๐ ๐ฆ๐บ #19: A Wiradjuri story from Australia
Tara June Winch's 2020 Miles Franklin winner
Welcome to Bookmarked, a weekly newsletter following my journey as I read one book from every country. If youโre enjoying my project, Iโd love it if you shared Bookmarked with a friend.
Tara June Winchโs The Yield, the 2020 winner of Australiaโs Miles Franklin Literary Prize, is a profoundly moving book about white colonisation, intergenerational Aboriginal trauma, and the language of the Wiradjuri people.
The novel is told in three intertwining narratives, the first of which follows August Gondiwindi as she returns to Massacre Plains for her grandfatherโs burial, having spent a decade in England. Haunted by memories of her childhood traumaโincluding the unsolved disappearance of her sister Jeddaโand alive to the absence of her incarcerated mother, August struggles to reconcile her past with her present. And then, upon arriving at her grandmotherโs house, August learns that her hometown is being repossessed by a mining company.
From the age of eight and Jedda nine, they lived with their grandparents, Albert and Elsie, back in Massacreโs Prosperous Houseโthe Mission church turned farm workersโ quarters, that had an old coat of lemon paint and an extension built for shearers. Five hundred acres of not being able to shake the past, of where everything had gone wrong, over and over. Theyโd been returned to their birthplace, and it seemed as if their lives had become best-case scenarios. August thought nothing could change as much as it did when she was eight years old. She was wrong.
The novelโs second narrative, which is set in the recent past, follows Augustโs grandfather Albert, known as Poppy, as he compiles a dictionary of the Wiradjuri language in an effort to preserve it. Every word included in Poppyโs dictionary, which makes up the novelโs appendix, introduces a short anecdote about his life. It is through this dictionary that we learn Poppy belongs to Australiaโs Stolen Generation; he was raised in a Lutheran mission after being forcibly removed from his own family.
When August hears about Poppyโs dictionary project, she vows to learn more about her family history and fight for the land of her people. In one of the novelโs most climactic scenes, August and her aunt Missy visit the Historic Museum of Australia, searching for cultural objects that might prove their native title claim and put a stop to the mine being built. โThey should work out how many of us they murdered and have a museum of tanks of blood,โ comments Missy as the pair encounter artefacts stolen from their ancestors. โThereโd be signs that said Bloodshedโ1788 to YesterdayโStay Tuned!โ
The bookโs final narrative follows Reverend Ferdinand Greenleaf as he arrives in Massacre Plains in 1915 to establish a mission. Greenleafโs story, which provides much of the bookโs historical context, is told through his letters to the British Society of Ethnography. These letters detail the atrocities committed against Australiaโs Aboriginal population which prompt Reverend Greenleaf to question his faith in God.
In The Yield, Winch masterfully weaves together history, linguistics, and fiction to tell a devastating story about the terrors and traumas of the Wiradjuri people. Though I occasionally felt that the dictionary format of Poppyโs chapters slowed down the bookโs otherwise propulsive plot, this is a truly breathtaking and well-researched story that put chills on my arms and raised hairs on my neck.
As Winch points out in her Authorโs Note, Australia's indigenous languages are among the world's most endangered. In The Yield, Winchโs distinct, textured voice brings the Wiradjuri language to life.
The Yield by Tara June Winch (Penguin Australia, 2019)
More books by Australian authors
Hereโs a list of the other recommendations I received this week:
Room For a Stranger by Melanie Cheng
Terra Nullius by Claire G. Coleman
Islands by Peggy Frew
The Dry by Jane Harper
Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko
The Animals in That Country by Laura Jean McKay
Heat and Light by Ellen van Neerven
The Morbids by Ewa Ramsey
Any Ordinary Day by Leigh Sales
The Weekend by Charlotte Woodย
What have you read recently?
If youโve read a brilliant book in translation or want to pass on a recommendation, Iโd love to hear about it! For this project, Iโm focussing on contemporary fiction and short stories, with a preference for female authorsโbut I wonโt be too dogmatic about it so do share recommendations that donโt quite fit the bill, too.
You can get in touch by replying to this email or leaving a comment. Iโll be featuring your recommendations in upcoming newsletters, and Iโll keep a growing listย here.
Bookmarked is written by Tabatha Leggett. Thanks to Jemima Skelley for her recommendations for this issue! If you know someone who would enjoy this newsletter, please forward it to them!