Essentially this book is a series of short stories that expose the impact white missionaries had on traditional Aboriginal life in a remote Northern Territory island community. The issues are confronting, but laced with genuine 'laugh out loud' humour, which Marie Munkara cleverly utilises to both entertain, and to sugar-coat some of the shocking human rights breaches, making them more palatable to the reader.
The recurring characters fuse the short stories together and create a timeline for the decline in traditional Aboriginal values as the missionaries introduce the white world to the bush mob. As each story presents a new conflict of cultures, so too alcohol, drugs, feral animals, possessions (jealousy) and white attitudes are introduced to the indigenous occupants of the island.
Throughout the book, the underlying theme is hypocrisy. Hypocrisy that half-caste children to Aboriginal mothers be taken away (stolen generations), yet half-caste children to white mothers weren't. Hypocrisy that spreading god's word, also involved sewing his wild oats, introducing vice and spreading disease. Hypocrisy that missionaries who were often escaping their own demons in the white world, spent their lives expousing it's benefits to the indigenous population. And hypocrisy that it was always the young Aboriginal girls at fault when they fell pregnant and gave birth to mixed race children.
This is a truly confronting book. It is one side of a sad story that focuses on the negative impacts and the ineptness and shortcomings of some of the missionaries. It also shows the Aboriginal people to be survivors. In the space of a generation, thousands of years of traditional living and values were thrown into turmoil. That they survived to tell the tale, and even laugh about it is a testament to their spirit. That the story can be presented in such a palatable and even entertaining way is testament to Marie Munkara. Well done on a wonderful book.
My Rating: 5/5
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