Longlisted for the 2023 Stella Prize
Jack of Hearts – Ngaire Jarro & Jackie Huggins
Nonfiction · Magabala Books
About the Book
Jack of Hearts: QX11594 is a moving and unpretentious project by Dr Jackie Huggins AM and Ngaire Jarro that chronicles the life of their father, Jack Huggins.
“This historical project reminds us of the plural lives of black soldiers.”
– 2023 Stella Prize Judges
About the Authors
Jackie Huggings
Jackie Huggins is Bidjara and Birri Gubba Juru from Queensland. She has been writing since the 1980s and was a former judge of the David Uniapon Award. Her many articles have been published internationally. She is the author of Auntie Rita (1994), Sister Girl (1998) (2022) and Jack of Hearts: QX11594 (2022). She has worked in Aboriginal affairs for over four decades.
Ngaire Jarro
Ngaire Jarro is from the Bidjara/Birri Gubba Juru nations. She lives at The Gap, Brisbane with her husband Rodney. She is the proud mother of three boys and two grandchildren. As a mature-age student, Ngaire graduated with a double degree in Early Childhood Education. Ngaire has been a teacher for 26 years, teaching students from Prep to Year 6. Ngaire enjoys teaching and loves sharing her Aboriginality with students. She believes that sharing culture and stories in the early years of schooling will not only educate future generations but provide a more inclusive society for all. Jack of Hearts: QX11594 is her first co-written book.
Further Reading
Reviews
“Jack of Hearts draws attention to crucial yet underexamined aspects of Australian history and asks important questions.” – Linda Jaivin, The Saturday Paper
“Jack Huggins…died far too young in the service of his country, leaving his family bereft. His daughters have given him the tribute he deserves. Read this book.” – Michael McKernan, The Canberra Times
“A remarkable story and worthwhile contribution to Australia’s war history genre.” – Cheryl Akle, The Australian
Hear Jackie Huggins talk about her father Jack’s story on ABC Radio National’s Conversations
Read an interview with Jackie Huggins and Ngaire Jarro on SBS NITV News
Listen to Jackie Huggins and Ngaire Jarro on the Good Reading podcast
Judges’ Report
Jack of Hearts: QX11594 is a moving and unpretentious project by Dr Jackie Huggins AM and Ngaire Jarro that chronicles the life of their father, Jack Huggins. Public attention is building on the vexed stories and allegiances of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in wars off this continent – this historical project reminds us of the plural lives of black soldiers. The reader is brought in to understanding its subject, Jack Huggins, through the footsteps of his daughters, the authors. It follows their own journey to know their father and his experiences. That journey, and the resonating impact of their father on their lives and others’, becomes as much the subject of the book as the biography they eventually construct. As a project, it lives alongside Jackie Huggins’ previous biography of her mother, Auntie Rita, as an act of shared familial memory.
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