Graham Akhurst is a Kokomini writer who grew up in Meanjin. He is a Lecturer of Australian Indigenous Studies and Creative Writing at UTS. Borderland is his first novel.
Jono is finishing high school and trying to figure out his place in the world.
At school he always felt like he stuck out. As one of only two Indigenous students, along with his best friend Jenny, Jono was targeted by students and always felt like he had to work twice as hard to get half as far.
Now Jono and Jenny are starting at the Aboriginal Performing Arts Centre, and Jono’s still not sure. He doesn’t know who his mob are, he feels adrift and the other students still single him out.
When an opportunity comes along for Jono and Jenny to work with a documentary crew filming in the Queensland desert they both jump at the chance. The gig is in support of a fracking project though and Jono’s instincts are telling him there’s a lot more to this trip than he initially suspects.
Jono’s story centers around the question of identity and explodes that notion to explore how identity, country and culture are entwined for Indigenous people.
Jono feels like many of us will at some point in our lives. He’s clearly talented; he achieved a scholarship at an exclusive private school and won his audition for the documentary, but Jono never feels like enough. Throughout Borderland, Graham Akhurst shows us that Jono’s achievements are only part of the journey he is on.
In a key early scene Jono must perform for his dance class. He is unprepared but takes to the floor and expresses something within himself. It’s an opening up that takes Jono on a step towards becoming his true self.
As we move from school, the performing arts center and out to the desert, where the documentary will be shot, we meet an ensemble cast each of whom is on their own journey into identity. From those strong in their ties to the land, to those just learning about this connection, Borderland is at pains to ensure all readers can see the process and the individuality of learning.
Borderland is a pacy novel that hurtles the reader along Jono’s path into manhood. The pace of this journey is reflected in Jono’s own unpreparedness. As he learns more about himself he is shocked by the ruptures and is even beset by what he thinks are panic attacks. We are given the sense that Jono must overcome if he is going to survive.
At the heart of the novel is the transformation that Jono will make as he learns about his true self. There’s an incredible twist here that I only want to allude to, but I feel safe in reflecting on my conversation with Graham Akhurst where he reflected that he wanted the kind of inspiring story about a young Indigenous man that he didn’t have when he was growing up.
Jono’s journey of discovery takes him into the Queensland desert and onto traditional lands being denuded by fracking. Jono and the documentary crew must reconcile their work communicating about the mining and the communities it potentially threatens. Jono in his turn must also reconcile the deeper threats to country and the deep bond he is only just discovering within him.
As a white reader I can reflect that I have only a shallow understanding of country in Indigenous cultures and cosmologies. It’s a concept that I feel we must approach with open minds and respect if we’re going to learn about this land we live on. Graham Akhurst’s Borderland is a terrific read that opens the door to learning more about how culture and country exist for First Nations and their importance in both the past, but also the present and our future together.
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