A cool breeze came wafting across the waters, giving me a pleasant feeling that was purely euphoric.
This entire evening’s proceedings were a little hazy—except for three words that kept echoing in my brain, “Passed with distinction”. And at that moment I realised the full impact of those words. I actually made it. You hear that, Kent Williamson, “Passed with distinction”. It felt so good I wrapped my arms around myself, as pride and self-satisfaction began to swell within my breast. A most gratifying feeling indeed.
I was so engrossed in my own thoughts that I didn’t hear David approaching until he put his arms around me and kissed my cheek. “Beautiful, eh,” he said. I nodded in agreement and turned towards him and embraced and kissed him. But this time, however, it was different. I felt an old familiar emotion stirring within me; a sensation I thought was dead, gone forever, when all this time it was just lying dormant waiting for the right moment.
Well that special moment has come. Winter is over. Spring is here. My spirits soar higher. I am alive! I am vibrant! I am Caprice, a Stockman’s Daughter.
Black Australian Writing Series
Since 1988 with the establishment of the David Unaipon competition, which discovers new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers, UQP has built up an international reputation as the largest publisher of books by Indigenous authors in Australia. UQP’s Black Australian Writing series evolved out of the Unaipon Award and today includes Indigenous-authored books ranging from novels, poetry, and life stories to nonfiction, and young adult fiction. Through the combined expertise of our authors, cultural advisors and specialist staff, UQP continues its commitment to Indigenous writing as a valued contribution to the literature of a nation.
Available in UQP’s Black Australian Writing Series are:
DORIS PILKINGTON/NUGI GARIMARA
CAPRICE: A stockman’s daughter
A fictional account of one woman’s journey to find her family and heritage, Caprice is Doris Pilkington Garimara’s first book. Set in the towns, pastoral stations and orphanage-styled institutions of Western Australia, this story brings together three generations of Mardu women. The narrator Kate begins her journey with the story of her grandmother Lucy, a domestic servant, then traces the short and tragic life of her mother Peggy.
Winner of the 1990 David Unaipon Award
Fiction
DORIS PILKINGTON/NUGI GARIMARA
FOLLOW THE RABBIT-PROOF FENCE
‘A marvellous adventure story and thriller, celebrating the courage and the resilience of the human heart.’
—Phillip Noyce, Director of ‘Rabbit-Proof Fence’
This book is the basis of the internationally released film ‘Rabbit-Proof Fence’. Based on her mother Molly’s life story, Doris Pilkington Garimara’s narrative tells of three young girls’ remarkable journey home across the length of Western Australia.
Non-fiction
VIVIENNE CLEVEN
HER SISTER’S EYE
Powerful and sinister, this is the second book by the brilliant Murri writer whose comedy novel Bitin’ Back (2001) won the David Unaipon Award and was shortlisted in the 2002 South Australian Premier’s Award for Fiction. Cleven’s facility with noir is every bit as biting as her wit. Her Sister’s Eye is a haunting descent into the tragedies of lives both black and white in a small town community with a legacy of shame.
Fiction
VIVIENNE CLEVEN
BITIN’ BACK
This is a rollicking comedy novel that blends in nimbly the realities of small town prejudice and racial intolerance. When football-playing Nevil awakens one morning determined to don a frock and “eyeshada” to better understand the late novelist Jean Rhys, his mother’s idle days at the bingo hall are ended forever. Neither fist fights at the Two Dogs Pub, bare knuckle boxing in the back paddock, Booty’s pig dogs or a police siege can slow the countdown on this human time bomb.
Winner of the 2000 David Unaipon Award
Fiction
ROBERT LOWE
THE MISH
An award-winning story of family, community and tradition on Victoria’s Framlingham Aboriginal Mission. The Mish is a charming, humorous memoir of times past, about growing up on western Victoria’s Framlingham Aboriginal Station in the 1950s and ’60s. Robert Lowe’s family came to the Mission of their own volition at a time when mixed race marriages were better supported by the Aboriginal community than by the white community. A celebration of the resilient and unified extended family.
Winner of the 2001 David Unaipon Award
Memoir
First published 1991 by University of Queensland Press PO Box 6042, St Lucia, Queensland 4067 Australia New edition 2002
www.uqp.com.au
© Doris Pilkington/Nugi Garimara
This book is copyright. Except for private study, research, criticism or reviews, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher.
Typeset by University of Queensland Press
Printed in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group
This is a work of fiction and all characters depicted are fictitious.
This project has been assisted by the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
Sponsored by the Queensland Office of Arts and Cultural Development
Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
National Library of Australia
Pilkington, Doris, 1937–.
Caprice: a stockman’s daughter
I. Title.
A823.3
ISBN 978 0 7022 3356 2 (pbk)
978 0 7022 4916 7 (pdf)
978 0 7022 4917 4 (epub)
978 0 7022 4918 1 (kindle)
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