Rita Huggins was stolen from her country as a child in the 1920s, and taken to what was then the Cherbourg Aboriginal Reserve. From that time, and also from the years as a single mother in Brisbane in the 1960s, Rita had the desire to make something better for herself, her family, and the Aboriginal people. ( )

(This review will contain mention of Aboriginal people who are or may be deceased).

I read this when I was at university and studying Aboriginal Political History.

I really liked it, but as always I think having to break it down and write about it and write an essay about it changed my perspective on it.

It's interesting to me that the author and the person who the book is being written about, Auntie Rita, are both sort of characters and narrators? It's a very interesting idea because these women are taking up multiple different spaces in time and place, and they're alright with that.

It's a humble little book. Feels much like a diary, or a very long letter. It was an easy read for me and pretty accessible and domestic as far as books go. Although I feel like there was something missing from it in general?

So I'll give it 3 stars, even though that's a totally arbitrary rating when it comes to someone else's personal story. ( )

Auntie Rita is the autobiography of an Aboriginal Australian women, Rita Huggins, written in dialogue with her daughter, Jackie Huggins, a university professor. Read for the Australian Women Writers Challenge.

Working together, Jackie and Rita Huggins create a full account of Rita’s life. Rita is the primary narrator, telling her story in her own style and words. Jackie, a college professor specializing in Aboriginal issues, inserts comments. Sometimes she fills in useful history to give readers an overall context for Rita’s life. Sometimes she gives another interpretation to her mother’s account, for example, trying to relieve her mother’s guilts. Sometimes, the two “fight with their tongues,” disagreeing but allowing the other to be heard. Jackie explains that the use of both their voices in the book means that she is not speaking “for her mother but to her, with her, and about her.”

Read more on my blog: me, you and books
http://mdbrady.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/auntie-rita-by-rita-huggins-and-jackie-h...