Bidhi Galing
Big Rain
Description
Powerful and moving, Bidhi Galing (Big Rain) celebrates the Wiradyuri heroes of the Great Flood of Gundagai in 1852, told through the eyes of a young girl who is rescued from the raging floodwaters by her father.
2024 CBCA Notable book
Wagadhaany grew up near the Marrambidya Bila. She loved dancing in the rain and listening to her father, Yarri, tell her stories about life on Wiradyuri ngurambang.
When white people started building on the floodplains, Yarri was worried. He knew the power of the bila and tried to warn the strangers, but they would not listen.
Years later, the big rains came ...
This is the story of the Great Flood of Gundagai in 1852 and the Wiradyuri heroes, Yarri and Jacky Jacky, who paddled bark canoes through raging floodwaters, risking their lives to save countless others.
Anita Heiss’s powerful text, accompanied by Samantha Campbell’s evocative illustrations, is a gift of Wiradyuri culture, knowledge and language, sharing a resonant message for our times.
Genres
Pages32
Released2023
LanguageEnglish
PublisherSimon & Schuster Australia
ISBN9781761105265
SellerSimon & Schuster
About the author(s)
Dr Anita Heiss is an award-winning author of non-fiction, historical fiction, commercial women's fiction and books for young people. She is a proud member of the Wiradyuri Nation of central New South Wales, and an Ambassador for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation and the GO Foundation. Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray, Anita's epic historical novel about the 1852 flooding of Gundagai, received numerous awards, including the NSW Premier's Literary Award's Indigenous Writers' Prize, and was long-listed for the Stella Prize. Anita is Professor of Communications at the University of Queensland and enjoys eating chocolate, running and being a ‘creative disruptor’. For more, visit anitaheiss.com.
Samantha Campbell grew up in the Northern Territory and lives in Alice Springs. She is descended from the Dagoman people from Katherine and as a child lived in remote communities across the Top End. Her first book, Alfred’s War, written by Rachel Bin Salleh, was shortlisted for the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards and the Speech Pathology Australia’s Book of the Year Awards. Her other books include Aunty’s Wedding by Miranda Tapsall and Joshua Tyler, Brother Moon by Maree McCarthy Yoelu, and Freedom Day by Rosie Smiler and Thomas Mayor.
