Grace Tame

Grace Tame's The Ninth Life of a Diamond Miner has been eagerly, and in some quarters anxiously, awaited. The 2021 Australian of the Year has a large and ...

Expect The Ninth Life of a Diamond Miner to feature prominently in the next round of book award prize lists. The #auspol crowd will of course parse in fine detail her comments on the prime minister whose gaslighting she so vividly exposed, and on those reporting on it. The writing is excellent, and Tame is extraordinarily good company. This is the account of someone who refuses to be crushed, even by the horrific abuse at the hands of a predatory high school teacher she recounts later. Editorialising on her own observations is pure Tame, a thread of wit and ironic detachment throughout the book. Who is this diamond miner of the title? The title is in tiny type at the bottom of the front cover, and the author’s name is in large gold letters framing artwork by Tame herself. But as the unusual title hints, and the book makes clear, Tame’s life is more than the sum of the nemeses she’s vanquished. Both parents worked full-time and from an early age, Tame would be dropped at school as early as 7am, alone, unsupervised, sometimes in tears: “I didn’t say anything at the time, that was just the way it was.” Aged six, an older child forced her into a closet and molested her – she discovered four fellow survivors of this abuser later on. After this prologue, the facts of her childhood are sketched. Grace Tame’s The Ninth Life of a Diamond Miner has been eagerly, and in some quarters anxiously, awaited. The 2021 Australian of the Year has a large and admiring public for her courageous campaign against sexual violence, particularly by paedophiles.