B. Wongar

B.Wongar
B.Wongar in the 1980’s B.Wongar in the 1980’s
Born	1932
Occupation	author,

B.Wongar (born 1932) is a pseudonym for Sreten Bozic, a Yugoslavian anthropologist, who arrived in Australia in 1960.

He wrote several books under the pseudonym name B Wongar implying that he was an Australian Aborigine. It was only 1981 that he was revealed as a Yugoslavian anthropologist.

Bozic arrived in Australia in 1960 and moved up north where he lived with tribal Aborigines for some years. The name Wongar was given to him by his tribal wife Dumala and her relatives. From Dumala he learned about Aboriginal poetry and their traditional way of life in the bush. He was not allowed to publish his work in Australia for years. His first book The Track to Bralgu was translated into French from the original manuscript and published in Les Temps Modernes (1976), a magazine which was edited by Sartre and de Beauvior. When the book appeared in the English edition two years later (Little, Brown, USA), it heralded a new genre of creative writing and brought international fame to the author. (See New York Times Book Review, June 25th, 1978) In Australia however Wongar was criticized by some white people for his portrayal of the Aborigines and there was a campaign to discredit his work as “ fake”. He was not allowed to stay any longer in the Northern part of Australia and had to move down south to Melbourne. His wife Dumala and the children were to follow but they never made it, they died from radioactive contamination left behind from Uranium mining, as described later in Dingoes Den, his autobiography. [1]

While he was in the Northern part of Australia Wongar worked on his Totem and Ore photographic collection known also under the title Boomerang and Atom. The collection contained several thousands of black and white photographic shots portraying the impact of Uranium mining and the British nuclear testing on tribal Aborigines. In 1974 Wongar was asked to send some of the Totem and Ore photographs for an exhibition in the Parliament House Library in Canberra. The exhibition was banned by order of the parliament only a few hours after the official opening. (See. ‘’Cold War spy, the photographer, and hidden history from a big land’’, The Age, 11th November 2006)

File:Theagebwongar.jpg

The Age article featuring B Wongar and the story about Totem and Ore, The Age, 11th November 2006

Wongar settled on his bush property Dingo Den in Gippsland, south of Melbourne where, helped by photographic images from his Totem and Ore collection, he wrote the nuclear trilogy (novels: Walg, Karan and Gabo Djara - see Robert Ross, “The track to Armageddon in B.Wongar’s Nuclear Trilogy,” World Literature Today, Winter 1990, USA). The trilogy was first published in Germany, translated from the original manuscript by Annemarie and Heinrich Boll. The English language edition first appeared in 1988. It was launched at the Aboriginal Research Centre, Monash University, where Wongar at the time was serving as writer- in- residence. While he was at work, police raided B Wongar’s home at Dingo Den and took some of his work, including the sole copy of the manuscript of his new novel Raki. In 1990, the Australian author Thomas Shapcott spoke about the case at the opening of the Adelaide Arts Festival. He circulated a petition asking the state authorities to see that the confiscated manuscript Raki be returned to B.Wongar. About 200 writers at the festival signed the petiton. (See Robert Pullan: 'In Police Custody: 200 Pages of B. Wongar's novel, in The Australian Author, Vol 21, No 4, Summer 1989/90.) It took Wongar about 5 years to write Raki again. This was followed by his new book Didjeridu Charmer, which will complete the nuclear cycle, thus making the series a quintet. [2]

Bibliography

• Aboriginal Myths
• The Track to Bralgu[3]
• Babaru[4]
• Bilma
• Marngit[5]
• Raki[6]
• The Last Pack of Dingoes[7]
• Totem and Ore[8]
• The Sinners
• Dingoes Den( B Wongars Autobiography) [9]
• The New Guinea diaries

The Nuclear Cycle: Walg, Karan, Gabo Djara, Raki

Awards

• The American Library Association Award (USA) 1982
• Senior Australian Fellowship, Australian Literature Award, 1986
• The P.E.N International Award (USA) for Nuclear Cycle, 1986
• Emeritus Award for outstanding contribution to Australian Literature, Australian Council of the arts, 1997

References

• Wongar, B (1997). Raki. London: Marion Boyars. ISBN 978-0-7145-3031-4

Sorena Productions, Australia, Director/Writer John Mandelberg (1994) "A Double Life. The Life and Times of B.Wongar" 56 minute video documentary on his life.

External links

• His website
• [10]