Nona and Me by Clare Atkins

Find it on the fiction shelf: F ATK

Nona & Me is a poignant story about black and white Australia, told from the perspective of Rosie, a white Ŋäpaki girl, born and raised in the remote Aboriginal community of Yirrkala in Northern Arnhem Land. Rosie & her parents are spiritually adopted by their Aboriginal Yolŋu neighbours, becoming family. So when Rosie and Nona grow up together, they are in every sense of the word: sisters.  

When the girls are nine years-old, Nona moves away and when she returns years later, Rosie is in Year 10 and much has changed. No longer connected to the community, Rosie has new friends, and prefers to spend her time in the mining town of Nhulunbuy where she goes to school. When Nona turns up in Rosie’s class, gone is the easy relationship they once shared and in its place sits the uneasy complications of race and identity. 

Beautifully told, Nona & Me is Rosie’s story. We are there as she tries to make sense of her own beliefs, that of her parents, her school and everyone in between. Rosie attempts to navigate the seeming “two worlds” in which she lives, but with racial tensions never very far away, can Rosie stay true to herself? to Nona? and to her spiritual family?

- Mrs Crisafulli