The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith

Introductory Activities

At a simple level, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith is based on a conventional narrative structure of provocation, revenge, pursuit and capture. The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith layers all of the elements of this structure onto an equally familiar structure of the hero’s journey, or quest. Both of these narrative traditions are complicated and subverted by the empathetic construction of the novel’s anti-hero, Jimmie Blacksmith. These familiar aspects of genre and character are worth foregrounding prior to reading the novel to give students a familiar point of reference regarding its construction.

1. Define and consider the concept of the anti-hero. A good starting point can be reading the definition and examples provided on the Literary Devices website. Students list attributes expected of a heroic character in terms of values, virtues, status in society and relationship to antagonists. These attributes should be contrasted to the antagonists in the narrative. An important representation of a historical figure worth some attention would be Ned Kelly. The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith makes direct reference to the Kelly “myth” and links Blacksmith’s experiences and circumstances to the bushranger. Consider Kelly’s crimes, his motives and public responses to those crimes in terms of a modern context and a contemporaneous one. After some discussion or brief research on Ned Kelly, students can read Kelly’s own account in hisJerilderie Letter. The key question to explore with the Kelly example is why a bushranger (thief and murderer of police) is often considered a person worthy of sympathy, respect and admiration.
   1. • Anti-heroes in fiction worth discussing are the main characters of the TV seriesDexter and Breaking Bad.
2. Discuss characteristics of the revenge genre: list texts that follow a provocation-revenge-pursuit-capture structure. The pursuit and capture parts of this structure often mean that the pursuers are figures of authority in the narrative’s society, which often places the protagonist in the anti-hero category (but not always). Attention should be drawn to the social setting and how the dominant power is represented to determine whether the protagonist can be considered an anti-hero
   1. • Possible texts to refer to in this discussion: Thelma and Louise, Unforgiven, True History of the Kelly Gang (or some other representation of Ned Kelly’s experiences), The Matrix, Elysium, and The Hunger Games (the series).
3. Revise the key elements of Joseph Campbell’s model of the Heroes Journey, making note of the important points of the structure.

The novel depicts the region and society of New South Wales in the years leading to Australia’s Federation in 1901, and ending with Jimmie Blacksmith’s execution in May 1901. Students can be provided some brief political and social context of this time. Important points to note:

• Prior to Federation, Australia’s landmass was divided into six separate English colonies. Colonists had different attitudes towards Federation with some seeing it as a way to establish a strong nation independent from Britain. Others feared being dominated by stronger, more populous colonies (which would become states). Some of these attitudes are expressed by characters in the novel.
• Each of the colonies (as outposts of the British Empire) were supporting the war against the Boers in South Africa, known as The Boer War. The Boers were descendants of the Dutch colonisers who established the important settlement on the tip of Southern Africa in 1652 and entered into violent conflict with the native tribes on the land. By the time the British Empire took control of the region in 1806, the Dutch-Afrikaner peoples had established strong, patriotic ties to the land and many moved East and North away from the British focus of power on the Cape. These people considered the British an occupying power and resisted British attempts to absorb Boer territory into the Empire.
• The apparent parallels between the Boer/South African Natives and the Aboriginal peoples/and colonists in the face of imperial rule are explored through the attitudes expressed by characters in the novel, which speak to several of the novel’s themes.
• The lands of New South Wales (and other colonies) were divided up by the colonial governments and provided to settlers on the grounds they were “improved” for agricultural or pastoral purposes. There were no rights for Aboriginal people already on the land. What followed was persistent conflict until Aboriginal people were dispossessed of their land and surviving tribes driven to reserves or missions. According to the Creative Spirits Timeline, by 1888, the Aboriginal population in all colonies was reduced to 80,000, from an estimated 220,000. The loss of land, a decimated population, missionary efforts to convert Aboriginal people to Christianity, and the effects of alcohol worked together to weaken Aboriginal cultural integrity. Some of the events and political/social forces that lead to the situation we find in the Aboriginal mission at the start of Jimmie Blacksmith can be seen in the Creative Spirits Timelines 1770-1899 and 1900-1969 (the first event on the second timeline refers to the hanging of Jimmy Governor upon who the novel is based).
• Some of the subsequent activities will identify some of the features of Aboriginal culture, as revealed in the novel and the complications that arise in a writer trying to represent a culture quite alien to himself. At this point in the unit, little attention is given to Aboriginal culture and history in order to avoid influencing initial impressions and responses. Even so, and given the focus on indigenous studies in the modern Australian curriculum, it is quite reasonable to think the average senior school English student knows more of Aboriginal culture and history than a typical reader of Keneally’s novel in 1972.

Personal responses to the novel

To elicit initial responses to events and characters as they evolve, the novel can be divided for convenience into the provocation-revenge-pursuit-capture structure. Students should answer the questions related to each of the sections.
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• Provocation: Chapters 1-8
  How do you feel about Jimmie’s ambitions?
  What reasons can you think of for why Jimmie is treated unfairly?
  Write a letter from Mrs Neville to a relative in England in which she describes Brentwood mission.
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• Revenge: Chapter 8
  Discuss with classmates your responses (emotional and intellectual) to the murders committed.
  After reading chapter 8, read one of the first newspaper accounts of the murder as reported on July 23, 1900. What questions does the article leave unanswered?

• Pursuit: Chapters 9-15
  In many ways, Dowie Stead would be seen as a heroic character by observers at the time of the killings – how does this view contrast with your view of him? Elaborate.
  Rank the level of sympathy you have with the central characters involved in the pursuit: Jimmie, Mort, Tabidgi, Gilda, Dowie Stead, Mr McCreadie, Toban. Compare and contrast your list with your classmates.
  Would you categorise Jimmie’s actions on the run as a war? Elaborate.
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• Capture: Chapter 15
  From the range of letters and articles presented in the final pages, locate three opinions with which you strongly agree and strongly disagree. Explain one of each.
  Jimmie “opens his heart to Christ” when in jail. Is this a good thing?

The writer’s craft

Structure

Except for the first nine paragraphs of the novel, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith follows a basic chronological structure beginning with a thirteen-year-old boy completing a rite of passage, or initiation, that marks his passage as a man in the eyes of his tribe; as his sister declares upon his return: “Born from the Lizard comes my shining brother Tullam man” (p. 5). This reborn Jimmie returns to the Methodist mission ten days after Easter, a point of timing that provides a neat symmetry with the novel’s conclusion when Jimmie is hanged shortly after Easter celebrations. Bookending the novel with Christian references, particularly focusing on the crucifixion (“poor-bugger-white-fella-son-of-God-got-nailed” (p. 7) and “The next day Jimmie saw an eye he was not used to, peering full . . . at the Judas window” (p. 188) places Jimmie at the centre of an exploration of the belief systems associated with Christian faith and values, and those of “tribal cosmogony” (p. 8). This collision of cultural beliefs occur even though, “The truth of Mr Neville (the missionary) and the truth of Emu-Wren ran parallel” (p. 7).

The complicating factor to the neat (re)birth to death chronology are the opening nine paragraphs. With this opening, the narrator chooses to begin Jimmie Blacksmith’s story with his uncle Tabidgi (Jackie Smolders) setting out with Jimmie’s initiation tooth after hearing of his nephew’s marriage to a white woman. It is made clear that this act was seen as a defiance of cultural/spiritual beliefs and deeply troubled both Tabidgi and Jimmie’s mother, Dulcie, who believed, “the deep truth was that Emu-Wren had quickened Jimmie Blacksmith (pale or not) in the womb and that Mungara owed him a woman”. Dulcie’s belief is followed by a single sentence paragraph, “Yet here he was marrying a white girl off a farm”, which emphasises Jimmie’s rejection of his Aboriginal culture and that identity will become a central theme of the novel. In this sense it is important to note that the phrasing of this narratorial comment echoes Mrs Neville’s advice to Jimmie: “If you could ever find a nice girl off a farm to marry, your children would only be quarter-caste . . . and your grandchildren scarcely black at all” (p. 8).

These thematic threads are woven through a conventional structure that resembles a hero’s quest (or, in this case, anti-hero), especially in the journeying that it involves. The journey element allows an episodic structure in which Jimmie is confronted by diverse characters, places and experiences with which the novel is able to explore its themes. The crime element overlays the quest formula with a familiar provocation-revenge-pursuit-capture structure that is also dependent on a journey of sorts. The questing frame is alluded to early in the novel when the narrator states that young Aboriginal men “had become a little skeptical of the tribal cosmogony, even if they weren’t as clear-headed about it as Jimmie” and that heavy drinking of “cheap wine . . . was a tortured questingafter a new world picture for Mungindi man” (p. 8). This narrative comment is placed in between reference to Jimmie being influenced by Rev. Neville’s value system and his departure from Brentwood to live with the Nevilles in order to “better yerself” (Dulcie, p. 9). In this way, Jimmie is singled out as special in his potential to navigate a new path for Aboriginal men to recover their dignity within an alien, but dominant, culture. This potentially epic scope of Jimmie’s quest is further signaled by Dulcie’s lyrical farewell chant, which could easily be imagined being directed to Archilles in a Homeric epic:

Tall is my son going away.
The mountains will feel his heel,
And his hair catch on the stars. (p. 9)

Of course, Jimmie ultimately fails in his quest and, despite his declaration of war towards his white persecutors, he finished up “open[ing] his heart to Christ” (p. 187).

Timeline Activity

Students create a timeline which overlays the two conventional structures (hero’s quest and provocation-revenge-pursuit-capture sequence) upon the narrative events and Jimmie’s character development. Care should be taken to record the locations of events, which could be labelled on a NSW map. In addition to recording plot points, the timeline can also represent where thematic threads are woven within the narrative structure.
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Narrative Point of View and Writing Style

The narrative voice comes from an omniscient third-person narrator looking significantly back on past events. The looking-back narrator is important in the sense that he acts as a mediating voice between the silenced Aboriginal perspective (and some white characters) and the modern reader. The modern narrative voice brings with it an implied authority that comes from the perceived political, social and cultural progress made This perspective is evident by the inclusion of modern references to explain events and characters’ actions and thoughts. For example, Rev. Neville’s inability to appreciate the significance of Jimmie’s absence for initiation rituals is explained thus: “If [Rev. Neville] had been a student of anthropology he would have been less baffled . . . [but] anthropology was a word he had never heard. It was, as well, two way traffic, demanding a specialized white awareness and talkative natives” (p. 4). One character who does appear to have this “specialized white awareness” is the school teacher hostage, Mr McCreadie, who happens to be partly informed of Aboriginal practice and belief systems by the part-time anthropologist, Andrew Lang. Thomas Keneally, as a liberal intellectual, would have been friendly to ideas concerning Aboriginal empowerment, recognition and redress for past injustices and McCreadie acts as a vehicle to express such modern interpretations and judgements on past events. For instance, when reflecting on the desecration of the Aboriginal sacred site: “It had become easy for [McCreadie] to believe that if the Taree footballers had not fallen to celebrating their skill on the consecrated stones of another race, there would have been no killing at the Newby’s. It seemed to him almost a principle of law, viable in a courtroom” (p. 159).

Other modern encroachments can be witnessed by choices of metaphor, simile and modern references to convey images in the novel. For example:

• “In our world, the delusions that killers let into their bloodstream are the stuff of newsprint and videotape” (p. 82);
• “So, faithfully, as if the [horse] had been fitted with tachometer” (p. 60);
• “On return to the Brentwood mission settlement: “Jimmie . . . slept strenuously, sapped and in shock. Perhaps what anthropologists would call cultural shock later on, too late to help Emu-Wren” (p. 34).

John Frow critiques this mode of narrative point of view because of the way it “contro[ls] categories through which aboriginal experience is translated into and recovered within an alien conceptual framework . . . [This] frame is imposed retrospectively, sealing the world of the novel in pastness and guaranteeing the narrator’s god-like authority” (The Chant of Thomas Keneally, p. 295).

Use of Irony

The perspective from a modern narrator is one that offers insights and interpretations of events and actions not available to the white, dominant characters. The application of this point of view results in many moments of dramatic irony that serve to present Jimmie’s persecutors and pursuers in an ignorant, judgemental and bigoted light. At other times the irony serves to emphasise the hypocrisy inherent in the white characters that view Aboriginal practices as primitive while they themselves are acting in immoral or perverse ways. Some examples of these moments of irony include:

• Rev. Neville not realising the solemn importance of Jimmie’s initiation and return, seeing the Brentwood community’s celebrations only in a patronising manner: “God must love those who greet mere absentees with so much humour” (p. 6);
• Senior Constable Farrell’s response to Jimmie abandoning his post as a police tracker, the morning after Harry Edwards is found hanged in his cell by Farrell’s belt: “Yer can’t trust ’em . . . Yer just git one of ’em into shape and they go on bloody walkabout” (p. 48);
• Dowie reacting to blood stained pillow at home where Jimmie reads secret correspondence between a married woman and a politician friend of her husband: “”The filthy bastard,” he said, as if Jimmie had somehow defiled the schoolteacher’s marriage” (p. 178).

Activity

Use the above examples to discuss the concept of dramatic irony and ask students if they can find any other examples where irony serve similar purposes to those stated above.
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Meaning

Cultural and Social Identity

This theme is closely related to the theme belief system world views because a person’s belief system is a central part of their identity. They are separated here to avoid over-complicating identity issues and to reflect the significance placed on belief systems in the novel. Students should be asked to consider what constitutes their personal identity and what the concept of identity means to them: Do they feel they need to possess multiple identities? Or what forces shape their identity? Which of these are in, or not in, their control? How do other people perceive them? What would other people consider an important part of their identity? Why does it matter?
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Characterisation

In Jimmie’s case his “mixed blood” is crucial to the plot, his internal conflicts and the novel’s themes. He is identified by the white characters as a “half-caste” which is a term that had social acceptance at the time and referred to the genetic percentage of Aboriginal parentage. At that time, it was widely believed that a person’s qualities, or character, was largely determined by their genetic make-up. These were ideas based on social-Darwinism and implied a hierarchy of inferior and superior races. Even at the time of writing, the 1970’s, the reference to proportions of Aboriginality as half/quarter/eighth caste was still in common use. Today, such distinctions are frowned upon. Instead, today for one to be recognised as Aboriginal (or Torres Strait Islander) he or she must be of “Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent who identifies as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and is accepted by the community in which he [or she] lives” (Australian Law Reform Commission, Kinship and Identity). Time permitting, students can discuss why the modern determination of Aboriginality is better than notions of proportion. With many students having a mixed heritage it can be worth pondering whether “percentages” of one ethnic group or another in their family history has any meaning for them.

Given the widespread practice of of white men having sexual intercourse with Aboriginal women, as is made clear in the novel, Jimmie’s mixed heritage would not have been unusual. In the novel, however, he is the only one to be identified as such. With this in mind, it is not so much Jimmie’s lighter skin that set him apart, but a hint he was open to adopting white values. After all, in the “three years [after his initiation], by his own insight and under the Nevilles’ influence – [he began] to question [the] value [of his tribal] manhood” (p. 8). Meanwhile, the missionary impulse of Rev. Neville, that aims to assert a Christian influence upon his flock, is directed towards Jimmie:

“If a person could be certain,,” [Neville] said peevishly, “that [God] had imbued one of them with decent ambitions!”
[. . .] Mr Neville had thought he had a chance of bringing off the trick with eager, sober, polite Jimmie Blacksmith (p. 4).

So it was these perceived characteristics that brought him to the more focused attention of Rev. Neville.

As the novel progresses, Jimmie continues to distance himself from Mungindi cultural practices and beliefs, and accepts the set of values and ambitions that he believes are rightfully his to uphold by virtue of his white parentage. He actively distances himself from the Muswellbrook Aboriginal community when he declares to the Nevilles that “That mob make me sick, Mr Neville. I don’t want that crowd. I gotter start working so kin git property” (p. 15); at once turning his back on one cultural identity while reaching for acknowledgment in another. This disgust for his Aboriginal cultural heritage reaches a peak in his role as a police tracker where he takes part in the brutal “investigation”, his enthusiasm for the heavy-handed methods due to “being in a vindictive state of mind. The Verona people were to be punished for the vulnerability” (p. 41).

Representation and role of women

In addition to Jimmie’s motivations for targeting of women victims in his vengeful rampage, women play a complicated role in The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith. Certainly, both Aboriginal and white women are victims of terrible physical violence or are demeaned in other ways. In terms of the theme related to cultural and social identity, women are constructed as the passive source for men’s confusion of cultural identity and unbridled sexual desires. For Jimmie, his desire for white women matched his ambition for other symbols of a white life. In fact, it was when he encounters a family shopping in town one day, he “fell in love with the eldest girl without delay” (p. 13) whereupon the reader is informed that if Jimmie “had looked upon his black initiation in an evangelical way, he might have come to call this moment the one in which he lost his black core” (p. 13).

The sexual desires of Jimmie and of the white male characters cause a complex dynamic between power and guilt. There is an unspoken acceptance by white men to engage in sexual promiscuity and adultery with Aboriginal women at the same time as a sense of shame for having strong desires for what they regarded as a primitive race. The openness with which white men can engage in sexual activity with Aboriginal women reflects the dominance they have over Aboriginal people and is a continuing act of violence and subordination, carried over from earlier years of conquest, while also being a source of intercultural conflict. Aboriginal men, however, do not feel the same attraction to white women, apart from Jimmie, of course, which contributes to his internal conflict of identity. Helpful passages which are focused on these attitudes to women include the exchange between Jimmie and Wongee Tom on (pp. 12-13) and the dialogue between Jimmie and Harry Edwards (p. 47).

The sense of shame that leads to violence is also expressed through Dowie Stead’s motivation for capturing Jimmie: “If now there was anything he wanted to pay off the black race for, it was not the killing of Miss Graf . . . it was for bringing his father and himself, both unbuttoned and grotesquely ready for the same black arse, face to face” (p. 96). The psychology behind such a perverse motivation can be difficult for students to grasp, but the sexual politics is worthy of an extended discussion with classes.
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Ways of reading the text

Postcolonial Lens

The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith can be described as a work of postcolonial fiction. To understand the term postcolonialism, one must have a basic understanding of the global political, economic and ideological systems that shaped the world from early modern times – the system of colonialism itself.

Beginning in the fifteenth century European nations such as Britain, France, Spain, Holland and Portugal begin exploring the world with the aid of new technologies in travel and navigation. They claimed the “unsettled” lands of the “new world” for mostly political and economic (personal and national) gain. Almost without exception, the indigenous people of the non-European world where brutally killed, exploited, dispossessed and/or oppressed. The ideological system that supported and continues to support colonialism relies on the dominance of Eurocentricism; the belief European systems of belief and social organisation are inherently superior to non-European ways of being in the world. Non-European cultures were, and often continue to be, represented as brutal and savage – in need of taming. Keneally’s novel is synchronous with the philosophical and political movement termed postcolonialism in the way it draws attention to the unjust and irrational nature of racism and the hubristic nature of Eurocentric beliefs. In Australia, postcolonial texts often deal with the prejudice and violence experienced by Indigenous populace at the hands of Europeans at the various historical junctures of “settlement”.

While postcolonial writers are seen as belonging to the marginalised community that suffered at the hands of colonial powers, several of the characteristics and concerns of postcolonial writing noted by Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin in The Empire Strikes Back(1989) resonate strongly in The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith. In particular:

Concerns of postcolonial writing

1. Reclaiming spaces and places. This element is clearly evident when Jimmie, Mort and McCreadie spend time at the womb-shaped initiation ground that had been desecrated by white picnickers and left abandoned because the “poor blacks [had been] herded together down at Purfleet” (p. 154). With Mort undertaking rituals and some effort going towards restoring the sacred tjuringa stones, a degree of dignity is restored to the ancient place and culture.
2. Asserting cultural integrity. Together with the characteristic of resistant descriptions(below) readers of The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith will have insights into the complexities of Aboriginal culture not afforded to the majority of white participants of the time. This is often done ironically with white characters completely misunderstanding situations. One such example is Rev. Neville’s patronising response to the celebrations upon Jimmie’s return from a sacred initiation ceremony. As well as elevating traditional Aboriginal culture by more detailed description, white culture, historically represented as superior, is revealed to possess a moral depravity that is diminished to the relative elevation of Aboriginal customs. There are numerous examples of immoral behaviour by white actors: Mr Newby exposing himself to Gilda; Snr Constable Farrell sodomising Harry Edwards; raping and impregnating Aboriginal women; and so on.
3. Revising history. Clearly, fashioning Jimmie Blacksmith as a rebel to imperial injustice is a response to the contemporary account of of Jimmy Governor being merely a barbarous savage.

Characteristics of postcolonial writing

1. Resistant descriptions.
2. Appropriating language of colonial power. Some might argue that the highest form of the English language is poetry, and it is in this form that the Mungindi language is given expression for readers. Its rich imagery and lyrical quality contrasts sharply with all of the other dialogue spoke in the novel. This also serves the above concern of asserting cultural integrity.
3. Re-working colonial art forms. This is perhaps the characteristic of postcolonial writing of least relevance in relation to The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith which is a rather conventional and conservative application of the novel form.

The Australian History Wars

In many ways the events represented in Keneally’s novel pre-empt a heated series of public debates known as the History Wars. These “wars” – beginning in the mid-1980s and running for two decades – were a series of speeches, books, newspaper and journal articles among particular factions of politicians and public intellectuals. Revisionist historians had recently performed important work about frontier history in Australia and convincingly argued that the settlement of Australia was anything but peaceful and benign, a notion that was previously widely believed. Instead, increasing amounts of evidence demonstrated that various historical events had been repressed, particularly those related to massacres of Indigenous groups, the sexual exploitation of Indigenous women, the devastation of cultural dispossession and displacement of Indigenous people all over the country. The historians (Robert Manne, Henry Reynolds and Lyndall Ryan among others) and politicians (most prominently, former Prime Minister Paul Keating) advocated the ethical position that this previously unrecognised history must be acknowledged and reparation be made. The opposing side of debate believed that Manne, Reynolds and others had placed too much emphasis on the negative or shameful aspects of Australian history and that more credit should be given to Australians for the triumphs in the nation’s history. The most prominent “warriors” on this side were the intellectuals Geoffrey Blainey, Keith Windschuttle and former Liberal Prime Minister, John Howard. People in this camp would regard The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith as reflecting a “black armband” view of Australia’s history. 

Comparison with other texts including such approaches as:

Thomas Keneally has acknowledged that his inspiration for The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith came from reading the Frank Clune‘s 1959 novel, Jimmy Governor. While Clune sought to base his novel on the actual events and experiences of Jimmy Governor, Keneally found in the novel “a hint of what the whole subject meant” (Goldsmith, 1976, p. 43). From this statement we can see that Keneally wanted to interpret the historical events surrounding Jimmy Governor in a way to give the horrific murders some kind of meaning. This would involve adding, removing and altering details of the events to suit the thematic imperatives of the novel. To allow for more freedom to do this, Keneally invented new characters, albeit strongly based on their historical equivalents.

Goldsmith’s 1976 article provides a good overview of where Keneally departed from the historical record and these decisions serve as useful signposts pointing towards thematic points being raised. For example, Jimmy Governor was hanged on 14 January, 1901 (very soon after Federation), but Keneally chose for his character to be executed after Easter that same year. This allowed for sensitivities related to Federation to be foregrounded (in relation to Australian troubled path to nationhood) and for Christian imagery and references to be emphasised (in relation to cultural identity and clash of belief systems).

Activity

Students fill in a rectangular Venn diagram (PDF, 189KB) divided into elements of construction. While reading Goldsmith’s article and “The life of Jimmy Governor” that follows the 2013 edition of The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, students note where elements of construction such as characters, settings, events and dates are similar and different between Keneally and Clune’s novel (and the historical record). Students consider the creative decisions made by Keneally and what effect these had on the novel’s characters and themes, or, to approach it from a different angle, what might have motivated such decisions?
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The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith the movie

The 1978 adaptation, directed by Fred Schepisi was a critical success all over the world, but a commercial failure in Australia, perhaps because of the confronting subject matter. While viewing segments of the film may be useful in helping students visualise aspects of c.1900 Australia, its main function in the novel study would be to highlight the thematic embellishments possible in the novel form. An effective ‘episode’ to illustrate this would be when Jimmie takes on work as a police tracker, which aligns with the events of Chapter Five. The film offers very little indication about why Jimmie took this job, or even how he came by it. Jimmie’s brutal actions towards the Verona community is not given explanation, and nor is his contempt for them and Harry Edwards, the killer of a white free-holder’s son.

Activity

Students view the film extract concerning Jimmie’s time as a police tracker (commencing 25:36) and are asked to imagine not having read the book. What questions might come to mind to someone not familiar with the novel? Accumulate these questions and look in the novel to see if and how they are answered: by narrative comment? Jimmie’s thoughts or dialogue? Additional characterisation? Have students consider what the novel adds in terms of their making of meaning and compose a paragraph where one idea is developed.
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Conversely, how does the film elicit particular responses from its viewers. Are these responses more strongly directed towards different elements of these scenes in the film than the novel? What are some elements of construction available to film-makers that are not available to novelists; how are these put to effect?
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Other Jimmy Governor representations

The historical figure of Jimmy Governor has been the subject of various creative and scholarly works, the very production of which comes close to mythologising him and his actions. These can be a good source for a study in representations, particularly in the way purpose, audience, genre and relevant textual conventions are applied to influence readers/audiences.
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• Expository text: The True Story of Jimmy Governor by Laurie Moore and Stephan Williams
  The first chapter of this detailed account is available to read from the Amazon.com website. It can be useful to examine the contents page as a class and other elements available to view to get a sense of structure, tone and perspectives presented.
• Folk ballad: Brother Joe and Me by Bob Campbell
  As well as the audio of the ballad, it is worth including the web-page on which it is found to analyse how Jimmy Governor is being represented.
• Poem: The Ballad of Jimmy Governor by Les Murray
• Website: Jimmy Governor Forensic by Pamela Mawbey. Pamela Mawbey is a descendent of Jimmy Governors first victims, upon whom the Newbys are based on in Keneally’s novel. Like some of the descendants of Ned Kelly’s victims, she critiques the mythologising surrounding Jimmy Governor and attempts to paint her ancestor more sympathetically (for this see the post from February 23, 2013).

Synthesise core ideas

Activity: Panel discussion

Panel discussions are ideal vehicles through which students demonstrate understandings and gain experience in engaging in literary discourse. The activity presented here is not formally assessed so they gain confidence in the format (although panel discussions can be used as an effective assessment mode). It is also designed to act as a revision of major concepts and knowledge covered during the unit and takes advantage of small group discussion to explore ideas, clarify concepts and develop skills. The audience will also benefit from each panel discussion by listening to other interpretations and responses to Wright’s poetic and critical works. Since the panel discussion requires students to synthesise knowledge and skills gained over previous lessons, extensive preparation time is not required. In fact, minimal preparation time is preferred so students focus on revising what they know and avoiding having the activity distract from their formal assessments.
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Teachers can follow these suggested guidelines:

1. Divide students into groups of four or five.
2. Each group member prepares comments specifically addressing:
   • an attitude that has shifted over the course of reading or study;
   • their attitude towards the question of the novel’s literary merit;
   • an aspect of the novel that has had the biggest impact for them.
3. The time given to each panel discussion should equate to an average speaking time of three minutes per student (that is, 15 minutes for a five-member group).
4. A simple set of prompt cards can be created to stimulate discussion and should be placed face-down near the panel. Should the panel members struggle to keep the discussion flowing, the top card can be selected to shift the discussion to that topic. These cards can read: narrative point of view, themes, ideas, contexts, structure, representation of history, history wars, characterisation, setting, representing Aboriginal culture and world views
5. Some guidance should be given about the purposes and conventions of panel discussion; principally, it is not a debate where points are given for diminishing the contributions of others in the eyes of the audience/assessor. Rather, all members are responsible for the success of the discussion by maintaining the flow of ideas. This means coming prepared with questions to ask of each other and willingly responding to other members’ comments, whether to agree, disagree, elaborate, seek clarification, or support with other examples. A panel discussion guide is provided for students to be aware of conventions and expectations.

Rich assessment task

The imaginative assessment task presented here involves students choosing a minor character of the novel and embellishing details of his/her connection to the Jimmie Blacksmith narrative. The 1000 word creative composition will be accompanied by an 500-800 explanation/rationale of creative choices made.

Creative writing aspect:

1. Choice of character must interact with Jimmie Blacksmith or other Aboriginal characters in some way.
2. Student needs to consider how to represent Aboriginal characters.
3. Form can be left open-ended. For example, students can choose to write prose in the form of a short story or as a creative addition to the existing novel. It can be in the form of a journal, letter to a loved one, or memoir for a turn-of-the-century audience in England.
4. Some dialogue needs to be included.
5. A conscious effort to address one of the novel’s themes needs to be demonstrated.

Rationale:

1. Reasons provided for the selection of minor character.
2. Identifies characterisation techniques employed for particular effects.
3. Explains and justifies approach in representing Aboriginal characters.
4. Explains choice of form and how this choice affected their writing.
5. Explains the way their writing contributes to a particular theme.

(ACELR015)   (ACELR016)   (ACELR017)   (ACELR018)