TRACE BALLA’S Treeshape is a hope-filled graphic novel and memoir that reveals her personal and life-changing experiences of place, her understanding of the natural world and her relationship to Country.
Read on for a Q&A with the author.
MEET TRACE BALLA
What inspired you to tell your story in the form of a graphic novel?
Mixing words with images suits my way of doing things more than keeping them separated, so for me it’s a natural way of conveying stories. I’m a visual thinker and I spend a lot of time most days roving through the landscape, so graphic novels are a way of reflecting my reality. Even answering questions like this just with words doesn’t feel so natural for me! I’d be pointing and gesturing, doing mud maps, showing things if I could.
What was the most challenging part of translating personal experiences and memories into a story for readers?
There were lots of challenges in translating personal experiences and memories into a story for readers…
Working respectfully and with great care in my use of Cultural content with First Peoples is super important to me. I need to work in relationship, and with lots of space and time to go back and forth with roughs and feedback, as there needs to be trust, and understanding as there is such a huge Cultural load that many First People carry. I need to make sure I have the funds to pay generously for Cultural content, and continue to check my intentions, and that they are reflected in ways that those consulting and their communities are happy with. There were things I wanted to include that were too early in the current Cultural revival for me to be given permission to use yet.
Being aware of a general audience I need to keep certain aspects fairly light, as well as including some action for the younger readers, whilst not losing the adults…
Being sensitive to those within the pages about how much I reveal and what I depict. Maintaining levels of privacy… being particularly aware of my son as he is quite a prominent character. I need to pick and choose what works as well as what is ok for others, as well as for my own levels of privacy.
I aimed for a certain storyline at the start, but as it is an ongoing life story that I live in, new parts kept arising as I was working. It was hard to stop just before Treaty happened, but the book was due to move toward printing.
What was your favourite part of writing Treeshape?
So many favourite parts! I loved remembering and creating scenes from some of the funny bits – like smashing up the driveway with Joe and his cousins and how excited they were, playing matchstick poker with my dad, foraging with Joe when we were hungry, clambering about in the boomerang tree, swimming with dolphins … And honouring Country – it felt really good in my soul to be doing that. It was lovely making photo collage – I could have spent way longer on it, but there was a timeline to work within.
How did your connection to Country shape the way you told this story?
Have I answered that a bit above? Also this book spans large distances of the landscape of so-called Australia. I sometimes call the places I have relationship with the landscape my ‘earth body’ and I guess this is a small story of my earth body. It’s so impossible to fit into a book let alone an answer to a question – the vastness of this one … I think I centre Country and place in my stories and in my life.
What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned about yourself as a writer and artist while creating this memoir?
I guess I keep surprising myself by how many stories I have to share, how much I love it, and how I could make multiple books on single themes, or within smaller time frames. We all have such different experiences in life, all so unique, and it’s such a privilege to have a chance to make multiple significant choices that change the shape of a life.
What do you hope readers take away from this book?
A deeper appreciation and respect for a sense of place, connection with earth, and in particular for Australians in relationship with Country and First Nations.
To inspire an awareness to keep an eye out for moments where you can change the direction, the trajectory and shape of your life. Some of them are fast, some are slow, some are up to you … what shape will you make your precious miracle life.
And a love for trees!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Trace Balla is a much-loved Australian children’s book author, illustrator and writer of song lyrics who lives on Dja Dja Wurrung Country. She has won the CBCA Book of the Year Award, the Readings Children’s Book Prize, the Wilderness Society’s Environment Award for Children’s Literature, a Comic Arts Awards of Australia Bronze Ledger, and an Honour Award for the inaugural SCBWI Australian Picture Book Illustrator Awards. She has also been shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, Speech Pathology Book of the Year Awards (twice), Adelaide Festival Awards for Children’s Literature, and ALIA Graphic’s Notable Australian Graphsic Novel Award.
Trace’s stories explore themes of connection to Country and community, nature, friendship, gratitude, grief and human rights. She also loves to inspire others, of all ages and from all walks of life, through her talks and workshops, which explore creativity and caring for the planet. Trace does freelance illustration work, from logos to murals, and has a bookshelf ever filling with her nature journals and other reflections.
0 Comments