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Kunyi by Kunyi June Anne McInerney

$28.00 inc. GST

These are my stories from a dry remote place, where growing up was very different for what children know today.

Kunyi June Anne McInerney was just four years old when she and three of her siblings were taken from their family to the Oodnadatta Children’s Home in South Australia in the 1960s.

Through an extraordinary collection of over 60 paintings, accompanied by stories, Kunyi presents a rare chronicle of what life was like for her and the other Children’s Home kids who became her family.

Kunyi’s story is one of healing and reconciliation. She is telling it so that the lives of the children at Oodnadatta Children’s Home will not be forgotten. This is a collection of tender and honest stories that will educate children on our nation’s history and remind adult readers of the real impact of the Stolen Generations.

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Description

Kunyi, an illustrated memoir of Kunyi June Anne McInerney’s childhood, collects snapshot moments and stories of her life, told in her own words and accompanied by her paintings. The lively images, in vibrant, deep, rich colours shaped by bold lines, are at once realist and very stylised—somewhere between early Charles Blackman and what Howard Arkley might have created if he was working in the Australian bush, though more human-focussed than either. They complement McInerney’s words, which read as verbatim reminiscences of a very particular world: the Oodnadatta Children’s Home where she grew up after being taken from her family at four. None of the stories are dramatised or filtered, there is little intrusion of the adult Kunyi’s sensibilities, and the events are neither polished nor manipulated to maximise emotions; rather, the power is in the concrete way her experiences are told. As a child of the Stolen Generations, McInerney was raised by missionaries, denied her language and culture. Yet the pages of this book relate with equal weight the home’s cruel and apparently arbitrary rules and punishments, the childlike coming to terms with isolation and sadness, and the blithe memories of the minutiae of daily life and adventures with the other kids in the home. The stories aren’t complex and would be relatable for children of around six and up, but the text is extensive and an understanding of the social context will be important for a full appreciation of the book, so it is clear why the publishers recommend a 10-plus audience. Kunyi is an enjoyable, honest, compelling and open-hearted read.

Published by Magabala Books, 2021. Hardback, 48 pages.