Auntie Rita

Auntie Rita, written by Rita and her daughter Jackie Huggins, is a revised edition of the bestselling and award-winning memoir of Aboriginal woman Rita Huggins first published in 1994. Rita battled dispossession, poverty, personal tragedy and racism to create a rich meaningful life, lived out during the momentous changes of the 20th century. Rita Huggins was born on Bidjara/Bidyara country at Carnarvon Gorge in central Queensland. As a child in the 1920s, she met white men for the first time: troopers who forced her family into cattle trucks and drove them south to Barambah, later Cherbourg Aboriginal Reserve. At Cherbourg 'we had to stay in one place now, while the white men could roam free.' In Auntie Rita, Rita's words - interspersed with reflections from her daughter Jackie - reveal a life shaped by personal tragedy, the dramatic changes of the twentieth century and personal resilience. This moving memoir has been enjoyed by readers around the world since it was first published in 1994.