Long-time Bowraville Central principal Malcolm McFarlane (currently at Orara High) is now a published author.
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His debut novel, The Water Cart, was launched by leading Aboriginal educator and former Queenslander of the Year, Dr Chris Sarra, at Gleebooks in Sydney on Saturday, with actor Jack Thompson on hand to read a passage from the book.
“It’s been quite a weekend,” Malcolm said.
“Chris has been a friend for many years ... he offered to put a quote on the back cover and to launch it.
“I sent Jack a copy because the main character shares his name – he read it and rang me for chat … the reading was his idea. They have both been amazing.”
The book itself is based on a story he heard some 20 years ago when he was working out at Wilcannia in far west NSW.
“We took a group of high school students to an Indigenous community health centre and listened as the elders shared stories of their youth.
“One of the elders told of how she accompanied her father when he took his horse-drawn water cart from the river at Wilcannia and the mining town of White Cliffs some 90 kilometres away during the thirties and forties. The trip was a week each way.
“I used this as the basis for what is a narrative poem that follows the arc of Australian history but is based instead during the time of Federation.
“While the book is a work of fiction, it does have stepping stones of fact.
“I have been liaising with the Barkindji community out west … the book honours those people and the lives they led.”
The Water Cart is a sophisticated and poetic tale of transcendence above contaminated and misguided perceptions of our differences, to a place where Australian hearts beat closely together ...
- Dr Chris Sarra
Malcolm said the book was a story of friendship that lasts a lifetime and “hopefully makes people think about our core humanity”.
“There is a bit of unfinished business between us all.”
The book will have its local launch on Tuesday at the Book Warehouse on Harbour Drive, Coffs Harbour at 5.30pm.
Bookings are essential – RSVP to 6651 9077 or coffs@bookwh.com.au. by tomorrow, Friday, August 17. Refreshments will be provided.