Chapter Questions
Chapter 1
1.
What first impressions
of the boy does the author want the audience to feel?
-
Njunjul loves his family. He uses a lot
of casual language and is bothered that the man who owns his families’ house
sold it and the man who bought it ruined it by knocking it down, ‘then poured
that cement over everything in between.” He is on his way to Sydney, hoping for
a fresh start.
2.
What is ironic about
the name “Happy Valley”? Did the author do this deliberately?
-
The ‘Happy Valley’ is a miserable place. Aunt Milly laughs at that name, ‘Happy
Valley’, like happy when they mean ‘Real Sad Place.’
-
Njunjul thinks that they should call it
‘Un-Happy Valley’.
-
The author did this on purpose.
3.
Why does the author
have Njunjul leaving home?
-
Njunjul
is leaving home because his house has been destroyed. He and his older siblings
were ‘farmed’ out to aunties and uncles because there wasn’t enough room in his
mother’s small flat. She only had room for the younger siblings and he likely
felt unwanted.
4.
How are the “big
blokes” comments on the bus stereotypical towards the Aboriginal people?
-
The ‘big blokes’ were
very stereotyped, especially since the majority of white people were racist
toward Indigenous people. He stated that:
-
“It’s a dog-eat down there. They’ll eat
you up. Specially you being black.” And that “Yeah, lot of people in the cities
reckon they wiped you lot out years ago. Lot of people from where I come from,
out bush, reckon they should have done a better job.” The ‘big bloke’ also
mentioned that ‘Mundine’ll be the same. Hopeless. You buggers are hopeless, you
know that? Money, booze, jobs…You can’t handle any of it. Always goin’
walkabout.’
-
Njunjul knows that ‘Mundine don’t touch
grog or nothing.’
5.
Who are the
“bulleymen” and how are we being influenced to feel about them based on Njunjul’s
experience with them?
-
The ‘Bulleymen’ are the police officers
that draw conclusions that if an Indigenous person was near the scene of a
crime, they were the one who committed it. Njunjul was accused of trashing a
school because he was an Indigenous person.
-
‘It don’t take them long with a skinny
fulla like me. You take a couple of punches from them and you’re history.’
-
‘The try keeping you standing.’ Njunjul stated
when he was being beaten up, ‘Grab onto your clothes. M’clothes rip. I’m laying
on the floor in a puddle.’
Chapter 2
1.
Why is getting out of
“Happy Valley” such a big deal for Njunjul and his relatives?
-
‘Everyone’s sucking on those plastic
bottles. You gotta buy it packaged if you want it clean.’
-
‘You get out or you die’ Njunjul thought,
‘It was like a voice telling me.’
-
‘Most days I was just waiting to die.
Thinking I was a no-good black fulla. Garbage dumped on the edge of town.’
-
‘M’Aunty, she got hold of these thoughts.
Aunt Milly musta reckoned she gotta do something to get me out or there’ll be
nothing left to get, like fully.’ His Aunty might’ve been helping him leave.
-
What did the
author want the audience to consider?
-
In this chapter, the author wanted us to
consider how Njunjul’s new lifestyle connected him to other people of his
nationality and affected him emotionally.
2.
Describe Njunjul’s
relationship with Aunty Milly.
-
Njunjul and his Aunty Milly share a very
loving relationship, which is even more connected now that he has moved to
Sydney to live with her and Uncle Garth.
3.
Why does Njunjul panic
when the nun sits next to him on the bus?
-
‘I’m a smart mouthed, punk, no good
murri-fulla with a bad attitude.’ Njunjul felt inadequate compared to the nun,
who was obviously a good person. Njunjul describes her as a ‘guardian angel’.
4. How does Njunjul develop a friendship with the nun?
-
She knows half his relatives from
Sandgate, even ones he has only heard about. He stated that ‘I feel real deadly
just to be related’
5.
Njunjul says to the
nun “Sometimes you gotta go away from where you wanna be, just so you can get
strong enough to go back there.” Why is this advice significant to both Njunjul
and the nun?
-
The Nun and Njunjul were both feeling
unsure that they should have left where they came from.
-
‘Seems,
now we’re here, me and her, neither of us should have where we was.’
-
The Nun was upset about something.
Chapter 3
1.
What first impressions
does the author want the audience to have of Aunty Em and Uncle Garth?
-
Aunty Em and Uncle Garth love Njunjul.
Njunjul says that ‘Aunty Em’s rushing at me,
like she’s busting a world record.’
2.
What are some of the
new things Njunjul is seeing/hearing/eating? Use this as evidence.
-
Njunjul has his first stir fry, made in a
‘wok’
-
‘I’m tingling with newness. Like that
snake must feel when he sheds his old skin.’
-
Njunjul loves Uncle Garth’s car. It is a
powder blue merc, 280S Automatic with real leather seats, which Njunjul has
probably never seen before.
-
Njunjul meets Rhonda.
-
First game of Basketball with his Uncle,
Garth.
-
Meets Richie rich, who loves handshakes.
-
Introduced to other black people who call
each other ‘niggers’
3.
How does Njunjul
respond to all the new things he is experiencing? How is the audience
encouraged to feel?
-
The audience is encouraged to feel
excited. Njunjul is being introduced to multiple new things (as seen above) but
while dribbling on the spare basketball court, he states that ‘This looks more like homework than
basketball.’
-
4.
What are Njunjul’s
feelings about his first game of basketball and the players? What could be the
intended meaning from the author?
-
Njunjul wanted to play basketball, not practice on the spare court.
-
Gold teeth, gold earrings…
-
The boss looks like Bruce Springstein
-
Njunjul didn’t understand their ‘yo’.
-
His first impressions of the other
players were that they gave hard bro handshakes, called each other racist names
and played intense games of basketball.
Njunjul the sun article
– Why did they write the book?
Meme
MacDonald and Boori Monty Pryor:
The purpose of the book written by Meme MacDonald and Boori Monty
Pryor is not ‘to create guilt or lay blame, but to shift the debate about race
in this country from where it has become stuck and move ahead’ Meme MacDonald
stated. Njunjul the Sun was written to raise awareness of different cultures
and their everyday life and culture. Pryor puts it slightly differently. ‘The
hardest thing you'll ever do in your life is learn to love yourself.’ He
quotes, ‘Our aim was to create something everyone could find a way into, and
through that find a way into themselves.’ Pryor and MacDonald wanted to bridge
the gap between average Australians and Aboriginals.
