Born Under The Paperbark Tree: A Man's Life: Jan Wositzky

The son of W.E. (Bill) Harney, the legendary writer and story-teller and Ludi Yibuluyma, a Waradaman woman, Yidumduma Bill Harney had little contact with his father. Instead, he was brought up straddling both heritages learning the traditional Aboriginal way of of life and the white man's way. Yidumduma Bill witnessed horrific acts such as cattle station owners poisoning Aborigines and welfare officers seizing part-Aboriginal children. His own sister Dulcie was taken by the authorities and he narrowly escaped the same fate. Years later, he had to fight to keep his own sons. Bill has seen the disintegration of the traditional Aboriginal way of life and the end of the livelihood of stockmen and drovers. Shocking stories of casual cruelty and violence sit alongside the tales of the Dreamtime, graphic details of the bush tucker of his childhood and hilarious yarns about drunken drovers, crafty poddy-dodgers and miserable publicans.