Dirt Poor Islanders
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Dirt Poor Islanders
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Narrated by:
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'Ana Ika
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By:
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Winnie Dunn
About this listen
LONGLISTED FOR THE MILES FRANKLIN LITERARY AWARD 2025
'Islanders must do everything together. We painted ngatu together. We crossed the ocean together. We settled on isles together. We lived with generations upon generations stacked in fibro houses together. We became half-White together. We stayed poor together. Together. Together. Together.'
For Meadow Reed, a half-Tongan, half-White girl, the world is bigger than the togetherness she has grown up in. Finding her way means pushing against the constraints of tradition, family and self until she becomes whole in her own right. Meadow is going to see that being a dirt poor Islander girl is more beautiful than she can even begin to imagine.
Dirt Poor Islanders is a potent, mesmerising novel that opens our eyes to the brutal fractures navigated when growing up between two cultures and the importance of understanding all the many pieces of yourself.
Critic reviews
'a loving, yet challenging, portrait of the Tongan-Australian community . . . this is truly groundbreaking fiction' MELISSA LUCASHENKO, Miles Franklin winning author of Too Much Lip
'ferocious and tender . . . no one is spared and so much is revealed, including the complexity and power of being Tongan.' SHANKARI CHANDRAN, Miles Franklin winning author of Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens
'A fresh and vital new voice. The language dances on the page and creates vibrant characters alive and dripping with life.' FAVEL PARRETT, Miles Franklin shortlisted author of Past the Shallows
'I couldn't put it down. I laughed and I cried and I could smell the food and picture the places. Groundbreaking. Powerful. Brilliant. Masterpiece.' SELA AHOSIVI-ATIOLA
'a perceptive, provocative and personal exploration of growing up in a multicultural family . . . Dirt Poor Islanders is an impressive piece of autobiographic fiction' Weekend Australian
'vibrant . . . Dunn is a lively writer with a laid back sense of humour and a sharp eye for detail. Dirt Poor Islanders blends cultural collision and coming of age, and expands a field of Australian fiction that went mainstream with Christos Tsiolkas' Loaded.' Sydney Morning Herald
'In a beautiful warts-and-all way, Dunn shines a light on her Tongan-Australian upbringing' Daily Telegraph
'Fearless' The Australian Women's Weekly
My children are of mixed race (European and iTaukei) and I heard in Meadow’s voice their schizophrenic inner-life of cultural expectations from both sides which don’t always allow for one another.
The quality of Dunn’s writing is top shelf. Many books about island life, particularly fiction, are written by enthused unpolished pens, but Dunn’s prose is fluid and flows with ease, is playful and a true treat to read. For someone so young to already be so accomplished and skilled and to have completed such an ambitious project is impressive and exciting. I already look forward to reading her future work. For anyone, I wholeheartedly recommend this novel. For Pacific Islanders, celebrate yourselves in this brilliant book and help promote this inspiring young talent. I hope this is the beginning of an overdue wave of Pacific writing getting the recognition it deserves.
This book made me laugh, cry, and increased my sense of connection with Tonga. An important guide when so many of us dream of moving to Australia and the Ozzie streets paved with golden McNuggets.
Pacific Islander life shared by exciting new talent
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