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  • Dirrayawadha

  • Rise Up
  • By: Anita Heiss
  • Narrated by: Tamala Shelton
  • Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
  • 4.9 out of 5 stars (8 ratings)

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Dirrayawadha

By: Anita Heiss
Narrated by: Tamala Shelton
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Publisher's Summary

From the bestselling author of Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray (River of Dreams) comes another groundbreaking historical novel about resistance, resilience and love during the frontier wars.

Miinaa was a young girl when the white ghosts first arrived. She remembers the day they raised a piece of cloth and renamed her homeland ‘Bathurst’. Now she lives at Cloverdale and works for a white family who have settled there.

The Nugents are kind, but Miinaa misses her miyagan. Her brother, Windradyne, is a Wiradyuri leader, and visits when he can, bringing news of unrest across their ngurambang. Miinaa hopes the violence will not come to Cloverdale.

When Irish convict Daniel O’Dwyer arrives at the settlement, Miinaa’s life is transformed again. The pair are magnetically drawn to each other and begin meeting at the bila in secret. Dan understands how it feels to be displaced, but they still have a lot to learn about each other. Can their love survive their differences and the turmoil that threatens to destroy everything around them?

Anita Heiss is breathing new life into the Australian historical epic. Dirrayawadha (Rise Up) shows the resistance leader Windradyne as the remarkable figure he was and surrounds him with fascinating figures otherwise lost to history. With irresistible imagination and verve, as well as a deep desire for truth telling, Anita Heiss’s novels are re-peopling our past.

©2024 Anita Heiss (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio
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Critic Reviews

Dirrayawadha shines a fresh light on one of the most extraordinary people in this continent's past, woven together with a deeply personal story of loss and love. Heiss's wonderful writing, as ever, takes us to the heart of the historical truths which still reverberate today, and movingly chronicles their human cost. Dirrayawadha should be required reading for anyone seeking to understand our colonial past, and especially for those of us who live on unceded land.’ (Meg Keneally, author of Free)

'Anita Heiss rescues the memory of a nation with the intensity of her voice. Dirrayawadha is a story of love, of survivors. You start reading and you lose your breath. There is no one like Anita to captivate you from the first line. In Dirrayawadha love prevails in the midst of the most terrible war. A novel about Australia for the world. The great dichotomy of this novel is the arriving one's yearning for autonomy and the native's yearning for sovereignty.' (Armando Lucas Correa, bestselling author of The German Girl)

'Anita Heiss’s Dirrayawadha is a tender yet clear-eyed portrayal of love, justice and longing; a riveting novel that highlights the personal and historical consequences of Australia’s violent past. Historical in tone, yet absolutely contemporary in scope, Dirrayawadha is a beautiful triumph. The heart wrenching story of Miinaa, Dan and Windradyne will stay with me forever.' (Mirandi Riwoe, author of Stone Sky Gold Mountain)

What listeners say about Dirrayawadha

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Great Listen!

Beautifully narrated! Beautifully written story about a sad but very real part of Australia’s history.

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Drama, history, romance, family... will there be another sequel/prequel?

What a meaty read! So much at once. Historical fiction that got me super invested in the characters and story. Want more....

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Wonderful, I just wish it was longer!

I could have listened to at least another 300 pages of this story, so much history, love and loss. A must read for all Australians.

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A great book of truth telling

Perfect book to understand the complexities of Aboriginal issues and challenges both historic and modern

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Loved the sharing of language and culture!

I’m so sad to finish this audiobook. The author and narrator moves the listener to experience a range of emotions, love and despair. I wish we had listened and shown respect. Thank you for sharing your language, truth and culture with us. This text needs to be in the Australian curriculum for High School. Primary school kids are now learning about our great Indigenous warriors like Pemulaway, Windradyne and Dundalli and others who achieved so much for their people

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.