Walg — B. Wongar

For ten years during the 1950s and 60s the British conducted secret nuclear tests on Australian tribal lands. The cancer and radiation poisoning resulting from these tests led to the deaths of countless aborigines. B. Wongar uses these tests as the starting point for a powerful trilogy about the destruction of a culture and a land. 'Walg', the first of these novels, is told from the point of view of an aboriginal woman. Pregnant, travelling on foot through a landscape destroyed by nuclear blasts and mining, she seeks her tribal country - her 'walg' (womb) - to learn the secrets of motherhood which might help her prolong the life of her decimated tribe.

 

'Walg' is the first book of B. Wongar's highly acclaimed 'nuclear trilogy'. 'Karan' and 'Gabo Djara', the second and third books, are also available, and the trilogy has since been extended with the addition of a prequel 'Manhunt', and two further books, 'Raki' and 'Didjeridu Charmer'.2