Journey to the warm, salty breezes of Far North Queensland where Torres Strait Islander author Lenora Thacker has set her debut historical fiction novel that pulses with three living languages.
The Pearl of Tagai Town weaves Kala Lagaw Ya, Meriam Mir, and Yumplatok language in a groundbreaking wartime love story.
In Tagai Town, a fictional place loosely based on the Cairns-Malay shanty town, we meet Pearl, a young Torres Strait Islander woman whose story unfolds across the tumultuous decades before, during and after World War II, capturing hardships and the luminous moments of life,joy, love, and community that has been absent from our national storytelling.
Plus for Word Up, language legend Neenah Gray draws on digital archives and her family’s living memory to share more of her father's language—Darumbal.