Milk

On the precipice of something life changing, a young Palawa man plunges into an exploration of self and Country.

Carried with the winds of a metaphysical Flinders Island—the place where it all happened—he is drawn back to the dawn of colonisation; to a woman who bore the brunt of the oppressors’ violence and then forward to her granddaughter, who buried the truth as a means of survival.

Stirring up stories together, with parts both achingly sad and unexpectedly funny, what unfolds reveals by slow degrees painful but important truths. Do we own the stories of our ancestors? And does the passage of time undermine a connection to Country?

Winner 2021 - ACT Notable Awards Fiction Award (Big Press), 2021
Winner 2021 - Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting, NSW Premier’s Literary Awards

About the Author

Dylan Van Den Berg is a Palawa man, actor and writer based in Canberra. He graduated from ANU with a Bachelor of Arts (Drama) and trained in acting at the State University of New York, the Upright Citizens Brigade improvisation troupe (NYC) and the Canberra Youth Theatre senior ensemble. He is the winner of the 2021 Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting at the NSW Premiers Literary Awards and the 2020 Griffin Award for new Australian playwriting for his play: way back when.