They are also best friends. It doesn't matter that Rosie is white and Nona is Aboriginal: their family connections tie them together for life.
Born just five days apart in a remote corner of the Northern Territory, the girls are inseparable, until Nona moves away at the age of nine.
By the time she returns, they're in Year 10 and things have changed. Rosie has lost interest in the community, preferring to hang out in the nearby mining town, where she goes to school with the glamorous Selena, and Selena's gorgeous older brother Nick.
When a political announcement highlights divisions between the Aboriginal community and the mining town, Rosie is put in a difficult position: will she be forced to choose between her first love and her oldest friend?
In a family torn apart by grief and guilt, one girl’s struggle to come to terms with years of torment shows just how long old wounds can take to heal.
Review
A fantastic depiction of life in a remote Aboriginal community and changing friendships.
Rosie is white and Nona is Aboriginal but, through local custom they have been Yapas, ‘sisters’ since they were young. Nona moved away when the girls were nine years old and has now returned when they are sixteen.
Their friendship is not what it was and Rosie denies their friendship to look good to her new white friends from town and Nick, her boyfriend.
But can we deny our past? Should the mining community take precedence over the cultural landowners? What will be the impact of the Prime Minister’s announcement on Northern Territory intervention?
This is a beautifully written debut novel by Clare Atkins, who has previously been a scriptwriter for television, on shows including Home & Away, All Saints and Winners & Losers. She researched and wrote Nona & Me while living in Arnhem Land.
