A rare glimpse into the life of a mid-20th century Australian Aboriginal woman is offered in this autobiographical account which reads like a novel. After being taken from her mother in infancy and raised in a Catholic mission, Glenyse Ward is hired out as a domestic servant to an upper-class white family when she is fifteen. Working for an employer who refers to her as "my dark slave," Ward successfully struggles to maintain dignity and an identity in harsh, humiliating circumstances. (Age 13 and older)

This is the true story of how a girl in Australia was taken from her parents and educated in a Catholic mission. In 1965, she was forced to become a domestic on a wealthy estate, where she woke before dawn every day and slaved for fifteen hours. She ate off a tin plate and slept on a shabby cot above a garage. All because of the color of her skin. This sort of thing wasn't supposed to happen anymore. Here is the frightening yet victorious story of how it did and how that young woman who fought her way out.
"[An] affecting memoir...Her harrrowing story, dispassionately told, could well be fiction."
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW