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Description edit
Set in Australia between the 1960s and early 1970s, this historical saga follows Margaret, an Aboriginal girl who is snatched from her family and brought up by white foster parents in the outback, under the government sponsored assimilation policies. She stubbornly tries to maintain her... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Characters/People edit
- Margaret: Margaret is the Aboriginal girl at the heart of the story. When she is first snatched from her family, her stubbornness and determination to resist the changes being foisted upon her makes her a challenging child for the carers and teachers with whom she comes into contact. But after being separated from her birth parents for a while, learning to like some of the things these back-to-front people did and had, and witnessing the elevation of Laura Wilson during her baptism, Margaret begins to seek approval, so that she too can be elevated. This propels her into a spiralling identity crisis, which saps her energies and tests her relationships.
- Anne McDonald: Add a description of this character.
- Sean McDonald: Sean McDonald is a quiet, unemotional, hardworking man, who has been making his own way in the world since he was in his teens. Determined that drought or fire will not force him from independence on his land, he struggles on through both, apparently oblivious to his wife’s dislike of the outback. But like many of the characters in the novel, Sean has his secrets, which helps him to survive in this place. Both he and Margaret are wary of each other, but he proves to be one of her wisest guides.
- Elizabeth McDonald: Elizabeth McDonald, the daughter of Anne and Sean, is not much older than Margaret. She is a kind and thoughtful young woman who feels stunted by the small town of Malee, but her identity is stifled even more by her mother’s pretentious airs. Nevertheless, she is an obedient child who wants to please her mother, and to that end, like her mother, she ignores the nature and environment around her until Margaret’s arrival. But Elizabeth has a rebellious spirit waiting to break out, and this latter trait comes to the fore when she moves to Sydney to study. In the early years, her relationship with Margaret is a close one in the home, where they work and study together, but when at school, her desire to keep her friends divides them.
- Federico Rossi: Federico Rossi is tall and handsome with hot butter skin. He is a caring boy, but shy and lacking confidence. Whilst not academically gifted, he is talented with his hands. Margaret secretly helps him in the classroom and they become more than just close friends, which because of their racial differences they have to conduct in secret.
- Laura Wilson: Laura Wilson, personable, smart, is popular at school. Margaret plots to be her friend, but Laura never considers her a friend as she as other whites look down on Aboriginals and is two-faced to Margaret.
- Joshua: Joshua is fostered by Helen Cartwright, the leading lady in the community. His silence distances him from the European community, but it is at night that Joshua comes alive, when he escapes into the forest or the nearby encampment of an Aboriginal mob to hunt, dance and rekindle his culture. He acts as a bridge for Margaret into the Aboriginal community, and remains an influence in her life throughout the novel.
- Sister Ruth: Sister Ruth runs the small school in the town of Malee. An excellent teacher, she is stern and the main barrier to Margaret achieving her potential as she is firm against Aboriginal children attending her school. She is a barrier to Margaret learning.
- Other Characters: Other Characters: There are a number of lesser characters, each with distinctive traits and stories that add to the plot, which make them memorable as a result.
- Eddie
- Matron Blythe: Head of the Radley Domestic Training Home
- Mrs Wilson
- Mr O'Hare: A farmer in the outback
- Cathy
- Father Beir: The Priest at the local parish
- Helen Cartwright: A rich widow who has a foster Aboriginal son she named Joshua
- Toby: Aboriginal father of Margaret
- Andrew Nicolaides: One of the white farmers origially from Greece
- Perry
- Lonnie: One of the Aboriginal workers for Sean McDonald
- Nkuppa: An Aborigine
- Heng
- Sister Agnes: A Nun at the Catholic School
- Daisy Winmati: part Aborigine Mother of Margaret
- Mrs Rossi: One of the local outback wives
- Mr Wilson: One of the local outback farmers
- Mrs Norma Sommers
- Sammy
- Matron Thomas: The cook at the Training School
- Mrs Jones
- Maggie
- Mrs O'Hare: An outback farmer's wife
- Sara
- Matthew Stevens: A boyfriend of Margaret's in Sydney
- Mr Jones
- Helga Stevens: Step-mother to Matthew
- Costos Nicolaides: An outback farmer, originally from Greece
- Mr Simmonds
- Sonny Boy
- Lilly: An Aboriginal girlfriend of Margaret at the Training School
- Carol Saunders
- Matron Cook
- Maureen Barkley
- Mr Ralph
- Nipper: An Aboriginal child/man
- Liz: Daughter of Sean and Anne McDonald where Margaret was fostered
- Alexander
- Aithra Nicolaides: Wife of Costos, from Greece
- Beatrice
- Mr Stevens: Father of Matthew, boyfriend of Margaret in Sidney
- Barry Anderson
- Joe
- Mr Gazis: Owned a cafe in Sidney and hired Margaret
- Molly O'Hare: An outback wife
- Joyce
- Tomas
Quotes edit
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“'I like hunting, chasing rabbits and fishing.'Anne pursed her lips as if to swallow Margaret’s words, 'Those are men’s things, Margaret. You are going to learn to be a lady now.'”
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“… But then if you were a woman, according to Mrs McDonald, you weren’t supposed to hunt or fish either, you were meant to learn etiquette, which was like stitching your energies up into a womb and leaving them there to fester. How was a woman meant to fly like an eagle if she couldn’t do those things?”
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“Quotations 1 and 2 point to the fact that Aboriginal women, who in the past had been able to do the same work as their men, were restricted from doing the same work when they came into contact with Europeans. “Kaytej women worked beside their menfolk in the mines and on the stations—chopping wood, breaking horses, mustering and droving—pursued separately from men, but none considered sex specific… It was the presence of white women on cattle stations and the missionaries in the towns which curtailed many of these activities… Opportunities to engage in productive labour were limited for women on settlements and missions. Men distributed the rations… Women found work as domestics who served… No longer were women the individual producers they had been in the past.” Daughters of the Dreaming by Diane Bell p96”
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“She knew she had to escape before these people tried to get her to forget her mobs ways—her mother had always advised her to if she was caught—but each time she tried to think of it her mind spun a web, and she would be left hanging someplace unable to move.”
Margaret -
““Them gum trees never forget what they are.” His words singed her skin.”
Nannup -
“You can have a big fire sweep through this place and it will burn that gum tree so that it looks dead, and that gum tree will pretend for years that it have no life in it. But what you don’t know is that its lifeline run deep into the heart of the tree, so that fire might scar the outside, but the next time that tree get some of that rain that it like, them leaves just start blossoming again.”
Nannup -
““Thou shall not steal,” she repeated. “They stole our land, our culture and our children, husband. They don’t believe their own words, so why should we?””
Daisy -
“If you ask me, she have the same kind of sickness as all them people. They always want more, even if it’s not theirs to take. Then when they take it they say no one else ever owned it.”
Nannup -
“To tear yourself from all you knew and sew your soul into the fabric of a different world. It wasn’t easy, and she had been dropping stitches for three decades.”
Anne -
“She could feel the desire to be like them racing through her veins even now, and its greed cannibalised her energies so that the hunger in the pit of her stomach was sharper than it had ever been, but she was slowly beginning to realise that it wasn’t possible to shed her skin, even though she hadn’t quite accepted it yet.”
Margaret -
“Will they accept me if I just let them out and be me, whatever that is, because I'm not sure I even know anymore?”
Margaret/Ningali
First Sentence edit
The pang pang gooks all laughed as their several tiny fingers raced over the bushes, plucking at the wild riberries, which were fat with juice. The girl that they sometimes called Snake-woman-child darted in and out of the scrub with an athletic ease, eager to reach the biggest fruit ahead of the others, with whom she would share them afterwards anyway. They were eating more than they saved for the elders, who were dancing and singing up some spirit back at camp, and the luscious red juice ran down mouths, across cheeks and added to the days old stains that had already accumulated on their T-shirts and dresses. A cloud of red dust billowed and raced towards the berry pickers, even though the sun was sitting high in the belly of its expansive sky and there was no hint of a breeze.
Themes & Symbolism edit
- The destabilising influence of identity loss: From the time Margaret is captured and taken to the children’s home, a process of wiping away her Aboriginal identity begins, in order that she can be assimilated and have a ‘better life’. Initially she resists with an attempt at escape, then overt stubbornness, but as the years slip by and the punishments become more severe, her defiance takes on a covert air. Eventually she finds herself negotiating between two cultures with cunning, but the stresses finally lead to an explosive conclusion.
- The need to belong: The struggle to belong becomes a major part of Margaret’s story once she is fostered. Whilst the McDonalds treat her well, this is not the same in the wider community, and Margaret has to use her guile to be accepted into the church, to make friendships with the children, and get the most out of her education in a school where one of the Sisters makes it clear she isn’t wanted. She is assisted in this fight by her foster mother, Anne McDonald, but Anne also has problems of her own in coming to terms with her life as a poor farmers wife in a parched outback town, which leads her to adopting the identity of the town’s leading lady in letters home to her friend in England. Margaret finds a connection in Joshua, an Aboriginal boy who has also been fostered, especially on their secret nightly excursions into the woods where he teaches her how to reconnect with their culture. But as Margaret begins to like some of the customs and material possessions of her new family, she finds herself straddling two communities which are drifting further apart.
- Food as a means of control: Food is used as a recurring symbol of control throughout the novel. When Margaret is in the children’s home, the threat of withdrawal of food from the girls is used to control their behaviour. In turn the girls steal food, fight over food, and dream and talk about food to sate their hunger. In flashbacks and oral stories, we also learn of the ways in which the laws of the European settlers were used to curtail the Aboriginals historic hunting practices, forcing them to rely on the new economic order, where they had to work for the settlers to satisfy their food requirements, or rely on handouts distributed by settlement managers—which again could be restricted if they failed to follow orders.
Authors & Contributors edit
- George Hamilton (Author)
Subjects edit
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Links to Supplemental Material edit
- Browsing Rhino: Download Chapter 1 and Reading Guide
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