The son of W.E. (Bill) Harney, the writer and storyteller who became a legend in the North, and Ludi Yibuluyma, a Wardaman woman, Yiduduma Bill Harney had little contact with his father. Instead he was brought up straddling both heritages, learning the traditional Aboriginal way of life and learning the white man’s way. Yiduduma Bill witnessed horrific acts such as cattle station owners poisoning Aborigines and welfare officers seizing part-Aboriginal children. His own sister Dulcie was taken by the authorities and he narrowly escaped the same fate. Years later he had to fight to keep his own sons. Bill has seen the disintegration of the traditional Aboriginal way of life, and the end of the livelihood of stockmen and drovers. Shocking stories of casual cruelty and violence sit alongside tales of the Dreamtime, graphic details of the bush tucker of his childhood, and hilarious yarns about drunken drovers, crafty poddy dodgers and miserable publicans. Funny, moving and engaging, Bon Under the Paperbark Tree is the authentic voice of a man living between two worlds, two clutures – a life which he feels has let him come out ‘top all ’round’.
