Local tales

Since coming here to WA, one of the things we've enjoyed is getting into some local stories.  Tim Winton has never been too far from the top of our reading lists, and we've both read a little of him here, as well as enjoying Cloudstreet on DVD, The Turning at our local Picture Gardens, and his interview with Jennifer Byrne on ABC a little while back.  We loved watching Satellite Boy at Sun Pictures so much that we did it twice.  I've read Jandamarra and A Town is Born, both gut-wrenching, brilliant accounts of people rising against injustice in the Fitzroy Valley.  We got Bran Nue Day on DVD too, a bit nuttier than I expected.  

It's intriguing how soon after coming to a new place you start to feel a special connection to the local stories, and how the stories then help to build and deepen your connection with the place.  Those stories from the Fitzroy Valley especially had more meaning for me as I've developed more of a sense of the place, and reading them has given me a much richer appreciation for both people and land.

I've just finished That Deadman Dance, a great book that caught my eye at a yard sale in Derby.  It seemed somehow familiar to me.  A beautifully told story from the south coast of the state, a place once known as 'the friendly frontier', although of course, no frontier has ever been 'friendly' for too long.  Looking forward to our travels down there.