Shortlisted for the 2026 Stella Prize
Tasma Walton – I Am Nannertgarrook
Fiction · S&S Bundyi
About the Book
Based on the true story of Tasma Walton’s ancestor, a powerful, heart-wrenching novel about maternal love that endures against pitiless odds. Kidnapped by sealers and enslaved far from her homeland, Nannertgarrook has a spirit that refuses to bow …
From her idyllic life in sea country in Nerrm (Port Phillip Bay, Victoria), Nannertgarrook is abducted and taken to a slave market, leaving behind a husband, daughter and son. Pregnant when seized, she soon gives birth to another son, whom she raises with the children of her fellow captives.
Nannertgarrook is separated not only from her Boonwurrung family, but from her birthright – the ceremonies she once was so joyously part of, the majestic whales who are her totem, the land and sky and sea country and its creatures. All these things she loves as deeply as she does her blood kin.
But now, as her reality becomes profoundly different, she must keep that family and her old life alive in her mind. Their rich, pulsating elements sing to us through her beautiful voice, even while Nannertgarrook herself is subjected to the worst of humanity. This sweeping novel asks us to consider who, in colonial history, were the real savages, and what it truly means to be civilised.
“A page-turner that is also deeply researched; beautifully written and very accessible; an embodiment of Walton’s First Nations heritage and culture that welcomes all readers into its rich emotional landscape.”
– 2026 Stella Prize Judges
About the Author
Tasma Walton
Tasma Walton is a proud Boonwurrung woman from the saltwater country of Melbourne and surrounding coastlines. As an award-winning actor, she has most recently garnered recognition for her acclaimed role of Mary Swan in the highly regarded Mystery Road television and film franchise. She has appeared in numerous television productions, including The Twelve, Rake, Cleverman, Deadloch and The Secret Life of Us; for her renowned role of Dash McKinley in Blue Heelers she received a Best New Talent Logie Award. Her films include Ivan Sen’s Mystery Road, Jub Clerc’s Sweet As; How to Please a Woman, Kid Snow, Looking for Grace, Blessed and Fistful of Flies, for the last of which she won the Sochi Film Festival Award for Best Actress. Her work across both film and television has seen her nominated for multiple AACTA Awards. Tasma’s first novel, Heartless, was nominated for an ABIA Award for General Fiction, and the first book in her children’s series Nerra: Deep Time Traveller was longlisted for the DANZ Children’s Book Award. She has worked in various writer’s rooms and workshops in the development stage of many film, television and theatre productions. Tasma’s most cherished role is playing mum to her daughter, Ruby.
Interview with Tasma
What are some of your earliest memories of reading?
I was entirely captivated by The Berenstain Bears when I was a toddler and knew stories like BEARS IN THE NIGHT and THE BEARS’ VACATION off by heart. The first blossoming of freedom through imagination.
Is there a book that dramatically changed your view on the world?
Impossible to choose one book! For me, different books have greater impact at different life stages. At school I read John Wyndham’s THE CHRYSALIDS which gave voice to my own budding perceptions around intolerance, religious power plays and crippling conformity. Virginia Wolf’s A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN echoed my own frustrations around the social constrictions on womens artistic and intellectual pursuits. Lester Brown’s THE TWENTY-NINTH DAY opened my eyes to the rumbling crisis of environmental collapse which grows ever louder in the face of our species’ greed and apathy.
What Stella listed book from the last 14 years do you think everyone should read?
I simply refuse to choose one – I’ll give you five: TRACKER, Alexis Wright; SEE WHAT YOU MADE ME DO, Jess Hill; SONGSPIRALS, Gay’wu Group of Women; BILA YARRUDHANGGALANGDHURAY, Anita Heiss; ANOTHER DAY IN THE COLONY, Chelsea Watego.
What’s a quote about either your book or the role of literature in shaping culture?
Story-telling is humanity’s most ancient, sacred art, designed to teach, to expand, to evolve, to elevate. It is crucial to our very survival.
What do you hope readers take away from your book?
The full embracing of a world view hidden in the history books – that of an Aboriginal woman fighting for survival and identity amongst the apocalyptic collapse of her entire world.
How are you celebrating being shortlisted?
Still pinching myself to validate this is all real!
Further Reading
Reviews
“A soulful, breathtaking achievement that lyrically weaves a fearless account of the horrors of brutal colonisation with the resilience of First Nations women and an unbreakable connection to Country. Tasma Walton has emerged as a masterful, mesmerising storyteller.” – Larissa Behrendt
‘Beautiful and evocative storytelling. Joyfully uplifting and utterly heartbreaking in equal measure.’ – Ben Elton
Links
Judges’ Report
A page-turner that is also deeply researched; beautifully written and very accessible; an embodiment of Walton’s First Nations heritage and culture that welcomes all readers into its rich emotional landscape. This is that rare bird, a serious and inviting historical novel. The story is about the impact of the British seal-hunting and whaling industries on First Nations lifeways in Australia. Walton recounts the story of her ancestor’s abduction from Boonwurrung Country, where she was sold into enslaved labour in Tasmania, entering a life of forced migrations that led eventually to southern West Australia. It’s a story of loss and grief, as well as dignity and the endurance of the profound meaning and spiritual aliveness of whale song, motherhood, and marine life across centuries of extraction and dispossession.
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