Black Fish: How to fish, and stories of the wata, kin & community

In this unique guide intertwining personal memoir with practical fishing advice, Mercury-award winning rapper Speech Debelle explores fishing as a powerful allegory for navigating life’s challenges and triumphs.

Find patience, resilience and joy in every cast – whether in life’s journey or your next catch.

Using fishing as a metaphor for personal growth, healing and belonging, Black Fish is a captivating blend of practical fishing guide, intimate memoir and cultural reflection, written by multitalented musician Speech Debelle. Lyrically woven across an array of practical fishing advice – from chosen equipment and casting techniques to weather considerations and mindfulness – each chapter interlaces interviews and stories by seasoned anglers with Speech’s reflections on community, identity and finding one’s roots.

• Fishing can be a practice of healing from trauma. Understand how to trust the process, have grace with yourself and break emotional cycles.
• Learn about fishing as an indigenous practice and ancestral skill. Through stories of the movement of peoples across water, see how and why the fishing practices that have evolved with them. Discover how to reclaim space and to create your own fishing community.
• Understand the water and how to create a relationship with it, including all the guidance you'll need on what equipment to use when, safety gear, comfort and convenience tips, tide times and packing essentials.
• Practice how to tie and untie personal knots, set up your gear, navigate weather and terrain and get to grips with mindfulness before casting.
• Once you get a bite, strike and reel it in. Learn how to remove a hook, dispatch and release. Be sure to celebrate your successes and return home with your catch.

Speech’s story offers a unique perspective that inspires you to find inner peace within life’s tumultuous currents and become a steward to our abundant oceans.