Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray: River of Dreams

Written by Anita Heiss

Narrated by Tamala Shelton

‘There are books you encounter as an adult that you wish you could press into the hands of your younger self. Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray is one of those books – a novel that turns Australia’s long-mythologised settler history into a raw and resilient heartsong.' – Guardian

***WINNER 2022 NSW PREMIER'S LITERARY AWARD INDIGENOUS WRITER'S PRIZE***
***2022 ABIA SHORTLIST***
***2021 ARA HISTORICAL NOVEL PRIZE SHORTLIST*** 
***2022 STELLA PRIZE LONGLIST***
***2022 INDIE BOOK AWARDS LONGLIST*** 
***2022 VICTORIAN PREMIER'S LITERARY AWARDS HIGHLY COMMENDED*** 

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Gundagai, 1852

The powerful Murrumbidgee River surges through town leaving death and destruction in its wake. It is a stark reminder that while the river can give life, it can just as easily take it away.

Wagadhaany is one of the lucky ones. She survives. But is her life now better than the fate she escaped? Forced to move away from her miyagan, she walks through each day with no trace of dance in her step, her broken heart forever calling her back home to Gundagai.

When she meets Wiradyuri stockman Yindyamarra, Wagadhaany’s heart slowly begins to heal. But still, she dreams of a better life, away from the degradation of being owned. She longs to set out along the river of her ancestors, in search of lost family and country. Can she find the courage to defy the White man’s law? And if she does, will it bring hope ... or heartache?

Set on timeless Wiradyuri country, where the life-giving waters of the rivers can make or break dreams, and based on devastating true events, Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray (River of Dreams) is an epic story of love, loss and belonging.

Praise for Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray (River of Dreams)
'Heiss fuses fiction with realism, conjuring a resonance still felt in Blak struggle today ... packs heart into every page.' – Saturday Paper

'Tells a powerful and affecting tale of Aboriginal people's identity, community and deep connection to country.’ – Canberra Times

'A profoundly moving showcase of Heiss’ skill ... Intimate, reflective, and impossible to put down.’  – AU Review

‘Engrossing and wonderful storytelling. I really loved these strong, brave Wiradyuri characters.’ – Melissa Lucashenko

‘A powerful story of family, place and belonging.’ – Kate Grenville

‘A remarkable story of courage and a love of country ... Anita Heiss writes with heart and energy on every page.’ – Tony Birch

'It is a love story, a story of loss, a hopeful story. The river is a guide, but you have to be open to its spiritual lessons.' – Terri Janke

‘Anita Heiss is at the height of her storytelling powers in this inspiring, heart-breaking, profound tale.’ – Larissa Behrendt

'The novel flows like the great Murrumbidgee River itself, with powerful undercurrents that sweep the reader along - I feel it's a book that all Australians should read, to try and understand why our colonial past still causes so much pain and grievance.’ – Kate Forsyth

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Australia
• Release date: May 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781760856007

Anita Heiss

Dr Anita Heiss is an internationally published, award-winning author of 23 books; non-fiction, historical fiction, commercial women’s fiction and children’s novels. She is a proud member of the Wiradyuri Nation of central New South Wales, an Ambassador for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation and the GO Foundation, and Professor of Communications at the University of Queensland. Anita is also the Publisher at Large of Bundyi, an imprint of Simon & Schuster cultivating First Nations talent, and a board member of the National Justice Project and Circa Contemporary Circus. As an artist in residence at La Boite Theatre, she adapted her novel Tiddas for the stage. It premiered at the 2022 Brisbane Festival and was produced by Belvoir St for the Sydney Festival in 2024. Her novel, Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray, about the Great Flood of Gundagai, won the 2022 NSW Premier’s Indigenous Writer’s Prize and was shortlisted for the 2021 ARA Historical Novel Prize and the 2022 ABIA Awards. Anita’s first children’s picture book is Bidhi Galing (Big Rain), also about the Great Flood of Gundagai. Anita enjoys running, eating chocolate and being a creative disruptor.

Reviews for Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray

[Jaclyn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

BILA YARRUDHANGGALANGDHURAY by Anita Heiss is an absolute page-turner historical fiction read and one you’ll want to pop on your TBR if it isn’t already there.

This story is a celebration of love—of Country, for family and community, of language, and of romantic love—it’s also a really nuanced character study reading out some important discussions.

The protagonist, Wagadhaany, has your heart from the first chapter—she survives a flood in 1852 that devastates the town she lives in, and as the plot progresses she is moved away from her miyagan (family) when the white family she is owned by under the Masters and Servants Act relocate. There are some truly vile characters that Wagadhaany encounters, but what I thought Heiss did really effectively is exploring the complex relationship she has with Louisa.

Louisa is a white woman who marries into the family that own Wagadhaany, and her behaviour is immediately juxtaposed to how the rest of the Bradley family interact with Wagadhaany. Louisa seeks to befriend Wagadhaany, using her correct name and confiding in her and making her clothes, yet continues her Quaker-white saviour mission and manipulates situations in really sinister ways unbeknownst to Wagadhaany. She isn’t proselytising per se, but she is seeking to involve herself and “help”—she donates books to the Wiradyuri children living by the river, she volunteers in the local school, she involves herself politically in the discussions around suffrage and adamantly refuses to own servants. She’s written differently to the other white characters in the narrative and has issues of her own she is overcoming—she struggles with an abusive husband and infertility, disconnection from her family in the UK. But what I think is really effectively depicted in her character particularly is how thoroughly entrenched in the colonial system white women like Louisa still were. She weaponises her privilege, under the guises of friendship and altruism, and I kept thinking of what nonfiction writers including Aileen Moreton-Robinson, Ruby Hamad, and Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers have all so perfectly articulated about white feminism.

[Nerissa Moore · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Powerful, beautiful and heartbreaking. Thank you Anita Heiss for this story