The night of the performance, 'Darling You're Standing In It", was the night before helen's book launch at the queensland writer's centre. the book 'the hand that signed the paper' was a vogel prize winner, and was published by allen and unwin. it won the miles franklin award and helen demidenko was awarded the asal gold medal as writer of the year in 1995. in this video she reads an exerpt from her novel.
at the book launch helen cart-wheeled and did wild ethnic dances. a man approached her and said he'd known her father in cairns. the myth grew. a young ukrainian boy she had befriended at ukrainian youth club dancing classes swore that he had met her family and that she was definitely ukrainian.