Mazin Grace

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.

Claire G. Coleman is a Noongar woman whose family have belonged to the south coast of Western Australia since long before history started being recorded. She writes fiction, essays, poetry and art criticism while either living in Naarm (Melbourne) or on the road. Claire is the award-winning author of 'Terra Nullius' (Hachette Australia, 2017). Dylan Coleman is a Kokatha Aboriginal-Greek woman from 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. Mazin Grace won the David Unaipon Award in 2011, and was longlisted for the Stella Prize in 2013, and shortlisted for the 2013 Commonwealth Book Prize. She 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.

Introduction by Claire G Coleman ix 1 Minya wunyi wonganyi 1 2 If welfare get us, we finished 11 3 Where I belong? 18 4 Secret-pretty-things 27 5 Lookin’ for answers 37 6 Ngoonji bula: God, Jesus and Father Christmas 48 7 Goin’ away 65 8 Mumoo jumpin’ ’ round 86 9 Walbiya gu minga: white man’ s sickness 107 10 Healin’ jinna minga 120 11 Some things stay the same, some things change 139 12 Riddle solved 147 13 Lookin’ through new guru mooga 160 14 The sins of the father 170 15 Dolly gets a haircut 180 16 Goin’ back to country, in heaven 193 17 Goojarb: serves yourself right 208 18 Growing changes 223 19 Wash me away 233 Glossary 245 Author’ s note 253 Acknowledgements 265