WHEN MAY AND BILLY lose their mother, they are taken in by their aunt. Plunged into a world of brutality and substance abuse, the siblings react in different ways to the sense of loss and not belonging. Billy continues his self-destructive behaviour, while May embarks on a quest around Australia to find her true sense of self, and to re-connect with her Aboriginal heritage.
Tara June Winch
Tara June Winch was born near Sydney in 1983, where she spent her childhood roaming the shorelines of the NSW south-coast, swimming and surfing. Tara is of Wiradjuri, Afghan and English heritage. In 2004 she won the David Unaipon Award for an Indigenous Writer for Swallow the Air. In 2003 she won the Maureen Donahue Award for the State Library of Queensland’s Young Writers Award. Tara is currently completing her study at Southern Cross University’s Ginibi Indigenous College. Her work is also included in Best Australian Stories 2005.
Tara June was a student at Southern Cross University Ginibi Indigenous College, studying Bachelor Indigenous Law but has since deferred with the arrival of her daughter Lila in late 2005. Tara June’s country is Wiradjuri, Lake Cowal are, although she is strongly affiliated with the Bundjalung community in Northern NSW where she currently lives.
Tara June has been writing since she was 15 and performing the spoken word since she was 18 around Australia (mainly Melbourne and London).
