Daisy Utemorrah’s life story unfolds through a series of poems and a parallel narrative in this seminal picture book illustrated with dazzling full-colour paintings. The poems are odes to country, culture and tradition, and channel Daisy’s pride in her heritage in the face of colonials. Just like the wattle tree, ‘You stand still with your roots so firm hidden under the ground.’ As she recounts her life on Kunmunya mission, her family life and Christian schooling in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, Daisy’s love of story and yearning to write grows. Fluent in three Aboriginal languages, a linguist, teacher and poet, Daisy Utemorrah was an elder of the Wunambal people from the Mitchell Plateau area in the far north Kimberley, Western Australia.
The Daisy Utemorrah D Award launched in 2019, is a national award that recognises excellence in junior and YA fiction and seeks to grow Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writing for younger readers. Pat Torres, descended from the Jabirr Jabirr, north of Broome, the Nyul Nyul from Beagle Bay area and the Yawuru people from Broome, is a writer, artist, educator and businesswoman, who has described her style as encompassing cave drawings, Mimi art figures and line drawing techniques. 'Do Not Go Around the Edges' won the Australian Multicultural Children’s Book Award in 1992 and was also shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council Children's Book of the Year for Younger Readers.
Aboriginal and or Torres Strait Islander Resource
