Phillip Gwynne

Taj is an Australian who at 16 years old has grown up in Bali. His mother runs a clothing export company and his father is in jail on death row for importing drugs to the island. Political changes on Bali mean that an execution date for his father is finally set, so Taj does the unthinkable, he pools his life savings and bribes various guards to help his father escape with false passports back to Australia. But everything goes wrong and suddenly Taj and his father are fleeing for Taj's father's life across the islands of Indonesia. In the process, Taj learns some awful truths about his girlfriend and his mother and starts to fall in love with a local girl who helps him. Gripping story that would make a great movie. Boys will like it for the adventure and suspense and if they are into surfing there is a lot of surf jargon thrown in for good measure as Taj wants to surf a special break with his Dad.… (more)

I FOUND IT. I FORGOT THE TITLE BUT I FOUND IT.

I read this in high school. We used it to discuss racism and how harmful both overt and covert racism can be. I feel like it was really evocative and remember the sarsaparilla and a lot more, but a lot of people don't like this book.

I'm not sure how I feel about Gwynne writing this book as I am not sure whether or not he identifies as an Aboriginal Australian in any way. While I do not think you need to identify as any minority to write about them it is a concern to me that Gwynne's book is so highly-praised and so highly-acknowledged while so many other exceptional books written by Aboriginal authors, featuring Aboriginal Australians or their stories go unpublished, or, at the very least, are cast aside in favour of more 'accessible' books.

But what could be more accessible than a story?

Why is it, that in order to discuss racism in my classroom we had to read a book written by a white man? Why couldn't we read an equally good book written by someone from a marginalised group that suffers this racism and systemic oppression firsthand?

From what I can tell, Gwynne is not an Aboriginal person, and while he grew up around Indigenous people this does not give him permission to write a story about them.

Why is it so important that Gwynne consult Indigenous people before he goes to write the story? Without mincing words, white Australians have been stealing, misappropriating or using Aboriginal cultural knowledge, practices and stories for their own convenience since we got here.

I don't think Gwynne is necessarily racist, I do, however, think he's daft.

Racism and books that challenge racism are important to read. But how do I feel about a book written by a white man? A little similar, I suspect, to To Kill a Mockingbird, when I realised black voices were virtually silent in a book that was almost exclusively about racism and their lives.

Not sure how to feel about this book anymore.… (more)