Nature

The connection with nature in Winch’s novel was always going to be large focus by virtue of the fact that the novel centres around Aboriginal characters.

Water, in particular, reminds May of her important but tenuous connection with her ancestry and Indigenous identity. During her childhood, May and her brother Billy are drawn to the ocean, exploring the beach as a way to escape their tumultuous upbringing. Not only does the ocean nourish their souls, it also provides food for them. As May is of the Wiradjuri tribe, who Issy tells her are ‘people of the river and the lakes’, the connection is understandable. Bodies of water are manifestations of the individual’s connection to both tribal culture and nature itself. However, many of these vital water sources are under threat from Western development, such as Lake Cowal which, when May happens upon it, has dried up and is under further threat by the nearby mining company. Issy’s efforts are in vain as no one can remember a time when ‘that lake had water’ and the damage is almost irreparable. Hers and May’s beliefs that the lake is ‘like a heart, pumping its blood from under the skin’ illustrates the importance of nature on communities such as Issy’s.

Likewise, May’s cathartic journey down the river at Issy’s navigation is a typical representation of the healing power of the outback. Both Issy and Mum have at one stage told May that walking can remedy a myriad of problems, and as May places ‘one foot in front of the other and so on’, she indeed does begin to listen to the voices that soothe her as she walks.

Typically, her childhood home is under threat at the beginning of the novel and remains so at the end upon her return. The excavator moving in to flatten the homes is symbolic of the damage that the colonialists wrecked when they arrived on the Australian shores and contaminated the Aboriginal customs.

Nature Quotes

We get drunk on the salt air and laughter…. We empty our lungs and weigh ourselves cross-legged to the seabed. There we have tea parties underwater. (May and Billy as children at the sea) p. 22

She says that our people are born from quartz crystal, hard water. We are powerful people, strong people. Water people, people of the rivers and the lakes. They [the mining magnets] look at the land and say there is nothing here. (May when she meets Issy at the depleting Lake Cowal) p. 146

And I wonder, if we stand here, if we stay, if they stop digging up Aunty’s backyard, stop digging up a mother’s memory, stop digging up our people, maybe then, we’ll all stop crying. (May as she returns to see Aunty’s home being levelled) p. 198

Substance Abuse

The novel confronts the growing issue of substance abuse in Indigenous communities head on, showing how derailing it can be when adults fall victim to it. The ruinous effects of addiction lead to further problems such as unemployment, fractured families, gross poverty and violence within the family unit. It is clear that characters turn to substances in order to cope with their harsh lives but the cyclic nature of such a problem can be seen in Aunty’s conundrum, where she engages in a relatively harmless shopping spree lottery and gets hooked on the win. In her efforts to replicate the euphoria of this win, she gambles at a local casino and predictably loses more money and turns to alcohol for comfort. Her economic situation plummets and so she gambles more in order to catch a break. In moments of high pressure, such as Aunty’s situation when she is taxed with looking after her sister’s two children and May’s when she runs away from home for the first time, characters turn to substances to cope. In May’s observation, drugs and alcohol can help to remove you from the pain that daily life can bring as ‘insides had become the outsides’, but an unfortunate by-product of this detachment is that ‘hope was[is] suspended’ as well. Thankfully, the protagonist in Winch’s novel has the foresight to trust that ‘if I [she] could make it through this [her first day of withdrawal], I [she] knew I [she] wouldn’t miss that feeling again’ and her experience dabbling in drugs is short-lived.

May is continually assaulted by experiences of this addictive behaviour, when one night she is privy to a group of stoned boys with ‘sunken brown and yellow… cold’ eyes and then later, an overdose of a young girl in the bathroom. The text is critical of substance abuse, presenting it as dangerous to individuals, families and the general fabric of society.

Substance Abuse Quotes

I was laughing so much that I thought I’d have a swig too… my head whooshed dizzy and I belly laughed at the boys more and more with each sip. (May after having her first drink) p. 57

He was humming to himself and shaking his head, a song and a joke carrying on without anyone else. As his hands unwrapped the small package of foil, the others waited to shoot up… (May observing her brothers and his friends as they use heroin) p. 72

My muscles ached, as my bones stabbed… I felt crook, my insides abandoned, like a hulled out apple. It was the poppies. Opium sweats, Sheepa called it, the morning after a night without them. (May after she had drunk the opium drink) p. 80

‘Wiradjuri! You Wiradjuri blood girl? Well all ya mob’s probably out ere in the park drinkin.’ (Joyce when she finds out where May comes from) p. 103

He licks his lips, stares at the bong and then inspects around the room full circle and back at my face. We meet eyes that know. (May and Johnny argue when Johnny refuses to run away with her like they had planned) p. 132