Paydirt
by Fallon, Kathleen Mary (2007)
Abstract
Based on Kathleen Mary Fallon’s script for the film Call Me Mum, Paydirt is a confronting and deeply affirming novel that highlights the complex dramas of race politics beneath the complacent façade of contemporary Australia. In four provocative monologues, each character tells the story from their perspective. There’s Kate, the white foster mother; Warren the son; Dellkeith, Kate’s mother (Warren’s foster–grandmother); and Flo, Warren’s birth mother. The story opens as Kate and Warren fly from Melbourne to Brisbane to see Warren’s birth mother Flo before she passes. Warren hasn’t seen Flo since he was a toddler and was taken away by the authorities ‘for his own good’. What should Kate tell Flo about her son’s long history of bureaucratic abuse and heartless disregard? And how can she begin to imagine the pain of Flo and her people?
Keywords
Work In Literature, Fiction, Australian Context, Novel, Family, Aboriginal Australian Context, Stolen Generation, Child Welfare, Domestic Labour, Care, Care WorkThemes
Women and WorkLinks to Reference
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