While I Can Still Remember ... Norfolk Island
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Lone Pine, a 650 year-old Norfolk Island pine, stands on a limestone cliff on Norfolk Island. At the base of its trunk a sapling – Piali – clings to the cliff as fierce storms threaten to destroy it. The island is waiting for Piali to grow strong enough to replace the old tree who has been the keeper of the island’s stories. These must be passed on so that the species will remain intact. Suddenly the Norfolk Island pines begin to shed their bark and drop their branches. The same is happening on the mainland of Australia. Their friends – fairy terns and green sea turtles – are desperate to halt the progress of the pines’ extinction. But Lone Pine’s memory is fading and time is running out for Piali to take in the stories that have occupied Lone Pine for centuries. |
The Illustrations
I discovered Zozie Brown at the right time for both of us. She was looking for the magic word 'experience' and I was looking for someone who could translate my impressions of the history of Norfolk Island onto the pages of my book. She was amazing to work with, not only because she could almost read my mind, but because she was creating new illustrations, on average, one every 3-4 days! Here are some examples of stories in pictures that she created.
The wreck of the 'Sirius'This was a huge disaster in the early history of Norfolk Island. This is from the perspective of Lily (a white tern) and Lone Pine looking down on the drama unfolding below them. They share the agony of the ship as it breaks up on the reef.
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Convicts suffer brutality
The New Gaol was built to house those convicts considered to be of the worst type. So harsh and inhumane were the conditions and punishments that Norfolk Island soon became a place of infamy and dread.
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Bounty Day
Bounty Day - on 8th June every year - is the anniversary of the arrival of the Pitcairners on Norfolk Island in 1856. The Pitcairners are direct descendants of the drama of the Mutiny on the 'Bounty'.
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A few words from Zozie
Working on While I Can Still Remember was a very interesting experience for me- I actually learnt a lot about our history from that novel that I was not taught in school! It was fun working with Lyn to develop a series of colourful, visually interesting illustrations to match each chapter in the book. Lyn was very particular with the details, which meant a lot of touching up on my images, but for a historical novel it has to be absolutely perfect. It was a great challenge for me as an illustrator to take on the history of an existing island and create an image that reflects its true appearance and structure, especially throughout different time periods. Overall I really enjoyed working with Lyn and interpreting her novel in this way; I thought she was very passionate and knowledgeable about the island and I was very proud to work with her on While I Can Still Remember.
Praise for 'While I Can Still Remember'
Back in 2010...
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In 2010 I worked in conjunction with a Brisbane state school's 6/7 middle year students. As I completed each new chapter, I would email it to their teacher who would then expose it to her students. They studied the chapters in relation to 'vivid imagery, verbs, nouns, adjectives and many more key literacy components in their curriculum'. At the same time, we were in contact via a blog where the students asked me questions and gave me valuable feedback. During that time, I travelled to Norfolk Island to conduct interviews and fill in the gaps of my research. I emailed some photos from the island which apparently caused quite some interest.
You may be interested to see some of the students' drawing responses in their work booklets to what they saw was happening in the chapters :