Tiwi in Paris

I spoke English, they spoke French, nobody spoke Tiwi.

In this brilliant picture book, Glen Farmer Illortaminni tells the story of accompanying his uncle, artist Timothy Cook, to Paris as an interpreter. They arrived in Paris from the Tiwi Islands, and following a dinner of frogs’ legs and spaghetti, Glen found himself wide awake at nighttime and ducked out for a walk. Unable to speak French, and without a hotel key or phone, he became lost and spent days treading around Paris doing his best to stay warm and safe and to find his way back. He takes the Metro, returns to the airport, visits a big market and a hospital, and sleeps in a church, before finally making his way to the Australian embassy.

Although it must have been a very scary and stressful few days, Farmer Illortaminni tells his story in a calm, matter-of-fact tone and shares wonderful details about the people and places he encountered, and of his home, Milikapiti, which is 13,710 kilometres away from Paris’s famous landmarks. An artist and printmaker, his illustrations feature colour washes that contrast beautifully with black ink and strong lines. On some pages the people are very small – tiny stick figures in a big city. Other pages showing time spent in company have a much closer perspective; kind strangers have character and smiles. Tiwi in Paris is a remarkable story, and an utterly unique experience of Paris. For anyone aged 3+.