In the 1600s, a Yolŋu girl was kidnapped from an Australian beach. Centuries later her story is a novel

‘I had to make sure that it was the most Yolŋu as Yolŋu it can be’… co-author Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian

When she was a girl, one of Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs’ grandmothers was kidnapped from the coast of Arnhem Land by foreign traders.

“My grandmother’s sister used to tell me that they went down and saw the footprints of her little sister in the mud, and [the prints of] shoes,” the Yolŋu elder recalls. “And they figured out that the prau [sailing boat] had taken her – because the prau was there, and then suddenly it wasn’t.”