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Yanga Mother is a timely and poetic celebration of First Nations languages. This powerful bilingual story honours connection to Country and the unbreakable bonds of never-ending motherly love.
Wandaguli Yanga. There is always Mother.
From award-winning writer Cheryl Leavy comes this beautiful picture book in Kooma and English about a grey kangaroo and her joey, and the unbreakable bonds of family.
With artwork from renowned Meriam and Yupungathi artist Christopher Bassi, this gentle yet powerful story honours the Stolen Generations, First Nations matriarchs, and never-ending motherly love.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR
CHERYL LEAVY
Cheryl Leavy is from the Kooma and Nguri Nations in western and central Queensland.
A poet, Cheryl was the 2022 winner of the Oodgeroo Noonuccal Poetry Prize. Several commissions followed, including for Camerata – Queensland’s chamber orchestra, Red Room’s Poetry Month, 2023, and most recently poetry activations for Daniel Boyd’s Rainbow Serpent (Version) at the Institute of Modern Art and Judy Watson’s exhibition at Queensland Art Gallery.
Cheryl was a proud recipient of the inaugural FNAWN Varuna Residency Fellowships for 2024 to work on her poetry manuscript, Mudunja - Song Country. Cheryl’s first children’s book, Yanga Mother, written in Kooma and translated to English, will be published by UQP this year, with her second, For You Country, in 2025. Cheryl often writes in her Kooma language and is passionate about its revitalisation.
Cheryl has enjoyed a long career in the arts and cultural sector, serving on many boards, including for the Brisbane Writers Festival, where she established and co-chaired the First Nations Advisory Committee. Cheryl has also achieved notable success in First Nations policy and rights advocacy, with her most recent focus on environmental and land justice.
CHRISTOPHER BASSI
Christopher Bassi is an artist of Meriam, Yupungathi and British descent. Working with archetypal models of representational painting, his work engages with the medium as sociological and historical text and as a means to address issues surrounding cultural identity, alternative genealogies, and colonial legacies in Australia and the South Pacific. Chris's recent work will be included in the Museum of Contemporary Art's exhibition, Primavera 2023: Young Australian Artists.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
193 Boundary Street, West End, West End, QLD, Australia, Queensland 4101
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