Mary Ellen Jordan left her Melbourne city life to spend fourteen months in Maningrida, a coastal community in Arnhem Land. She made the journey expecting to work alongside the local Aboriginal people, with good intentions and thinking she'd be of some use. But nothing, it turned out, would be that simple.

Staring across the sharp social and cultural divide between the two races, Jordan would struggle to learn what it was to be a Balanda in Maningrida—a place that would challenge her perceptions of race, culture, political correctness, art, language, and whiteness.

This is a moving story told with both boldness and a lightness of touch by a talented new voice in Australian writing.

‘Perceptive, modest and brave: a quietly gripping, very personal take on Australia's deepest dilemma. Helen Garner

‘A vivid, compelling account … Jordan is an honest observer, as free from sentimentality as she is from malice.' Inga Clendinnen.

‘… an uncompromisingly honest contribution to the conversation between white and Aboriginal Australia.' Kim Mahood.  less