Ankami is written from the perspective of those left behind, those who search always for the faces of stolen and lost Aboriginal children, now known only through a few cruel, thoughtless words written by a violent pastoral manager and a paternalistic colonial administrator, a footnote in a yellowed letter.
This is a story about absences and the secrets that come with them, about unknown but somehow still present family. It is a story about what those speaking silences may be trying to tell as families sit around fires at night or celebrate together at a festive table. It is a story about the lost opportunity to grow with aunts and dads, the knowledge not shared and learned, the memories not made and a love that must remain one-sided and yearning.
Ankami is a book like no other, a searing, unforgettable and deeply human account of sorrow and incomprehensible loss, and the essential power of memory.
