The skin I'm in by Steph Tisdell

Indigenous comedian Steph Tisdell is well known for her stand-up comedy acts and her roles in Australian television. Her latest venture into writing YA fiction is another winner, presenting strong characters and nuanced situations that expose unresolved cultural issues in Australia. Seventeen-year-old Layla has been the good studious girl at school, but when her troubled cousin Marley is invited into her home, she suddenly has to face questions about her Aboriginality. How much does she really know of her culture and history? Marley has lived on Country, he calls her a coconut, and is scornful of the school’s superficial attempts to include an Aboriginal perspective. Layla finds herself questioning the attitudes of her school friends and her teachers, but also more importantly questioning her own values and ambitions.

Tisdell’s authentic writing style absolutely captures the teenage voice and makes it easy for the reader to identify with Layla and the problems she faces, with changing friendship loyalties, racist and silently complicit attitudes, tokenistic attitudes to Aboriginal inclusion, all added to the usual adolescent insecurities.

Some of the pages directly address the reader, questioning why it is that the Aboriginal person has to take on the role of explaining the history and trauma; why can’t people do the hard work themselves? Layla attends a Dreaming camp and becomes stronger and more confident in her culture, but that doesn’t mean that she has to recite it to others. It is for everybody to educate themselves.

A highlight of the book is the insight we are given into the Aboriginal kinship system where extended family members will take on the care and support of a child who needs it, rather than the official foster situation. Layla’s mother brings her nephew Marley into their family, giving him the care and attention he needs, and when a traumatic situation arises, they are all there to help him. Living with Marley and learning what he has gone through strengthens Layla’s commitment to make a difference for her people.

There are content warnings with this novel: sexual content, a suicide attempt, drug use, intergenerational trauma and racism. Tisdell is blunt and tells it like it is, the same way she does in her stand-up shows. But a mature YA reader will surely appreciate the honesty, and the opportunity to grapple with questions that need attention and discussion.

There are reading notes available on the Pan Macmillan site and the opportunity to win a class set of The skin I’m in (closing date 10 September 2024).

Themes: Identity, Aboriginal culture, Kinship, Intergenerational trauma, Racism.

Helen Eddy