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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Too Afraid to Cry is a memoir that, in bare blunt prose and piercingly lyrical verse, gives witness to the human cost of policies that created the Stolen Generations of Indigenous people in Australia.
'It is a narrative of good and evil, terror and happiness, despair and courage. It is the story of a people profoundly wronged, told through the frank eyes of a child, and the troubled mind of that child as an adult, whose life was irretrievably changed by being tricked away from her family and adopted into a German Lutheran family.
'What makes this book sing is not only Ali Cobby-Eckermann’s strong and unique narrative voice and her ability to cut to the essence of things in her poetry, but also the astounding courage with which she leads the reader through the complex account of a life in free-fall and a journey to wholeness through reconnection with her birth family and its ageless culture and wisdom.
'This is a brave book, written by a woman who has faced her demons, transformed her suffering into a work of art, and found her true sitting place in the world.' (Publisher's blurb)
Notes
-
Author's note:
This is a poetic memoir
a story of healing
not burdened by blame
-
Dedication:
for the adopted children
Christopher, James, and Karen,
and especially Jonnie
-
Author's note:
My family and Aboriginal persons
are advised that this story
contains the names of people
who have passed away
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Epigraph:
You look at me and do not see
And you shame me
And I shame myself
Because I am not nowhere
I am everywhere in my belonging
I am still here
Samia Goudie 'I Am Here' 2011
Bundjalung/Munaldjali
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Ali Cobby Eckermann's Personal Story
2017
single work
column
— Appears in: Publishers Weekly , 29 December vol. 265 no. 1 2017;'In Too Afraid to Cry: Memoir of a Stolen Childhood (Norton, Mar. 2018), Ali Cobby Eckermann, one of the Stolen Generation--the Aboriginal children taken from their birth mothers to be raised in white families--describes in heartbreaking detail the unjust, racist treatment of her people by the Australian government. The book, written in both prose and poetry, came to be only after Eckermann's decades-long search for her Aboriginal family resulted in a transformative reunion with the mother she didn't know and numerous other relatives she didn't know existed. [...]I was out there with family and community members who were saying, 'Ali, you've got to write about this and stick up for us.'' (Publication summary)
-
Pain of Australia’s ‘Stolen Generation’ Imbues Voice of a Celebrated Poet
2017
single work
column
— Appears in: The New York Times , 9 September 2017; (p. A6)'When Ali Cobby Eckermann met her biological mother for the first time at age 34, she did not think her life could be enlarged further, she said. Four years later, in 2001, Ms. Cobby Eckermann was reunited with her son, then 18, who had been taken from her at birth.' (Introduction)
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Evoking Former Selves : Ali Cobby Eckermann’s Too Afraid to Cry
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: Verity La , September 2013;
— Review of Too Afraid to Cry 2013 selected work autobiography -
Review : Too Afraid to Cry and An Imaginary Mother: A Memoir
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: Long Paddock , vol. 73 no. 1 2013;
— Review of Too Afraid to Cry 2013 selected work autobiography ; An Imaginary Mother 2013 single work autobiography -
Sophia Barnes Reviews Too Afraid to Cry by Ali Cobby Eckermann
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: Mascara Literary Review , December no. 14 2013;
— Review of Too Afraid to Cry 2013 selected work autobiography
-
Well Read
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 11 May 2013; (p. 32)
— Review of Too Afraid to Cry 2013 selected work autobiography ; Boy, Lost : A Family Memoir 2013 single work biography -
Sparse Memoir of a Stolen Life
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 1-2 June 2013; (p. 24-25)
— Review of Too Afraid to Cry 2013 selected work autobiography -
[Review] Too Afraid to Cry
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 13-14 July 2013; (p. 20)
— Review of Too Afraid to Cry 2013 selected work autobiography -
A Survivor's Blunt Tale of Being Lost and Found
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 20 July 2013; (p. 28) The Canberra Times , 20 July 2013; (p. 25)
— Review of Too Afraid to Cry 2013 selected work autobiography -
Sophia Barnes Reviews Too Afraid to Cry by Ali Cobby Eckermann
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: Mascara Literary Review , December no. 14 2013;
— Review of Too Afraid to Cry 2013 selected work autobiography -
Artist Profile: Ali Cobby Eckermann
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: Tracker , June vol. 3 no. 2013; (p. 65) -
Pain of Australia’s ‘Stolen Generation’ Imbues Voice of a Celebrated Poet
2017
single work
column
— Appears in: The New York Times , 9 September 2017; (p. A6)'When Ali Cobby Eckermann met her biological mother for the first time at age 34, she did not think her life could be enlarged further, she said. Four years later, in 2001, Ms. Cobby Eckermann was reunited with her son, then 18, who had been taken from her at birth.' (Introduction)
-
Ali Cobby Eckermann's Personal Story
2017
single work
column
— Appears in: Publishers Weekly , 29 December vol. 265 no. 1 2017;'In Too Afraid to Cry: Memoir of a Stolen Childhood (Norton, Mar. 2018), Ali Cobby Eckermann, one of the Stolen Generation--the Aboriginal children taken from their birth mothers to be raised in white families--describes in heartbreaking detail the unjust, racist treatment of her people by the Australian government. The book, written in both prose and poetry, came to be only after Eckermann's decades-long search for her Aboriginal family resulted in a transformative reunion with the mother she didn't know and numerous other relatives she didn't know existed. [...]I was out there with family and community members who were saying, 'Ali, you've got to write about this and stick up for us.'' (Publication summary)
Awards
- 2013 finalist Deadly Sounds Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Music, Sport, Entertainment and Community Awards — Published Book Of The Year