WEST AUSTRALIANA ABORIGINAL –
“COONARDOO takes place in 1929 at Wytaliba, a remote cattle station in the north of Western Australia. It is a tragedy that spans three generations of white settlers, with the main players being Mrs Bessie (Mumae), her son Hughie and Hughie’s daughter, Phyllis. Shadowing their trajectory is Coonardoo, a young Aboriginal girl who is the same age as Hughie, and who grows up in parallel with him. Although Coonardoo and Hughie are bound to each other and the country of Wytaliba, both marry people within their cultural set, but not before conceiving a child together. It is this child that fuels Hughie’s separation from his wife. She packs herself and her daughters off to Perth but eventually the eldest daughter Phyllis, who feels an overwhelming attachment to the north-west, returns.
With Coonardoo, Prichard elicits an image of the north-west landscape that is vibrant and authentic. Her poetic metaphors are stunning. The plots and subplots are like trails of breadcrumbs leading the reader into a social, historical and psychological exploration of white Australia’s association with Indigenous Australia. Being a teacher–linguist who has worked on Indigenous language, cultural and interpreting programs with Nyangumarta people living in the Pilbara, I reveled in Prichard’s unequivocal use of Indigenous words. Mrs Bessie, as the matriarch of Wytaliba – her husband (Hughie’s father) having died years ago – allows the Aboriginal people working on the station to speak their language and practise their cultural ceremonies. In addition, the main female characters are strong, competent, resilient and intelligent. They smoke cigarettes, wear trousers, run stations, drive cars, ride horses and muster cattle. ”
pp. xiv, 234 #280226