Manganinnie

I've developed a fascination with old Australian children's books that address the issue of Aboriginal people and their place in the nation. Unfortunately many of them take the attitude that First Nations people are facing an inevitable decline, tragic as that may be -- and extraordinarily, that is true even of Manganinnie, which was published as late as 1979. Bizarrely, it was translated into French and Japanese, and won the French children's book of the year in 1986. It was also made into a film, which to my astonishment was easily found on SBS (I watched a few minutes but the technicolour costumes gave me a headache).

I cannot imagine a contemporary child reading this book. On one level, it's quite a lovely story, following old Manganinnie as she moves through the year and the landscape, searching for her vanished
 people after the 'Black Drive' of 1830. Along the way, from loneliness and fear of all her knowledge being lost, she kidnaps a white toddler who stays with her for three years. There are some narrow escapes for the outlaw pair, and encounters with various animals, but on the whole it's quite an uneventful journey, lyrically described, but shot through with the sorrow and desolation of Manganinnie, alone in the wilderness and with the white settlers always drawing closer.

There is an air of tragic inevitability to Manganinnie's experience, and while she is sympathetically portrayed (by the white author) and many words of language are sprinkled through the narrative, there is never any doubt that these are the old woman's final days. I suspect this attitude still survives in pockets of this country; even though some people may draw the line at the physical extermination or dying out of First Nations people, they certainly see no place for their culture or beliefs in a modern Australia. For that reason, I'm glad that Manganinnie is no longer on the shelf of the op shop where some unsuspecting young person might actually read it.