29 Mapping Too Much Lip

I first read the novel Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko when I started working at The University of Queensland in 2019 – the same year that it won the Miles Franklin Literary Award. Once I started reading, it was hard to put down. And once I finished it, I went on to read and re-read all Lucashenko’s novels.

Among the Melissa Lucashenko Papers in the Fryer Library’s Indigenous collections is a character map for Too Much Lip. Drawn in thick black marker on butchers’ paper, the author has mapped the characters, ideas and things central to the story.

I have thought about this map in relation to a line from the story when the protagonist, Kerry Salter ,was out with her Pop to shoot a wallaby for dinner, to save the family from another night of hunger. They talked about Mount Monk ahead of them on Bundjalung Country. Pop ‘was adamant that a mountain could never be really fully known, any more than a person could be’ (p. 60).

The map inspired me to think about how the shapes and words Lucashenko drew on the page developed into the multidimensional, complex characters in the story. It gave me a glimpse into Lucashenko’s writing process and the way she creates a story. As a reader, I felt that I shared the characters’ anxieties, fears, anger, joy and laughter. Their strong bonds, close and fraught relationships, past burdens and future hopes felt tangible to me as the reader. It was revealing to me to see how they began as marks on a page and became meaningful characters that – in Pop’s words – ‘could never be really fully known’ to me as the reader.

In the story, Kerry remembers the advice of her great-grandmother Granny Ruth: ‘everything is connected up, bub, always, whether you can see it or not’ (p. 62). These words led me to reflect on the character map: the interconnections between characters, how they relate to one another and their place in the story. The map references the river which the Salter family have deep connection to and which is central to the story. The river symbolises Granny Ruth’s words. Connection to Country underpins every element of the map and in turn is at the heart of Too Much Lip.

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Biography

Jade Williamson is a non-Indigenous UQ staff member who was born and raised in Meanjin (Brisbane). She works with the Indigenous Engagement portfolio at UQ with a focus on growing partnerships and philanthropy to create new opportunities with and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples at UQ. She has worked for over 15 years in non-profit, government, arts and cultural sector organisations. As a student, Jade studied Arts and Business. She enjoys reading, seeing art, movies and relaxing outdoors.