Aboriginal author to speak at UQ

Doris Pilkington (Nugi Garimara), author of Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence, will speak at a University of Queensland function tomorrow (Thursday, July 18).

The Friends of Fryer event will be take place at 5.30pm in the Conference Room, Level 1, Duhig Building, St Lucia campus.

Aboriginal novelist Sam Watson will introduce Ms Pilkington who will converse with Jackie Huggins from UQ’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit (ATSIS).

“The event will showcase the holdings of the University’s Fryer Library with respect to literature written by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People,” said event coorganiser and Fryer Library and University Archives Manager Eileen Boyldew.

As a toddler Ms Pilkington was removed by authorities from her home in Western Australia along with her mother Molly Craig and younger sister Anne.

They were sent to the Moore River Native Settlement Ms Pilkington’s mother had escaped from ten years earlier, the story of which is told in Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence (UQ Press, $18.95).

At 18, Ms Pilkington left the Settlement after qualifying for the Royal Perth Hospital’s nursing aide training program.

After studying journalism and working in film and video production she wrote Caprice: A Stockman’s Daughter which won the 1990 David Unaipon National Award.

Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence was first published in 1996 and released internationally following its adaptation to film in Phillip Noyce’s movie Rabbit-Proof Fence.

The function is being held in conjunction with ATSIS and University of Queensland Press.

Media: for further information, contact Eileen Boyldew (telephone 07 3365 6205, email eboyldew@library.uq.edu.au) or Joanne van Zeeland at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2619, email communications@uq.edu.au).