31 August 2009

Aboriginal story reprint reaches 100,000

Ringwood, Victoria
Nathan Brown

A new, revised and redesigned edition of The Girl Who Talked to the Stars has taken the total print run of the story of Aboriginal Adventist church member Dolly Bonson to 100,000. Of these, more than 75,000 have been distributed since the book was first published in 1994, according to Steve Piez, director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ministries (ATSIM) for the Adventist Church in Australia.

"People who have read the original book will enjoy re-reading this story," says Mr Piez. "The book has been rewritten and updated with additional information - and many more pictures have been added."

The Girl Who Talked to the Stars tells Mrs Bonson's life story, keeping secret for most of her life that she was "Bett Bett" of Elsey Station, made famous in the classic Australian stories of We of the Never-Never and The Little Black Princess.

Mrs Bonson revealed this part of her life story while standing in the baptismal font of the Darwin Adventist church in the early 1970s. Her story, as told by Alan Holman, covers the hard years following her famous early life and the joy that came with the faith she found in later life, before her death in 1988 at the age of 95.

"Credit should be given to Shane Winfield from Signs Publishing Company, who has redesigned the new edition," Mr Piez says. "We have had a great response to the new edition so far. It engages me every time I read it. It's a great story."

The book has been a major outreach tool for ATSIM over the past 15 years.

"When [former ATSIM director] Pastor Eric Davey decided to print 50,000 in its original print run, he was told he would never be able to distribute that many," Mr Piez comments. "But that figure was based on the Indigenous populations in the areas the church was then working in and, as the church's work among Indigenous people has grown, it has continued to be popular."

In 2007, the story of The Girl Who Talked to the Stars was featured in Signs of the Times magazine and hundreds of copies of the book were requested in response to that issue of the magazine.

Three outlets in Mataranka (NT), including the Mataranka Tourist Information Centre, now distribute the book to visitors to the town nearest the location of Elsey Station. "We send them a couple of boxes of books every few months," says Mr Piez, "and there's no reason we can't expand on that with other tourist centres in the Northern Territory, particularly with the new book."

The new edition of The Girl Who Talked to the Stars includes offers for further information and books about the faith Mrs Bonson found. As well as ATSIM's ongoing distribution of the book, The Girl Who Talked to the Stars is available from Adventist Book Centres throughout the South Pacific.

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