Hello Rappers This is Meme and Boori saying hello to your from Melbourne. We are excited that you’ve logged onto The Binna Binna Man Book Rap and that we have a chance to exchange ideas about what the book means to you and what it meant to us writing it.
The Binna Binna Man is a book that will always be close to our hearts. Although it is a fiction, the book gathers together lots of real experiences that we’ve had traveling together in North Queensland with nephews and nieces and sisters and aunties from Townsville up through Cairns and out to Yarrabah.
Some readers assume that the boy in the story is really Boori but we’d like to make it clear from the start that this is not true. Although Yarrabah, or Yarri as it’s referred to in the book, is a very special place for Boori because that’s where his mother’s family come from. Meme’s family come from western Queensland where she grew up on a sheep and cattle property. As you can tell, we come from quite different backgrounds. One of us is Aboriginal Australian and the other is Anglo/Celtic Australian. Can you tell which is which!!
It is important to us that our books reflect the understandings that come from both our cultural backgrounds. This for us is true collaboration and is what we were hoping would make The Binna Binna Man a special book for readers. You might like to see if you can find evidence of what we are talking about as different cultural perspectives in the book.
All the best and we can’t wait to hear from you. With love Meme McDonald and Boori Monty Pryor February 27th 2004
Colleen Foley Manager School Libraries and Information Literacy unit Professional Support and Curriculum Directorate www.schools.nsw.edu.au/schoollibraries NSW Department of Education and Training 3a Smalls Road RYDE 2112 Phone 02 9886 7488 Fax 02 9886 7413
