A Piece of Red Cloth

WINNER, AUSTRALIAN BOOK INDUSTRY AWARD FOR SOCIAL IMPACT BOOK OF THE YEAR 2026

SHORTLISTED, VICTORIAN PREMIER'S LITERARY AWARD FOR FICTION 2026

SHORTLISTED, THE AGE BOOK OF THE YEAR FICTION AWARD 2026

SHORTLISTED, MUD LITERARY PRIZE 2026

It's early in the wet season. A flock of crested terns sweeps into the bay and dives towards Batjani. The birds are saying the foreigners are coming, as they do every year, but why are they so full of menace?

Batjani's beloved granddaughter Garritji is on the cusp of womanhood, about to go through the rituals preparing her for marriage. Batjani uses all means at her disposal to protect her granddaughter from the visiting Macassan trepang fishers, but she is betrayed. Can Garritji be saved?

This powerful and unique novel is based on oral history and told through Yolngu eyes, with ancestors as the Yolngu remember them: proud, strong, resilient people in control of their world and interacting with foreigners on their own terms.

'Told through the voices of the people who know it best, all those deeply important events from times long before Cook imagined a Southern Land.' - Debra Dank

'We've been waiting a long time for a book like this ... [A] breathtaking re-imagining of history and place.' - Nicholas Jose

'This riveting novel based on Yolngu oral history takes the reader inside a coastal Arnhem Land community in the 1600s, at a point of crisis... As we watch the situation unfold with dread, we also experience the everyday joy of Yolngu life, the strength of culture and the wonder of their cosmology.' - The Guardian

'A glimpse into pre-colonial Australia and a world still powerfully alive in the Yolngu imagination.' - Kim Mahood

'With all the colour and sensuality of slow-paced life on Country, the novel suddenly moves towards its action-filled resolution.' - Stephen Muecke

'A Piece of Red Cloth sets a benchmark in what real collaboration [between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal storytellers] can be' - Professor Jeanine Leane, University of Melbourne

'A rich and transportive novel in the vein of Hannah Kent or Tara June Winch' - Books+Publishing

'Reading A Piece of Red Cloth transports the reader to another world, another time, and an achingly painful history many of us know nothing about. This is a deeply moving novel, and the generosity of its experiential offering is profound.' Judges' report, Victorian Premier's Literary Awards