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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Swallow the Air follows the life of 15-year-old May Gibson, an Aboriginal girl from New South Wales whose mother commits suicide. May and her brother go to live with their aunt, but eventually May travels further afield, first to Redfern's Block in Sydney, then to the Northern Territory, and finally into central New South Wales. She travels to escape, but also in pursuit of a sense of her own history, family, and identity.
Reading Australia
This work has Reading Australia teaching resources.
Unit Suitable For
AC: Year 11 (English Unit 2). Note: activities can be adapted for Year 10 or Year 12.
Themes
Aboriginality, belonging, change, discovery, family, identity, journey
General Capabilities
Critical and creative thinking, Ethical understanding, Information and communication technology, Intercultural understanding, Literacy, Personal and social
Notes
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Dedication:
For You
For the words that were whispered
Something mellifluous
For the Moondance
For love
Somewhere distant, silent, gone. -
The short stories in Swallow the Air are inter-connected, so that the work can also be read as a novel.
-
Dedication (University of Queensland Press, 2021 ed.) :
In loving memory of my brother Billy Joe
1979-2018
Contents
- Swallow the Air, single work short story (p. 1-9)
- Grab, single work short story (p. 11-17)
- At the End of the Rainbow Cloud Busting Cloudbursting, single work short story (p. 19-28)
- My Bleeding Palm, single work short story (p. 29-37)
- Bushfire, single work short story (p. 39-47)
- Leaving Paradise, single work short story (p. 49-60)
- To Run, single work short story (p. 61-74)
- Territory, single work short story (p. 75-89)
- The Block, single work short story (p. 91-105)
- Chocolate, single work short story (p. 107-116)
- Wantok, single work short story (p. 117-123)
- Painted Dreaming, single work short story (p. 125-132)
- Mapping Waterglass, single work short story (p. 133-141)
- Just Dust, single work short story (p. 143-148)
- Cocoon, single work short story (p. 149-154)
- Bila Snake, single work short story (p. 155-161)
- Mission, single work short story (p. 163-173)
- Country, single work short story (p. 175-184)
- The Jacaranda Tree, single work short story (p. 185-190)
- Home, single work short story (p. 191-198)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also sound recording.
- Large print.
Works about this Work
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Kinship in Fiction and the Genre Blur of Swallow the Air as Novel in Stories
2021
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Reading Like an Australian Writer 2021; -
Precarious Relations in Tara June Winch’s Swallow the Air
2021
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Poetics and Politics of Relationality in Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Fiction 2021; -
Indigenous Transnational : Pluses and Perils and Tara June Winch
2020
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Transnational Literature , November no. 12 2020; 'In the context of the "transnational turn" in Australian literary studies, I consider the dynamics of writing and reading by and around Aboriginal literature. Positioning of authors, books and readings across, through and beyond nation spaces has particular challenges for Indigenous writers who locate identity on "country", with reception determined largely by a national framing. Informed by work from Lynda Ng, Chadwick Allen and others, the article examines the transnational movements of and around the fiction of Tara June Winch.' (Publication abstract) -
Australia In Three Books
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Meanjin , Spring vol. 79 no. 3 2020;
— Review of The White Possessive : Property, Power, and Indigenous Sovereignty 2015 multi chapter work criticism ; Finding Eliza : Power and Colonial Storytelling 2016 multi chapter work criticism ; Swallow the Air 2003 selected work short story'In times of crisis I take comfort in the words of black women in whatever form, whether it’s poetry, fiction, memoir, academia, journalism or a Twitter feed. When a white police officer killed an African-American man on camera in May, and ignited the fury of the world, I found strength in the activism of Aboriginal women who continued to break through the stifling silences to shout black lives matter on our own shores too. The writing of black women is powerful because, as Distinguished Professor Aileen Moreton-Robinson writes, although we come from a diversity of backgrounds and circumstances, we also share common experiences:
All Indigenous women share the common experience of living in a society that deprecates us. We share the experience of having different cultural knowledges.
We share in the experience of the continual denial of our sovereignties. We share experiences of the politics of dispossession. We share our respective countries’ histories of colonisation. We share the experience of multiple oppressions. We share in the experiences of living in a hegemonic white patriarchal society.
(Introduction)
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Indigenous Stories Told Collectively
BlackWords : Indigenous Stories Told Collectively
2015
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The BlackWords Essays 2015; (p. 5) The BlackWords Essays 2019;In this essay Heiss discusses and explains the important role of anthologies in the creation of communities of writers and in acknowledging, consolidating and launching writing careers.
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Snapshots of a Life
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 29 April 2006; (p. 12)
— Review of Swallow the Air 2003 selected work short story ; Madonna of the Eucalypts 2006 single work novel -
Some Rough Diamonds Are Best Left Unpolished
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 13-14 May 2006; (p. 14-15)
— Review of Swallow the Air 2003 selected work short story -
Promising Debut Shows a Writer to Watch
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 20 May 2006; (p. 13)
— Review of Swallow the Air 2003 selected work short story -
Sparkling Journey Starts with a Punch
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 20-21 May 2006; (p. 35)
— Review of Swallow the Air 2003 selected work short storyThis review discusses Swallow the Air's narrative structure, characterisation and dialogue, and the prose style.
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The Eyes Have It
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 3 June 2006; (p. 21)
— Review of Swallow the Air 2003 selected work short story ; Careless 2006 single work novel -
Tara: Star on the Horizon
2004
single work
column
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 20 October no. 337 2004; (p. 16) -
The Face : Tara June Winch : Writer
2006
single work
column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 6-7 May 2006; (p. 3) -
Up Close
2006
single work
column
— Appears in: Brisbane News , 10 - 16 May no. 586 2006; (p. 5) -
Woman of the World
2006
single work
biography
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 13-14 May 2006; (p. 3-31) -
[Review] Swallow the Air and Some Rough Diamonds Are Best Left Unpolished
2006
single work
correspondence
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 27-28 May 2006; (p. 2) Madonna Duffy, managing editor at University of Queensland Press, takes issue with some of the claims made by Kathy Hunt in Hunt's review of Swallow the Air. Duffy states that '[t]his is not just an issue of a reviewer passing comment on an editorial process to which she was not privy; it is also a case of ill-informed assumptions about the nature of indigenous writing and what it should or shouldn't be.'
Awards
- 2007 winner New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing
- 2007 shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) — Australian Newcomer of the Year Australian Newcomer of the Year
- 2007 joint winner The Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist of the Year
- 2007 winner Kibble Literary Awards — Nita May Dobbie Award
- 2006 commended Australian Centre Literary Awards — The Kate Challis RAKA Award