Mr and Mrs Blake at work de-coding the “Catholic Boys Daily”, ( the Australian)
Once again, we thrill to the anticipation of another book review from that luminary of the near north Joseph (Sexton Blake). In this brief encounter we delve deep into a fragment of history unerringly familiar. Sadly due to the 24/7 news cycle and digital media, we’ve forgotten already. We urge you to read this review quickly, and try and keep a notebook and pencil handy, lest you forget what it was all about. “We learn from history, what we do not learn from history”. (Hegel)
It can creep up on you know. Faster than you can say “Brexit”!
And now it’s over to you JOE!
The Yield, by Tara June Winch, Hamish Hamilton, rrp $32.99
reviewed by Joe Blake
When one nation invades another, the first thing that gets destroyed is culture: music, dance, art and language are all banned. The experience in this country has been no different; when one new Victorian Governor’s wife wanted to witness a corroboree, she had to be satisfied with a painting by William Barak. For Indigenous Australians, some good news (and there’s not much of that) is that many of their 700 “lost” languages are being retrieved and used.
This brilliant novel comes in three different voices from three different eras. Each contributes to the big picture of ongoing white settlement and maltreatment.
Joe pausing at the typewriter
August Goondiwindi, who hails from a former mission on the Murrumbidgee, has been living overseas for years, and arrives back home for her grandfather Albert’s funeral. Things are looking dire for her family; the big mining company is about to take over, bulldoze everything, and disperse her people like chaff in the wind. Of course she has to get involved in the resistance.
Albert, lived on the former mission on Massacre Plains all his life, and spent his last years developing a dictionary of the local Wiradjuri language. It’s not just definitions, though, it’s a whole expression of a philosophy of life. Each entry starts with a word’s meaning, then leads on to a myriad of other interconnected thoughts and memories. It’s a brilliant way of reconstructing the history of himself and his people.
Reverend Greenleaf, who was a supervisor at the mission about 100 years ago, also left some words, but these express a different reality: the horrific treatment meted out to the blackfellas by drunken, sadistic white men. He wasn’t your usual preacher, but one with eyes in his head and empathy. He did his feeble best to provide a place of sanctuary, but he was up against unstoppable forces of evil.
Like August, Tara June Winch has spent a large part of her adult life in other countries; she currently lives in France. Fortunately for readers, she hasn’t forgotten one scrap of the details of life here, and she has the most amazing ability to weave those tidbits into a marvellous story. You won’t read a better novel this year.