Queensland Term Abroad
Reading
Check your book assignment below
General Background
Berra, T.M. 1998. Natural History of Australia. Academic Press, New York, 256 p.
Bryson, B. 2001. In a Sunburned Country. Broadway Books, New York, 335 p.
Habegger, L. (ed.) 2000. Australia: True Stories of Life Down Under. Travelers' Tales Inc., San Francisco, 368 p.
Hughes, R. 1988. Fatal Shore. Vintage Books, New York, 688 p.
Macintyre, S. 2000. A Concise History of Australia. Cambridge University Press, London, 272 p.
What they're reading in Brisbane
Bolland, C. 2002. I Knit Water. International Specialized Book Services.
Cleven, V. 2003. Her Sister's Eye. International Specialized Book Services.
Malouf, D. 1998. Johnno. University of Queensland Press.
Morgan, S. 2000. My Place. New South Wales University Press.
Pilkington, D. 1997. Rabbit-Proof Fence. University of Queensland Press, 136 p.
Siemon, R. 1997. Mayne Interitance. University of Queensland Press, 214 p.
Winton, T. 2002. Dirt Music. Scribner, 411 p.
What they're reading in New Zealand
Chapple, G. 2002. Te Araroa: The New Zealand Trail. Random House, 264 p.
Duff, A. 1998. Both Sides of the Moon. Vintage, 180 p.
Goulter, J. 2000. Silent Evidence. Random House, 176 p.
Grace, P. 2001. Dogside Story. Penguin, 301 p.
Ihimaera, W. 1987. The Whale Rider. Reed, 152 p.
Winitana, C. 2001. Legends of Aotearoa. Harper Collins, 166 p.
Reviews
I Knit Water, by Craig Bolland. Dumped by his wife, Mark Heron finds a flat in Hardgrave Lodge, a formerly grand house now sliced into apartments. Like the house, Mark and his fellow tenants are a bit worn themselves. Loss, in different forms, winds through the characters, controlling their actions and defining their lives. Each character represents a different kind of loss -- loss of innocence, loss of confidence, trust, etc.... and each represents a different way of coping with that loss. Like white light beamed through a prism, Bolland's book presents a rainbow view of loneliness. It may sound like a total downer, but it's not. It's quite funny at times and presents the characters (and readers) with choices -- and hope.
The book was runner-up in the 2001 Queensland Premier's Literary Awards. The author was born and raised in Brisbane and the story takes place there. Local landmarks, including the University, feature in the story. Review by David Kendrick. Added 14 May.
Rabbit-Proof Fence, by Doris Pilkington, chronicles four months in the lives of Molly (15 years old), Gracie (11) and Daisy (8), three muda-muda (born of white fathers and Aboriginal mothers) girls living near Jigalong in Western Australia. In 1931, government policy required all half-caste children be rounded up, separated from their families and sent to schools where they could learn to live more easily in white Australian society. To the girls, the school at Mogumber was little more than a jail. So they escaped and made the 2500 km bush walk home.
The story is simple, told in prose that lacks an artistic hand. More surprisingly, it is pragmatic, without a shred of the sentimentality lavished on book and film by its urban reviewers. The dust jacket reads: "The remarkable true story of three young girls who cross the harsh Australian desert on foot to return to their home." To the girls, the journey is just something that has to be done, the bush provides shelter and tucker (food) and walking is the only way to travel. Our amazement at their feat speaks most clearly to the gulf between our cultures.
The rabbit-proof fence, the landmark the girls use to navigate, becomes a central metaphor for the book's more subtle story. The rabbit-proof fence (or State Barrier Fence of Western Australia as it is officially known) was completed in 1901 to stem the tide of introduced European rabbits surging, in plague proportions, from Victoria to the east. The fence was the Australians' brute-force solution to a problem of their own creation. For the girls, the fence was guide and provider (on one occasion they killed and ate a feral cat, descended of those released near the fence to dispatch any rabbits that might sneak through). Likewise, the girls' deportation was a solution to the problem of children who belonged fully to neither the white nor Aboriginal world. To the girls, escape and journey were not about heroism or the triumph of the proud Aborigine over her white pursuers. The girls merely wanted home and mother. In this simple need, Pilkington strips away all that divides Australia's two cultures and exposes the same beating heart beneath. Reviewed by Nan Arens. Posted 20 May.
Learn more about the fence at this site celebrating its Centennial: www.agric.wa.gov.au/programs/app/barrier/content.htm . It has lots of interesting historical trivia...
Book Assignments
We will be discussing these books while we're in New York. This means, of course, that you should read the book before we convene in August. Each book should have two readers, one from HWS and one from Union. You will work together to develop the discussion. Contact us if you're not listed or you don't have an assignment.
Andy Baker — Te Araroa: The New Zealand Trail
Adam Bordonaro — Dogside Story
Rebecca Brittain — Both Sides of the Moon
Amy Butterfield — Silent Evidence
Alyssa Carlson — Both Sides of the Moon
Katie Clifford — The Whale Rider
Carla DeLucia — Rabbit-Proof Fence
Brooke Denslow — My Place
Sarah Eck — True Stories of Life Down Under
Christina Farris — I Knit Water
Allison Floyd — Mayne Inheritance
Lauren Gianinny — Her Sister's Eye
Linda Hafner — Silent Evidence
Claire Healy — Fatal Shore
D. J. Hewey — Fatal Shore
Morgan Hurley — Australia: True Stories of Life Down Under
Casey Jeracka — A Concise History of Australia
Dave Kang — My Place
Lael Kassis — A Concise History of Australia
Annmarie Mica — Te Aroroa: The New Zealand Trail
James Miller — The Whale Rider
Nina Moats — Dirt Music
James Mooney — Mayne Inheritance
Tim Moriarty — I Knit Water
Jen Parkes — Dogside Story
Jaime Pullman — In a Sunburned Country
Mary Raso — Her Sister's Eye
Joe Starnes — Johnno
Sarah Steuer — In a Sunburned Country
Adam Sullivan — Dirt Music
Rebecca Traver — Rabbit-Proof Fence
Tim Vacanti — Legends of Aotearoa
Max Zimmerley — Legends of Aotearoa