The past three months or so have been so incredibly busy I have called a complete strike from now until the new year.  I’m calling a halt to all events that aren’t absolutely necessary. We are enjoying spending time with Little Ollie and I want to devote the upcoming summer months to training him.

As he has afternoon naps each day, I have been able to get some reading in. The first book I have just finished is the wonderful story The Cherry Picker’s Daughter. This memoir begins in her childhood and goes up until her later life. She writes of her family history that is tragic and her childhood growing up with such a large extended family. The story waivers between tragedy and joy and it is a tribute to Mummy, the older sister of her father who is incarcerated for killing her mother when she was only three months old. This is her family’s story and  she was adamant it would be told.  The day after she was satisfied the manuscript of this book was finally ready for publication she passed away.

From the back cover of the book:

“This is the story of Kerry Reed-Gilbert, daughter of Kevin Gilbert, famous Aboriginal activist, writer, painter and actor. Told in the child’s voice and in the vernacular of her Mob, she speaks of love and loss, of dispossession and repeated dislocation. Kerry’s account highlights the impact of life as an Aboriginal state ward living under the terror of the Protection Laws. Despite this, she paints a picture of hard work and determination, with family unity giving them the strength and dignity to continue. 

Her father’s sister; whom she always called ‘Mummy’ raised his two children along with hers and others within the extended family. The book is a tribute to this truly remarkable woman; their tower of strength, love and selflessness. 

A tribute to the late Kerry Reed-Gilbert given by Melissa Lucashenko at the launch of Aunt Kerry’s memoir, The Cherry Picker’s Daughter at the Avid Reader Bookshop in Brisbane on 16b September, 2019 can be read here for much better information than I could give this wonderful woman justice.(read here)

I am going to the launch of this book at Fuller’s Bookshop in Hobart tomorrow evening by Jim Everett-puralia meenamatta.  I am really looking forward to it.

I could never do this book credit by trying to review it so I will leave you with what is here and the link to her memorial. I will say I couldn’t put it down. It’s a grim yet uplifting history of this Aboriginal family and yet again it is one of many stories that people need to be told. I hope it is widely read.