. Mudrooroo first published it under the name Colin Johnson. And when it was released by Angus &amp; Robertson in 1965, Aboriginals were not considered Australian citizens, did not have the right to vote, and no novel written by an Aboriginal Australian had made it to print.<br /> <br />In telling the story of a symbolically nameless young Aboriginal man, and of his re-entry into society...

The First National Black Playwrights Conference and Workshop held in Canberra in January 1987 was a hectic affair. More than one participant called on Mudrooroo to use the proceedings (in the sense of what was happening) and the stories going around in a book. Doin Wildcat was that book. It has been called his most Aboriginal work and it should be as it stems from that historical conference and what happened there transferred of course to – well – the world of Wildcat.<br /> <br...

A daring and thrilling journey into a fantastical world of shamans, vampires and werebears where aboriginal Dreaming and Gothic horror are woven together to create a powerful and seamless narrative.<br /> <br />I, the stranger with strange habits which make me avoid the full light of day, enter into the warm circle of your fire and will exchange my yarn for your company…<br /> <br />The stranger, George, tells a story of wonder and horror. Jangamuttuk, his father and...

&apos;Well, I can dream can&apos;t I? Dream? – nightmares, more like it. All I have to do is dream, dream, dream, scream… I&apos;m now walking through this posh suburb, walking? – more like slinking. Wildcat on the prowl. Naw, though maybe checking out the streets for a bust. Eyes dart this way, that way, all ways, focus, man, on the main chance. Take it and break it real good; but is there any chances left? Not with my luck!&apos; Wildcat is out of prison, but not for long. In this...

By the firelight, a mysterious storyteller weaves a captivating tale of sea journeys, vampire women, and Aboriginal Dreaming. Around the campfire the gold diggers listen and journey with George as he plunges underground to rescue his ship&apos;s captain from the horrific and mesmerising vampire woman.<br /> <br />Jangamuttuk, the Master of the Ghost Dreaming, sends his son, George, to rescue Wadawaka from the &apos;ghost&apos; vampire woman who has taken him as her &apos;Dark...

The Kwinkan is a satirical parable surrounding a mysterious narrator who is part-politician, part Queensland property developer, and the forces at work in the Asia-Pacific region. It deals with international corporatism, political ambitions in an age of decaying colonialism, the clashes of competing mythologies, and the play of the dark, atavistic powers which manifest themselves in sexual disease and violence. These forces act on the characters, sometimes to unite strange bedfellows and at...

Set during the Gold Rush days, The Promised Land concludes Mudrooroo&apos;s fantastical voyage through the history of Australia around the time of its colonisation by the British. This is satire at its most cutting, and entertaining.<br /> <br />Sir George Augustus returns to the Great South Land with his young wife, Lady Lucy, intending to establish a mission to educate and &apos;Christianise&apos; the native people. When he hears that gold has been found on the land, his missionary...

Aboriginals believe they have lived in Australia since the Dreamtime, the beginning of all creation, and archaeological evidence shows the land has been inhabited for tens of thousands of years. Over this time, Aboriginal culture has grown a rich variety of mythologies in hundreds of different languages. Their unifying feature is a shared belief that the whole universe is alive, that we belong to the land and must care for it. This was the first book to collate and explain the many fascinating...

Lost is the way to the skyland. Our souls wander forlornly in the land of ghosts. Our spirits become their play things; our bodies their food, to be ripped apart, and our gnawed bones are scattered. We are in despair; we are sickening unto death; we call to be healed. Anxiously we wait for our mapan, the Master of the Ghost Dreaming to deliver us.<br /> <br />In the first years of the 19th century a small Aboriginal tribe reels under the threat of white invasion of their ancestral...

The fifth and final volume of poetry by the author of Wild Cat Falling was originally published in India in 2013. There are 45 poems from the Master of the Ghost Dreaming, as he reels and sways through his long held interest in Buddhism and the Blues. While still writing about rejuvenation and the great cycles of Life, there is a strong awareness of finality, of passing on, of Death. Always lyrical, this is a wonderful offering from the award-winning poet.