Kim
Scott is a Perth writer of Aboriginal decent who has previously won the Miles
Franklin Award for his novel – Benang (1999). The Miles Franklin Award is Australia’s premier
literary prize and Scott is in the fine company of previous winners such as
Peter Carey, Tim Winton and Patrick White. That Deadman Dance has won Scott his
second Miles Franklin Award and like his previous work it involves a narrative
that provides an examination of Aboriginal Australia.
The
novel is set in the colony that would go on to be called Albany
in the period 1833 to 1844. It is written in the third person from the
perspective of both the colonists and the Aboriginal people known as Noongars.
Albany was the first colony to be established in Western Australia, preceding
the capital – Perth, by three years.
In
Scott’s author’s notes at the end of the novel he indicates that the Albany
region was known as “the friendly frontier” due to the relatively peaceful
relationship between the settlers and the Noongars. The principle Noongar character is Wabalanginy, known as Bobby to the colonists. Bobby is the bridge
between the two cultures and we meet him on the very first page. He’s a
charismatic character who charms both the colonists and his fellow Noongars.
It’s Bobby who performs the “deadman dance” - a dance that mimics the effects
of European diseases that wipe out a significant portion of Aborigines throughout Australia.
Scott’s
writing is an interesting proposition. Stylistically it can be impressionistic
and the narrative is not always linear so that events can seem jumbled up in an
almost organic fashion. Not having read his other books I’m not sure if this is
his usual style, or whether it is a particular stylistic choice that conveys
how the Noongar people perceived their world. Either way once you get used to
Scott’s writing it becomes quite an engaging way to spin a tale. Scott’s
descriptions of the Australian bush and its animals are also beautiful and
really capture the uniqueness of the Australian wilderness, with its primeval
atmosphere of isolation and immense age.
The
colonist characters provide an effective insight into just how tough it must
have been to live in such an isolated region. Killam, an ex soldier and convict
Skelly are certainly rugged individuals who make their way as best they can in
an alien environment. How they carry themselves and the decisions they make are
in direct contrast to the Noongar characters such as Bobby and the elder –
Menak. Yet somehow the divergent groups find a middle path and benefit from
each-others technology and knowledge. The contrast between the two groups is
one of the ways in which Noongar culture is revealed to the reader and it works
quite well.
There’s
trouble of course, in the form of spearings, shootings, thieving and tension
created by the exploitation of the whales that travel down the coast. The
sections detailing the whaling, carried out in a bay where the poor creatures
stop to rest, have an emotional punch and are also fascinating in a macabre
way. It’s in this context that the mostly British colonists, the Noongars and American whalers converge into a mostly cooperative group, that is until
the whales start to become scarce.
The
quality of Scott’s writing is such that I can understand why That Deadman
Dance
won numerous awards. Scott readily evokes time and place as well as culture and
the inevitability of historical change. The book is both heartening and sad –
it reveals the promise of what could have been and therefore saddens due to the
contrast of what followed for the Noongars and their fellow Aborigines throughout Australia.
Unfortunately
I was not ready for this book as I was not in the mood for a novel about
colonial Australia. This is sometimes the case when a novel read for a book
club does not correspond with what you’d like to be reading at the time. In
hindsight this saddens me as I feel like I did not benefit from Scott’s deft
handling of a significant time in Australia’s history; but for other readers I
recommend That Deadman Dance as a book worthy of your attention.
