Plus get our latest book recommendations, author news, and competitions right to your inbox.
0:00 /
Table of Contents
About The Book
Shortlisted for the 2025 Queensland Literary Awards, The Courier-Mail People's Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award
From the bestselling, prize-winning author of Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray comes another groundbreaking historical novel about resistance, resilience and love during the frontier wars.
Miinaa was a young girl when the white ghosts first arrived. She remembers the day they raised a piece of cloth and renamed her homeland ‘Bathurst’. Now she lives at a placed called Cloverdale and works for the Nugents – a kind family, but nothing like her own.
Her brother, Windradyne, is a Wiradyuri leader, and visits when he can, bringing news of unrest across their ngurambang. Miinaa hopes the violence will not come to Cloverdale.
When Irish convict Daniel O’Dwyer arrives at the settlement, Miinaa’s life is transformed again. The pair are magnetically drawn to each other and begin meeting at the bila in secret. Dan understands how it feels to be displaced, but they still have a lot to learn about each other. Can their love survive their differences and the turmoil that threatens to destroy everything around them?
Anita Heiss is breathing new life into the Australian historical epic. Dirrayawadha (Rise Up) shows the resistance leader Windradyne as the remarkable figure he was and surrounds him with fascinating figures otherwise lost to history. With irresistible imagination and verve, as well as a deep desire for truth telling, Anita Heiss’s novels are re-peopling our past.
Appearances
About The Author
Photograph © Jesse Dittmar
Dr Anita Heiss is an internationally published, award-winning author of over 20 books; non-fiction, historical fiction, commercial women’s fiction and children’s novels. She is a proud member of the Wiradyuri Nation of central New South Wales, an Ambassador for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation and the GO Foundation, and Professor of Communications at the University of Queensland. Anita is also the Publisher at Large of Bundyi, an imprint of Simon & Schuster cultivating First Nations talent. As an artist in residence at La Boite Theatre, she adapted her novel Tiddas for the stage. It premiered at the 2022 Brisbane Festival and was produced by Belvoir St for the Sydney Festival in 2024. Her novel, Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray, about the Great Flood of Gundagai, won the 2022 NSW Premier’s Indigenous Writers' Prize and was shortlisted for the 2021 ARA Historical Novel Prize and the 2022 ABIA Awards. Anita’s first children’s picture book is Bidhi Galing (Big Rain), also about the Great Flood of Gundagai. Anita released Dirrayawadha (Rise Up) in about the frontier war in Bathurst in 2024. Her most recent novel is The Paradise Pact.
Product Details
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Australia (November 25, 2025)
- Length: 352 pages
- ISBN13: 9781761631375
Browse Related Books
Raves and Reviews
‘Dirrayawadha successfully imparts historical truths within an accessible mass-market format while retaining many words in the Wiradyuri language. This novel will appeal to fans of conventional historical fiction about politically marginalised people along the lines of works by Shankari Chandran and Kate Grenville. It starts gently, yet by the end, you will feel the full force of the truths of Australia’s colonial history.’
– Books+Publishing
‘A story from the past given vivid life for new understanding.’
– Kate Grenville, author of Restless Dolly Maunder
‘Dirrayawadha shines a fresh light on one of the most extraordinary people in this continent's past, woven together with a deeply personal story of loss and love. Heiss's wonderful writing, as ever, takes us to the heart of the historical truths which still reverberate today, and movingly chronicles their human cost. Dirrayawadha should be required reading for anyone seeking to understand our colonial past, and especially for those of us who live on unceded land.’
– Meg Keneally, author of Free
'Anita Heiss’s Dirrayawadha is a tender yet clear-eyed portrayal of love, justice and longing; a riveting novel that highlights the personal and historical consequences of Australia’s violent past. Historical in tone, yet absolutely contemporary in scope, Dirrayawadha is a beautiful triumph. The heart wrenching story of Miinaa, Dan and Windradyne will stay with me forever.'
– Mirandi Riwoe, author of Stone Sky Gold Mountain
'In illuminating the devastation of war and the vast upheaval and destruction of the Wiradyuri people, Dirrayawadha is a significant contribution to ongoing truth-telling in this country. If anyone ever doubted the existence of internal war in Australia, this is the book to read, and to consider all that’s been lost and what could yet be learned. Dirrayawadha is a beautifully written and masterful telling of a pivotal point in our history.'
– Nicole Alexander, author of The Last Station
'Heiss is at the height of her powers in Dirrayawadha as she reckons with a time and a truth many have chosen to forget or deny; that of the brutal Frontier Wars that occurred on our soil. Told with heart and courage, Dirrayawadha is an epic tale of resistance, love, belonging and perseverance that returns presence and language to disregarded or silenced historical figures. By fearlessly confronting the impacts of this country’s violent past, Dirrayawadha is a commanding act of truth-telling and Heiss is to be applauded for having the courage to deliver it to us.'
– Sally Piper, author of Bone Memories
Resources and Downloads
High Resolution Images
-
Book Cover Image (jpg): Dirrayawadha
Paperback 9781761631375
-
Author Photo (jpg): Anita Heiss Photograph © Jesse Dittmar(0.1 MB)
Any use of an author photo must include its respective photo credit
Extra Content
For more information about this book, including teacher resources, visit here.
