In May 2026 at the Sydney Writers' Festival I heard actor and author Tasma Walton speak about her latest book I Am Nannertgarrok (2025). I wasn't familiar with Walton and was not sure that her novel was something I would be interested in reading. But after listening to her talk about the novel and the true story that inspired it, I bought a copy on the spot.
The novel begins in 1833 on Boonwurrung Country in Nerrm (Port Phillip Bay, Victoria) where Nannertgarook is a young mother of two. It is a peaceful, idyllic life as she participates in ceremonies and rituals which honour the land and the whales which are a totem for the sea country people. They soon see sailing ships and fear that the ngamudji (white men) are coming to their sacred shore. As the women and children run from the shoreline, a handful of women and children, including Nannertgarrook are captured, taken on boats out to sea.
On the sealers ship, they are taken across the sea to an island in the Bass Strait where they meet other First Nations women who have also been stolen from their lands. Pregnant when captured, Nannertgarook clings to hope that she and her unborn child will return home to their kin. But the sealers are brutal - killing every creature in their path - and forcing the women into slavery. Rape, violence and misery followed. As did children, with the women forced to bear the pregnancies that came from these assaults, only to have their children stolen from them when they were old enough to be sold on to others.
The story follows Nannertgarrook over the next thirty years as she is taken eventually to Bald Island in Western Australia. Her captor renamed her Eliza 'No-One' Nowen and her children were all given anglicised names. Nannertgarrook seeks to pass down her cultural knowledge to her children despite being taken further and further away from her sea country home.
While the subject matter was dark and horrific in places, this is an important novel about our colonial past that is definitely worth reading. The violence is not sensationalised, Walton handles this with great skill, giving readers the reprieve that Nannertgarrok did not receive.
Walton's writing is poetic, peppered with the language of the Boonwurrung people. The glossary at the back of the book was helpful, but I opted to download the audiobook, read by the author, so I could hear the correct pronunciation of the words I was reading. This greatly enhanced my experience of the story.
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| Tasma Walton signing her book for me (May 2026) |
At the Sydney Writers' Festival Walton revealed that the story had been mythologised in her family. The tale handed down was that Nannertgarrook has been wooed by a merchant seaman and run off with him. Historical records show this to be untrue. In writing this story, Walton brought Nannertgarrook home.
I Am Nannertgarrook won the ARA Historical Novel Prize and was shortlisted for the 2026 Stella Prize. Following the success of this novel, Walton's publisher has secured the rights to her next two novels. Walton has announced that she is continuing this story with I Am Emma Gamble - the tale of Nanertgarrook's youngest child. She will also write I Am Bindergarrook which follows what happened in Boonwurrung Country after the abduction.
We will need to wait until 2028 for the first of these novels to be published, but I will definitely put this on my wish list!
