Bridge of Triangles

John Muk Muk Burke was born in Narrandera, New South Wales in 1946, of a Wiradjuri mother and an Irish father. He left school at fifteen and spent some years in the post office before going to New Zealand on a working holiday. After a number of jobs ranging from scrub clearing to factory work he was accepted into Auckland Teachers’ College in 1967. He has taught in primary schools in New Zealand, Darwin and outback Northern Territory, and has been a specialist art teacher and music advisor for the Northern Territory Department of Education. In 1989 he took a year off to travel in Europe, and it was in France that the first draft of Bridge of Triangles was written. In 1992 he joined the Centre for Aboriginal and Islander Studies at the Northern Territory University as lecturer in History and English Literature, and is currently an Academic Support Lecturer for Aboriginal and Islander students in the Education faculty.