BOOK PUBLISHERS

Teachers’ Notes by Joy Lawn

Trouble Tomorrow by Terry Whitebeach and Sarafino Enadio

ISBN 9781760291464 Recommended for ages 13-18 yrs

These notes may be reproduced free of charge for use and study within schools but they may not be reproduced (either in whole or in part) and offered for commercial sale.

Introduction ...... 2 Topics and themes ...... 2 Plot summary ...... 2 Curriculum alignment ...... 3 Activities for the English classroom ...... 3 Orientation to Sudan ...... 3 Literature and context ...... 5 Writing ...... 9 Story ...... 10 Sudanese people in Australia ...... 10 Resources and Further Reading ...... 11 About the writers ...... 13 The collaborative writing process ...... 14 Blackline masters ...... 15

83 Alexander Street PO Box 8500 Crows Nest, Sydney St Leonards

NSW 2065 NSW 1590 ph: (61 2) 8425 0100 [email protected] Allen & Unwin PTY LTD

Australia Australia fax: (61 2) 9906 2218 www.allenandunwin.com ABN 79 003 994 278

INTRODUCTION Trouble Tomorrow is a young adult novel, based on a true story, and is suitable for study in Years 7-10. It follows the life of 16-year old Sudanese boy Obulejo, whose life is turned upside down by civil war. Forced to flee rebel soldiers, he must make his way to a refugee camp over the border, losing all contact with his family and friends along the way. In the camp, he is safer but has no future – until he joins a pioneering peace education program and begins to find ways to create a more hopeful life for himself and others. This book is a useful educational resource, not only addressing topics around war and peace but also giving insights into life within refugee camps, and the resourcefulness and resilience needed by the people who live there. It could be used across the curriculum, however, these notes contain suggested activities for the English classroom. The backstory of the co-authors is also interesting and provides a valuable insight into the power of collaborative projects. See the author’s description of the collaborative writing process at the end of these notes.

TOPICS AND THEMES  Civil war and refugees  Race  Sudan and ‘Lost Boys of Sudan’  Children and young people in war  Journey and freedom  Family  Hope and kindness  Protection  Peace  Religion  Leadership  Education

PLOT SUMMARY Obulejo is a Christian Ma’di boy from South Sudan in Africa. His name means ‘trouble tomorrow’, also the novel’s title. When the story begins he is 15 years old. His family is very close and they value education. Tragically they are separated when the Rebels invade their village. Obulejo becomes part of a group travelling to a refugee camp in Kenya. They face enemies, wild animals, thirst, starvation and death. Life in Kakuma refugee camp is not safe either, particularly due to the threat of kidnapping and being forced into becoming boy soldiers. Even though his tribal community at Kakuma supports Obulejo, he embarks on the journey to another camp at Dadaab, which is even worse because he doesn’t have refugee status there and so cannot receive rations. He sacrifices his family values to become a thief and this lifestyle continues on his return to Kakuma where he makes an important decision about his future.

2 CURRICULUM ALIGNMENT - ENGLISH These notes are intended for learners in Year 7 and 10 English classrooms. (Trouble Tomorrow could also be used in the Geography, SOSE, Peace Education, Ethics or Religion curriculum.) The suggested English Learning Intentions are from the three strands of the Australian English curriculum.  Literature: understanding, appreciating, responding to, analysing and creating literature  Language: knowing about the English language  Literacy: expanding the repertoire of English usage The Learning Intentions are from either one strand or integrated strands.

Learning Intentions are highlighted in shaded boxes at the end of the section to which they refer and are from the English learning area.

The Australian Curriculum can be downloaded at http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Home.

ACTIVITIES FOR THE ENGLISH CLASSROOM

ORIENTATION TO SUDAN Most young Australians will not be familiar with Sudan, its history, politics, culture or people. Obulejo’s story takes place during the Sudanese civil war between the northern central government and the southern rebels. In 2011, after lengthy peace negotiations, South Sudan became independent. However, civil war within South Sudan soon erupted as different groups competed for power in the new country. Recent reports focus on this new civil war, which officially ended in 2015 with a negotiated settlement but has actually continued. Teachers may have to distinguish between the Sudanese and South Sudanese civil wars for students who are conducting research. See Map at end of these notes locating both countries in Africa. N.B.: South Sudan did not exist in Obulejo’s youth. Information on the Sudan he lived in tends to focus on northern Sudan, rather than the south. South Sudan, where Obulejo is from, is one of the world’s youngest countries, created after the long civil war in Sudan. This means that most information about South Sudan focusses on war, poverty, civilian displacement etc. Historical information often starts with British colonialism. It can be difficult to get past these crucial but one-sided views and discover the rich and lively cultures of South Sudan. Readers of Trouble Tomorrow will quickly realise that the population tends to divide itself along tribal and clan lines and that there are many different languages. However, English is now the official language and is a common lingua franca, along with Arabic which was the lingua franca of older South Sudanese people. Educational attainment is at low levels due to decades of neglect by the Sudanese government, followed by decades of fighting. Oral culture is fundamental, with song and dance important components of everyday culture. Radio is assuming an important role in education and communication in the new nation.

Sources: BBC South Sudan Country Profile: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-14069082 BBC Sudan Country Profile: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-14094995

3 CIA country profiles: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/su.html (Sudan) and https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/od.html (South Sudan) See ‘Further Reading’, below, for The Red Pencil by Andrea Davis Pinkney, a picture book where the story begins in a Sudanese village. This could help set the scene for readers of Trouble Tomorrow, as could the two picture books created by Terry Whitebeach and Sarafino Enadio, When I Was a Boy in Sudan and When I was a Girl in Sudan.

Internal displacement In the South Sudanese civil war, people who lose their homes can flee to Protection of Civilians (POC) zones within their own country. They are not classed as refugees because they have not fled to another country. They are displaced persons. Current stories from POC zones are very similar to Obulejo’s story. This news story begins with a boy who, like Obulejo, had to hide in a swamp for days: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-37779023 . Other children's stories are told at https://www.unicef.org/southsudan/reallives_16072.html - ‘Long way back to freedom: Child soldiers in South Sudan’ and ‘Lost and alone: One girl's nightmare amid the violence of South Sudan’. (Not very graphic violence – suitable for students to read.) UNICEF works with displaced children and returning child soldiers in South Sudan. https://www.unicef.org/southsudan/ This report includes a video of Raymond talking about his life in a POC zone near the capital city, Juba. https://www.unicef.org/southsudan/media_15898.html Human Rights Watch produces reports and lobbies governments and the UN. Some of their reports on South Sudan may not be suitable for school students. (Issues of mass murder of children and rape of young girls have recently become prominent.) https://www.hrw.org/africa/south-sudan - video interviews are linked to this webpage.

Hope ‘South Sudan artists paint for peace in Juba’: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-37754047 This report shows that many South Sudanese are expressing their weariness with war and their desire for peace. It highlights the public campaign of the artists’ collective Ana Taban (I am tired). ‘From 'Lost Boy' to education minister in South Sudan’: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa- 33448231 . Valentino Achak Deng was a lost boy who gained his education in refugee camps and the USA. He now sees education as the best way to overcome tribal divisions and heal South Sudan.

Famous South Sudanese People Introduce this unit of work by giving students the following list of famous Sudanese people to help them understand that people from around the world can have similar interests, skills and roles to people in Australia. People from other countries can be similar and different. Barnaba Marial Benjamin, politician John Garang, soldier and leader of Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) Francis Mading Deng, lawyer and writer Moiz Bakhiet, neurologist and poet Manute Bol, basketball player and political activist Luol Deng, professional basketball player Kueth Duany, basketball player Roy Gulwak, footballer (soccer) Emmanuel Jal, Sudanese-Canadian hip hop musician Richard Justin Lado, footballer (soccer) 4 Riek Machar, politician Angelo Maku, "Yaba Angelosi" singer, producer, songwriter Guor Marial (Guor Mading Maker), track and field athlete Salva Kiir Mayardit, politician, first President of South Sudan Alek Wek, supermodel Emmanuel Kembe, musician John Bul Dau, 'Lost Boy', refugee, humanitarian (Courtesy World Atlas http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/africa/southsudan/ssfamous.htm )

 Each student selects a person to briefly research and then posts a 1-2-paragraph summary and a photo of the celebrity on a class wiki or webpage.

Sudanese People And Lifestyle To help students gain an insight into Sudanese people they view the following slideshare http://www.slideshare.net/halasalih/sudanese-people-lifestyle Other slideshares are also available on this website in case more information is required.  In pairs, students complete Venn diagrams to compare similarities and differences between Australian and Sudanese people. (See Black Line Master 1)  Show differences in the intersection of the circles. Even though people in different places can be different, their humanity (as well as other features) connects them.

For more research on Sudanese lifestyle: http://www.our-africa.org/sudan http://www.sudanembassy.org/index.php/the-sudanese-family-life and other links at bottom of page. http://www.worldtravelguide.net/sudan/history-language-culture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvOmvix5y80 ‘How to wrap a Sudanese tobe’ – the traditional Sudanese women’s outer garment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqpTGN31YY8 ‘Cooking Kisira’ – staple food eaten with stews. http://www.african-volunteer.net/life_in_sudan.html

LITERATURE AND CONTEXT

The Lost Boys of Sudan Some students may have heard of the ‘Lost Boys of Sudan’, many will have not. The major character in the novel Trouble Tomorrow, Obulejo, is from the Ma’di people. The Ma’di are indigenous Africans, mainly Christians, who have born the brunt of hostilities from the Arabic- speaking, Muslim northern Sudanese as well as the effects of civil war caused by the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, despite its claim to represent all oppressed Sudanese people. In the Second Sudanese Civil War of 1983-2005, 20,000 ‘lost boys’ from southern Sudan, many of them Ma’di (and other tribes as well as Dinka), walked hundreds of kilometres to comparative safety in Kenyan refugee camps. Other boys were forced to become child soldiers. As well as being outlined as part of the novel, this situation is explained in Historical Notes at the end of the novel and on websites such as https://theculturetrip.com/africa/south- sudan/articles/the-dinka-people-of-south-sudan/

5  Students view the map of South Sudan and its surrounding countries at the start of the book. See map of Africa at the end of these notes to locate Sudan and its neighbours within the whole of Africa.  In pairs or small groups, they create timelines of Sudanese history, including British colonisation, the two civil wars and the gaining of independence from Sudan, in the north, by the Republic of South Sudan in 2011.

Extension Task: Lightgraff Art (or lightgraffiti) means drawing or writing with light. It is a combination of photography and calligraphy. It can be a live performance or recorded on video or time-lapse photographic stills. It is often used to embellish settings by highlighting or enhancing elements of the scene with colour, line, shape or script (all in light). Examples can be seen on an online search of ‘lightgraff images’. Sample videos are at http://www.lightgraff.org/ (note the use of a torch as a drawing tool) and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwb6AbGG6DI (note the use of a light sabre and digital art). An important example of lightgraff art in Australia is by Karim Jabbari http://www.madefromwords.com/light-calligraphy.html, whose work is inspired by Arabic text. This is relevant to Trouble Tomorrow because Obulejo speaks Sudanese Arabic (among other languages). Arabic is the language ‘that all the tribesmen hold in common’. (p. 5) Jabbari also filmed himself using a torch to enhance a Western Australian cliff-face setting. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/art-initiative-form-nurtures-culture-and- creativity-in-wa/news-story/db06452f0d39222bd246062a9c22e0f1  In small groups, students create lightgraff art based on a scene or setting in the novel, Trouble Tomorrow. These could include Obulejo’s experiences with soldiers, his journey through the forest and mountains to Kenya, the Kenyan refugee camp, or the school where Obulejo teaches.

The following suggestions could stimulate or scaffold students’ ideas: o Light sources (such as a torch, lamp, lantern or spotlight) can be used to highlight features against a dark setting. o Silhouettes of characters could be juxtaposed against light-embellished settings. o Gunfire could be represented as light in lines or flashes (if appropriate). o Arabic (or other) words could be drawn with light (possibly using a sparkler or torch). These words could represent themes from the novel such as ‘refugees’, ‘protection’, ‘leadership’, ‘kindness’ or ‘lost boys’; or greetings to light the darkness. (Arabic words and script can be found online.)

 Investigate how visual and multimodal texts allude to or draw on other texts or images to enhance and layer meaning (ACELA1548)  Experiment with particular language features drawn from different types of texts, including combinations of language and visual choices to create new texts (ACELT1768)  Experiment with the ways that language features, image and sound can be adapted in literary texts, for example the effects of … settings … (ACELT1638)  Create imaginative texts that make relevant thematic and intertextual connections with other texts (ACELT1644)

6 Protection Protection, and its lack, is a major theme in Trouble Tomorrow, particularly in relation to children and young people.  As a class, read and discuss one or more of the following quotes from the novel to set the scene of war and the vulnerability it causes: How then has hatred and killing come about, among the people? What makes tribe turn against tribe? (p. 40) Everything good gets smashed, wiped away…Guns and threats and violence rule the world. (p. 63) A bitter prize is theirs – exile from their own country. More bitter, though, is the fate of those who are denied it. (p. 82) He is just a boy, any boy, without a country to belong to, a home he can call his own. (p. 84)

Placemat Discussion about Protection  Students focus on the issue of ‘protection’ by brainstorming answers to the question, ‘What is protection and who deserves it?’ As part of their reflection, students could consider if protection is found in, or achieved by, a place or people. (pp. 24,34 and 40 from the novel, as well as other sections, may be helpful.)  In groups of four, students engage in Placemat Discussions. http://www.myread.org/organisation.htm#placemat (See Black Line Master 2)

The discussion question is: ‘What is protection and who deserves it?’ Students sit at a desk around a large piece of paper – the placemat. In each group there are 4 roles undertaken by students: 1. the role of leader who keeps the discussion on task and facilitates turn-taking; 2. the clarifier who ensures that the group understands each speaker’s view and may encourage clarification or elaboration; 3. the creative spirit who devises a visual symbol that represents the group’s shared ideas; 4. the presenter who reports back to the whole class. Each student writes his or her role in front of him or herself on the placemat. Each student then silently and quickly writes their ideas, answers and questions about the discussion question onto their section of the placemat. Taking turns, students share their notes with the small group (whilst also fulfilling their allocated roles) then the ‘creative spirit’ draws a summarising symbol in the centre of the placemat. Each group then reports back to the whole class.

 Evaluate the social, moral and ethical positions represented in texts (ACELT1812)  Interpret, analyse and evaluate how different perspectives of issue, event, situation, individuals or groups are constructed to serve specific purposes in texts (ACELY1742) /…

7  Explore and reflect on personal understanding of the world and significant human experience gained from interpreting various representations of life matters in texts (ACELT1635)  Understand that roles and relationships are developed and challenged through language and interpersonal skills (ACELA1551)  Recognise and explain differing viewpoints about the world, cultures, individual people and concerns represented in texts (ACELT1807)  Identify and explore ideas and viewpoints about events, issues and characters represented in texts drawn from different historical, social and cultural contexts (ACELT1619)

Leadership When we first meet him, Obulejo follows the instructions of the tribal leaders and elders (pp. 23, 44). Later he starts to question the wisdom of the elders, who may have sacrificed peace and even caused conflicts, (p. 178), and makes his own difficult decisions such as moving from Kakuma refugee camp to Dadaab camp (p. 98).  Students find examples of Obulejo’s lack of leadership and developing leadership from the text.  They list characteristics of Obulejo’s leadership. (His leadership is both positive and negative, such as when he becomes a criminal.)  Compare and rate Obulejo’s leadership qualities against existing lists or proformas about leadership such as http://www.wikihow.com/Be-a-Good-Leader-at-School  Consider how and why leaders are appointed or do just they evolve? Use examples from the novel as well as from elsewhere.  What is involved for students in leadership roles? Cite different examples, including school leadership roles. o https://www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/edulibrary/public/teachlearn/student/src- resource-kit.pdf (pp. 31-32 of this document list leadership skills as 1. private communication 2. public communication 3. organised 4. passionate 5. creative thinkers 6. committed 7. team-players 8. visionary 9. advocates)  In small groups, write attributes of positive and negative leadership (explored above) on pieces of paper to put in a hat.  Students take it in turns to draw leadership attributes out of the hat. Each student plays the role of a leader, focussing on the selected attribute or skill-set, trying to convince the rest of group of the value of this leadership quality. They use persuasive language, tone, pitch and pace. Other elements such as sound effects may be used.

 Use interaction skills to present and discuss an idea and to influence and engage an audience by selecting persuasive language, varying voice tone, pitch, and pace, and using elements such as music and sound effects (ACELY1811)

8 WRITING

Description: Fear and Terror Obulejo is fearful of becoming a boy soldier (p. 12). He avoids this fate, partly because he proactively travels to Kenya and then to a further refugee camp, Dadaab, near the Somali border.  Read Obulejo’s descriptions of his terror. Here are two examples:

His mind hurtles crazily about, unreeling furiously like the string of a kite as it strains for the freedom of the skies, bobbing and spiraling in agitated curves. (p. 18)

Impaled on the hillside, breath sobbing in this throat, he crouches, like a small soft animal run to ground by hunters, waiting for the coup de grâce to fall. (p. 19)  Students write their own description of terror, incorporating its physical and emotional effects, using metaphorical language exemplified by the text: ‘gnawing rodent of terror’, (p. 57); demons whose ‘hot breath scorches his throat; their strong claws tear at his vitals …’ (p. 63).

 Understand how … different layers of meaning are developed through the use of metaphor … (ACELA1542)  Compare the ways that language and images are used to create character, and to influence emotions and opinions in different types of texts (ACELT1621)

Pacing Pacing in writing can be quickened and slowed to reflect events as well as emotional turmoil and peace.  Read the descriptions, as examples of fast-paced writing, about the speed of the initial disaster on page 19, and when men with rifles catch the boys, on pages 59-60.  Yet the pace of the writing during the 150-mile walk to Kenya makes this journey seem interminable at times. The detail used to describe the training sessions towards the end of the book also slows the pace.  Students contrast the fast and slow pace of the writing used to describe different events, and discuss its purpose.  (Indicators of pace could include the amount and depth of description and introspection; strong active verbs; length of sentences; and climaxes.)

Assessment Task:  Students write short stories, featuring fast- and slow-moving pacing. They should incorporate descriptive writing to slow the writing pace.

Extension Task:  Animate the short stories using fast and slow motion to highlight where pacing speeds and slows. https://goanimate4schools.com/public_index or other animation programs or aps could be used.

 Understand how paragraphs and images can be arranged for different purposes, audiences, perspectives and stylistic effects (ACELA1567) /…

9  Analyse and explain how text structures, language features … of texts and the context in which texts are experienced may influence audience response (ACELT1641)  Create literary texts that draw upon text structures and language features of other texts for particular purposes and effects (ACELT1632)  Use a range of software … to create, edit and publish texts imaginatively (ACELY1738)

STORY

Teaching and Learning through Story It is the way of the Ma’di, Obulejo’s people, ‘to teach and learn through stories’. (p. 192) Obulejo tells his younger brother the traditional African folktale about Ito, Mr Hare, on pages 11-15. (Read more about this tale at http://silvergumstudio.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/tricky- mr-hare.html) While he is training in peace education, Obulejo hears the story about the old man who spent his life trying to change the world for the better but had to keep narrowing his circle of influence. Unable to achieve anything, he finally resorted to helping a tiny child in his own compound. (pp. 189-191)  Students discuss and crystallise what the old man and Obulejo learn from the story, (pp. 191 onwards).  They then read examples of ‘6 Word Stories’, inspired by Hemmingway’s famous 6 Word Tale: ‘For sale: baby shoes, never worn.’  The 6 Word Story format can be used to scaffold succinct, clear writing. http://www.narrativemagazine.com/sixwords

Assessment Task: Students write one or more ‘6 Word Stories’ about peace or other themes or issues from the novel.

 Evaluate the social, moral and ethical positions represented in texts (ACELT1812)  Edit for meaning by removing repetition, refining ideas, reordering sentences and adding or substituting words for impact (ACELY1726)  Experiment with text structures and language features to refine and clarify ideas to improve the effectiveness of students’ own texts (ACELY1810)

SUDANESE PEOPLE IN AUSTRALIA Like Obulejo in Trouble Tomorrow, many Ma’di and Dinka and people from other tribes in South Sudan have fled Africa and now live in Australia or other continents such as North America.  Students research what life for South Sudanese people is like in Australia by viewing online sites such as https://www.dss.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/11_2013/community-profile- sudan.pdf http://www.sailprogram.org.au/site/tutor/the-sudanese-community/

10 http://www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/exhibition/sudanesestories/life-in-southern- sudan/ https://www.health.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0031/157378/sudanese2011.pdf http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-26/90pc-of-sudanese-migrants-want-to-return- home/4392956  The school could invite an Australian-dwelling South Sudanese (or other African) author who was formerly a refugee to speak to students. These could include the co-author of Trouble Tomorrow, Sarafino Enadio, or Deng Thiak Adut, Yai Atem, Abdi Aden and Noël Zihabamwe (see ‘Further Reading’, below, about these writers’ books).

Extension Task: Like most Sudanese, Obulejo loves to sing and dance. ‘When he sings, when he dances, he is in his right place’ (p. 119). Even though he is a quiet boy, he leads singing at church, (p. 131), and uses music to teach his unruly students, (p. 156). View Sydney-Sudanese rapper, Young Low, performing Sudan Our Country on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkSjOBtvuVQ  In small groups, students make a montage of images about Sudan and the Sudanese in Australia, with consideration of any copyright restrictions. These images could then be displayed while this song is playing.

 Analyse and explain the use of symbols, icons and myth in still and moving images and how these augment meaning (ACELA1560)  Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations, selecting and sequencing appropriate content and multimodal elements for aesthetic and playful purposes (ACELY1741)  Explore and explain the combinations of language and visual choices that authors make to present information, opinions and perspectives in different texts (ACELY1745)  Analyse and evaluate how people, cultures, places, events, objects and concepts are represented in texts, including media texts, through language, structural and/or visual choices (ACELY1749)  Use a range of software … to confidently create, edit and publish written and multimodal texts (ACELY1728)  Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations, selecting and sequencing appropriate content and multimodal elements to promote a point of view or enable a new way of seeing (ACELY1720)

RESOURCES & FURTHER READING

AUTHOR INFORMATION Author Terry Whitebeach at the Tasmanian Writers’ Centre https://www.taswriters.org/terry-whitebeach/ Author Safafino Enadio Case Study https://www.taswriters.org/childrens-books-flying-off-the-shelves/ https://www.taswriters.org/sudan-terror-risk-brings-madi-project-standstill/

FURTHER READING A Little Peace: A South Sudanese Refugee Story by Sarafino Enadio and Terry Whitebeach. Sarafino is the co-author of Trouble Tomorrow and A Little Peace tells his own story as a refugee.

11 Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story by Linda Sue Park is two stories which form a whole. One story is about a boy escaping from the war in South Sudan and the other is about a girl who has only dirty water to drink. One Thousand Hills by James Roy and Noël Zihabamwe is a cautionary tale about civil war, genocide and tribal violence set in Rwanda. This book won the 2016 NSW Premier’s History Award. When I Was a Girl/Boy in Sudan are picture books by Terry Whitebeach, Sarafino Enadio, Ma’di elder Paskalina Eiyo and illustrator Gay McKinnon. Although for younger readers, they give insight into life in Sudan. The Red Pencil by Andrea Davis Pinkney is a picture book where the story begins in a Sudanese village. This could help set the scene for readers of Trouble Tomorrow. Amira’s village is terrorised but she escapes and endures a long journey to a refugee camp where a red pencil brings hope. Songs of a War Boy by Deng Thiak Adut and Ben McKelvey is from the adult literature list but is easy to read. It tells the true story of Deng Adut who was a Sudanese child soldier, lived in Kenyan refugee camps (like Obulejo in Trouble Tomorrow), came to Australia, learnt English by watching The Wiggles and now helps refugees in Western Sydney. He appears at Writers’ Festivals. Shining: the Story of a Lucky Man by Abdi Aden and Robert Hillman. This memoir of Abdi Aden’s flight from Somalia’s civil war to a Kenyan refugee camp and further afield is from the adult literature list but is easy to read and the author visits many Australian secondary schools. Under a Sudanese Star by Yai Atem is from the adult literature list (and it is difficult to find a copy) but the author was a ‘lost boy of Sudan’, now living in Australia. What is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng by Dave Eggers is based on the true story of a Sudanese child refugee now living in the United States. It is for mature readers. The Stars at Oktober Bend by Glenda Millard is literary writing for sophisticated young adult readers. It features a former boy soldier, now living in Australia. The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon is about a boy growing up in an Australian detention centre and the deprivations faced there. No Gun for Asmir by Christobel Mattingley explores the effect of civil war on the people of Sarajevo, particularly on young Asmir and his Muslim family. Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate is about Kek from Africa who lost most of his family but makes a new home in America. He finds American life very different but he treasures his memories and finally makes friends.

INTERNET RESOURCES – CONFLICT RESOLUTION There are a number of websites dealing with conflict resolution for young people. KidsMatter, a partnership between education and health sectors and is funded by the Australian Government and beyondblue. https://www.kidsmatter.edu.au/families/about-friendship/resolving-conflict/resolving-conflict- how-children-can-learn-resolve Child and Youth Health web site of the Women's and Children's Health Network (WCHN), sponsored by South Australian government. http://www.cyh.com/HealthTopics/HealthTopicDetailsKids.aspx?p=335&np=287&id=1521 CARE (“We save lives. We find long-term solutions to poverty”) finds that conflict resolution is an integral part of fighting poverty and insecurity in vulnerable parts of the world. http://www.careinternational.org.uk/fighting-poverty/building-back-safer/conflict-resolution

12 ABOUT THE WRITERS

TERRY WHITEBEACH Dr Terry Whitebeach is a Tasmanian writer, historian and community artist, who has participated in several collaborative, cross-cultural writing projects designed to ensure that the stories of silenced or marginalised groups in Australia are heard. Her PhD thesis, ‘Someone Else’s Story’, examined the practice of cross-cultural collaborative life history writing. She has worked in mainstream and multiculural arts for more than 30 years, including a stint as publishing manager of an Indigenous Press. She has performed her work, presented conference papers and taught creative writing in a variety of community, workplace and formal educational settings, including schools, colleges and Indigenous tertiary education institutes, and has co- ordinated writing programs and projects in most states and territories in Australia and in community theatres, colleges and Native American communities in the USA. Her published work, which has won several awards, includes two collections of poetry, Bird Dream and All the Shamans Work in Safeway, three radio plays for ABC’s Airplay, two novels for young adults, Bantam (written with her son Michael Brown) and Watersky, and a life history The Versatile Man: the Life and Times of Don Ross, Kaytetye Stockman, written collaboratively with Aboriginal stockman and one-time cattle-station owner, Don Ross. She has also published a number of anthologies of community writing. Trouble Tomorrow is the fourth project on which she and Sarafino Enadio have worked together.

SARAFINO WANI ENADIO Sarafino Enadio is a Ma’di man from South Sudan who has been working in peace education and conflict resolution for almost twenty years. He received his training as a Peace Educator in the UNHCR Peace Education program in Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, where he also taught in the camp secondary school and undertook training in the psycho-social needs of children suffering trauma. He has worked with both children and adults in educational institutions, community organisations and in communities in both Africa and Australia. Since migrating to Tasmania he has completed the TAFE teacher’s aide course and gained his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Tasmania whilst working in the Education Department, raising a family and fulfilling a strong leadership role in the community. He has served two terms as chairperson of the African Community Association in Kingborough, where he initiated and chaired the first African festival in Kingborough and subsequent festivals in Hobart. He has worked with parents and children in socio-economically challenged areas of southern Tasmania and in the classrooms of schools and colleges with a range of students, including students in English as an Alternative Language programs and young asylum seekers from the Pontville Detention Centre. He is currently studying for his Masters of Teaching at the University of Tasmania. Sarafino Enadio collaborated with Tasmanian writers and illustrators and Ma’di community members in Hobart to create two bilingual (Ma’di/English) picture books, When I Was A Boy in Sudan and When I Was a Girl in Sudan and has jointly authored with Terry Whitebeach his life history, A Little Peace.

JOY LAWN Joy Lawn is a freelance writer and reviewer for The Weekend Australian, Magpies Magazine, ALEA and Boomerang Books blog, specialising in children’s/YA and literary fiction. She judges the Queensland Literary awards and is a former CBCA judge. Joy has taught in schools and universities, has worked for indie bookshops as a literature consultant and has an MA in Children’s Literature & Literacy. Joy is fascinated by ideas and images and how authors and illustrators express these with truth and originality.

13 THE COLLABORATIVE WRITING PROCESS Terry Whitebeach writes: Sarafino Enadio and I met in 2011, when we were working in a community house which ran programs for newly arrived migrants. Sarafino is Ma'di (South Sudanese), and he and his wife and children had come to Tasmania as humanitarian refugees six years earlier, after nearly a decade in refugee camps in Kenya. He is a community leader, despite his relative youth, often taking on the duties of the elders because very few Ma’di elders survived the conflict in Sudan. It took Sarafino nearly a decade to discover the whereabouts of all family members and to arrange to bring his birth mother and eldest daughter to Tasmania. Sarafino and I had many conversations about the Sudanese civil war and his life in refugee camps. He told me about being involved in the peace education program, pioneered by Australian aid workers. As what I knew most about Sudanese was the violence of the boy soldiers, Sarafino was a surprise, dedicated as he was to finding peaceful solutions to conflicts. When I suggested we might begin to record our conversations he readily agreed: he said he had always wanted his life history to be written and published. He is not a natural storyteller, and as well, some of his memories were very traumatic, so it was often arduous compiling the narrative – a case of softly softly, as I was never sure what question or turn of narrative would hit a raw nerve. Some areas were no-go and I had to accept that, and have patience and trust that our growing friendship would ease the way. I adopted a more "gossipy" style of interviewing, to put him at his ease, and we swapped lots of yarns. Like most people, Sarafino was more at ease talking about his childhood and one of his stories that I loved was about guarding the crops when he was child: it was the children's job to keep the crops safe from marauding birds and animals. I suggested we create a bilingual (English/Ma'di) picture book , When I was a Boy in Sudan, so that Sudanese and Australian children could learn about traditional life in South Sudan. In the interests of gender equity we engaged the help of a Ma’di elder, Paskalina Eiyo, to create a companion volume, When I was a Girl in Sudan. I then suggested I might write a novel for young adults – a fictionalised account, drawing on his experiences and those of other people, using these as a basis to tell the story of a teenage boy, Obulejo, whose name translates as ‘trouble tomorrow’, but not identifying any actual people. I wanted to give the book a hopeful outcome, but also not to flinch away from the terror of war. Hopefully, as fiction the novel would not pose a threat to Sarafino's safety, or to his family's in Sudan. I did a lot of reading and research, but that only took me so far. In the end I told Sarafino, ‘I have to go to South Sudan.’ He was appalled (I understood why when we got there), but at his family's behest he agreed to accompany me. It was a very challenging trip – my first time in a war zone – and I found it quite confronting to see the damage done to the country and people and to be constantly in the presence of heavily armed soldiers. Sarafino was often very edgy and only later I realised that the trip potentially may have been dangerous for him. I will never forget the day in his brother's compound in Juba when Sarafino first showed me some of the evidence of torture on his body. When we returned home we both were unable to continue the project for about two months, while we recovered a little, but later Sarafino was able to talk openly and in much greater depth about what he and other people had suffered in the war. And of course now that I had seen, heard, smelled, touched and felt South Sudan myself, albeit briefly, I felt able to flesh out the narrative more adequately with those small but vital details that lend authenticity to a novel.

14 Black Line Master 1: Venn Diagram

Black Line Master 2: Placemat Discussion

Map of Africa