That Blackfella Bloodsucka Dance!

D. Bruno Starrs | 312 pages | ISBN 3845445181

In this bold and cheeky meditation on Western and Aboriginal religion, middle-aged muscleman, uncertain Catholic and wanna-be academic Sterling de Bortoli is a self-described “octaroon”: a one-eighth Aboriginal Australian.

Neither black nor white this part-blood blackfella struggles with concepts of identity, moving between the two worlds but not really belonging to either. Thus he pursues a frustrated, anarchic, homeless existence in Canberra and Melbourne, until, through the influence of the Anti-Christ, his Dark Lord Maria, he travels to Islamic Morocco.

It’s a land completely foreign to his Dreamtime totem, and it’s where de Bortoli learns to be a full-blood vampire ... a monster who never says sorry.

That Blackfella Bloodsucka Dance is a deeply self-reflective work of humour for the discerning reader interested in issues of Aboriginal self-identity.