A letter from Cath Moore to readers of Metal Fish, Falling Snow

Born in Guyana, Cath Moore is of Irish/Afro-Caribbean heritage. Though raised in Australia she has also lived in Scotland and Belgium. Cath is also an award-winning screenwriter, teacher and filmmaker. She holds an MA in screenwriting and a PhD in Danish screenwriting practices. Metal Fish, Falling Snow is Cath’s first novel. She lives in Melbourne.

Today, Cath is on the blog with a beautiful letter to any of her readers who feel as if they don’t belong because of the colour of their skin. Read on …

Cath Moore

Just As You Are

Hi there,

We may not have met before, but I know you. Been walking in your shoes for a long time now, felt and heard a few things you have too. I know what it’s like when all those smiley people on TV and Instagram feeds keep saying: ‘Be the best version of yourself you can be!’ That’s easy when you know who you are, when you’ve got the right skin colour. You’re only real and right and normal, you think, if you can see yourself on TV. In a hashtag.

But I can’t see myself there, so there must be something wrong with me, you think. Who am I if people keep asking where I’m really from. Or why my mum is white if I am black. Or what other language I speak. Am I supposed to speak another language?

You think there is something wrong with you, because people stare, some say hurtful words and laugh. You’re crumbling inside because you don’t know how to be the best version of yourself if you’re always someone else to others.

You love hanging out at your friend’s house—they own it. You don’t own yours. She has a dad and siblings. You don’t. They are all the same colour! You wish a bit of your friend’s invisibility would rub off on you. No one asks her where she is from. She is normal. You are different. But when you are with her, you forget. Until you go home, and dinner is a meal with a name that no one at school can pronounce. It smells of a home you have no memories of, so you love it and hate it all at once. Just like yourself.

But let me tell you, friend. One day, you will care less about what other people want you to be. As you grow up, all that sadness and madness will slowly shift to the side and you will see other parts of who you are. You will realise that there are many versions of your best self.

You do not have to explain who and what you are.

That is not your job. There are many things you must do, though. You must realise that your words and wishes are your own. You must rise up when anger draws you to confront injustice and sit down when you are tired and need to rest. You must love and laugh and cry, reach out for help and draw on your inner strength. You are a wondrous mix of people, places, songs and stories. You might not feel it now, but that is a gift you will unwrap when the time is right for you.

So, friend, wherever you go, come just as you are. For that is more than enough.

Love, Cath

—Metal Fish, Falling Snow by Cath Moore (Text Publishing) is out now.

Metal Fish, Falling Snow

by Cath Moore

Dylan and her adored French mother dream of one day sailing across the ocean to France. Paris, Dylan imagines, is a place where her black skin won't make her stand out, a place where she might feel she belongs.

But when she loses her mother in a freak accident, Dylan finds herself on a very different journey- a road trip across outback Australia in the care of her mother's grieving boyfriend, Pat. As they travel through remote towns further and further from the water that Dylan longs for, she and Pat form an unlikely bond. One that will be broken when...

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