Carpentaria

Introductory activities

A note to the teacher

The relationship between non-Indigenous and First Nations peoples is continuing to evolve. In 2017, more than 250 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander delegates of the National Constitutional Convention signed the Uluru Statement from the Heart: an invitation to non-Indigenous Australians to join First Nations peoples in bringing about genuine and substantive reform and recognition. This was followed in 2023 by a referendum on whether to change the Constitution to establish a body called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. Although the referendum did not pass, 40% of the nation – more than six million people – voted ‘Yes’. On the one hand, this is a clear indication that momentum for change is growing (albeit slowly, and with a long way to go). On the other hand, the outcome makes it clear that the path towards reconciliation is not linear. Even today, many non-Indigenous Australians are not fully informed about our nation’s history and continue to show prejudice against First Nations people.

When teaching about the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, it is important to remain sensitive and treat the subject matter with care. It is especially important for a novel such as Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria – which deals with the ongoing oppression and mistreatment of Aboriginal people – to adopt a thoughtful and sympathetic approach. This novel deals with issues such as the segregation of an Aboriginal community from its white neighbours; the exploitation of a sacred site by a multinational mining company; sexual assault and coercion; and racist violence. On the other hand, it also represents a worldview based on Aboriginal experiences of spirituality, and celebrates the sovereignty, complexity, and humanity of Aboriginal peoples and cultures.

All students should be encouraged to respond to these issues in a contemplative and respectful way. Given the challenging themes of the text, they may need additional support. Give them a summary of the content you will be addressing ahead of each lesson. Consult your student services/support team as needed and alter lessons accordingly. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students may need further support throughout the unit. Be hypervigilant of any potential negative impacts on their health and wellbeing, and engage with your Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander unit/liaison officer/staff as needed.

Some introductory activities before studying the novel include:

• beginning with an Acknowledgment of Country (this could be written collaboratively with students)
• having students research the Country they are on and engage with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander staff to expand their knowledge of this particular group
• exploring the languages that are spoken in your local area and inviting a speaker to deliver a language workshop
• inviting a local Elder, with the support of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander staff, to share stories with the class

Additional tips for building cultural empathy and respect can be found in Reading Australia’s teaching resource for Ghost Bird. See More Resources > Teaching Strategies and Resources for even more useful content from Cara Shipp, SBS Learn, and AIATSIS.

When you are ready to proceed, take students through the following activities to explore the themes in the novel.

The Dreaming

Show students the first two minutes of the documentary series First Australians (2008), created by award-winning Arrernte and Kalkadoon filmmaker Rachel Perkins. In the first episode (available via SBS On Demand OR accessible with a ClickView subscription), the narrator explains that the Dreaming brought life to the continent now called Australia. One of the most widely known ancestral beings from the Dreaming is the Rainbow Serpent, which features on Giramondo Publishing’s 2006 edition of Carpentaria. The Rainbow Serpent is an important creator figure for many different Aboriginal language groups. Students may be familiar with the picture book* by Lardil artist and storyteller Dick Goobalathaldin Roughsey.

* Reading Australia resource available

Have students arrange their chairs in a circle. Explain that Aboriginal peoples have used yarning circles for many thousands of years to conduct business and set up learning/teaching experiences (there are similar practices in many cultures around the world). Lead a whole class yarning circle to discuss the following focus questions:

• How long have Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples lived in the place now called Australia?
• In what parts of the continent did they live during the 60,000 years of deep time preceding colonisation? You can find clues in the introduction to Billy Griffiths’ Deep Time Dreaming (preview available), and in this 2020 Conversation article.
• How did Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples explain the natural phenomena that they observed on earth and in the heavens?

NOTE: You can find yarning circle lesson plans in Reading Australia’s teaching resource for The Boy From the Mish (PDF, 120KB; PDF, 105KB; PDF, 87KB); feel free to consult these and adapt to suit your needs.

Also show students a collection of books that narrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander creation stories (or refer to stories that are available online). Have students read these and share what they learn about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander worldviews. Suggestions include:

* Reading Australia resource available

Locating the novel

Use Google Maps or similar to explore the location that provides the setting for the novel. As the title suggests, this will be the region near the Gulf of Carpentaria in northwestern Queensland, almost on the border with the Northern Territory. This region is also known as Gulf country.

Show students the AIATSIS map of Indigenous Australia and locate the Country of the Waanyi people, from whom Wright is descended.

Then ask students to suggest approximate locations for some of the settings referred to in Carpentaria, such as the town of Desperance; the Gurfurritt lead ore mine; and areas of the Gulf where Norm Phantom, Will Phantom, and Elias Smith move out into the ocean.

Colonial violence

The following information adds important context to the study of Carpentaria. While it is important to learn about the atrocities of the past, any discussion of sensitive material needs to be approached with cultural safety in mind. All students should be made aware of the nature of the content up front, and given the option to excuse themselves from the conversation if they do not wish to take part. It is also a good idea to provide a safe space that they can retreat to (with a supportive Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander teacher or liaison officer) if necessary.

Provide a brief history of Australia’s colonisation by the British from 1788 onwards. General histories such as Manning Clark’s A Short History of Australia or Stuart Macintyre’s A Concise History of Australia will provide necessary information. The following websites may also be useful:

• National Museum of Australia:
  • Defining moments timeline
  • Australia’s Defining Moments Digital Classroom
• National Film and Sound Archive of Australia – Australian History Timeline: Pre-1770s to 1890s
• Evolve Communities – Brief Timeline of Australian Colonisation

Explain that once colonial settlement began – first in New South Wales, then in Tasmania, Victoria, and other parts of the continent – Aboriginal nations were severely impacted by disease and violence perpetrated by British soldiers, white settlers, and later Native Police. This GIF offers a visual representation of the government-sanctioned expansion of pastoralist (sheep or cattle farmer) settlements across Queensland, starting in the south-east corner and expanding to the whole area between 1842 and 1873. Ask students what (if anything) they know about the community at Yarrabah, which is east of Cairns in Far North Queensland. Yarrabah is the traditional Country of the Gunggandji and Mandingalbay Yidinji peoples. Explain that in 1897 the Queensland colonial government – which by then was made up of pastoralists – passed a law that moved Aboriginal people onto reserves. One of these was at Yarrabah. Explain that people from different nations were forced together on these reserves. Together read AIATSIS’ explainer about missions, stations, and reserves, particularly the information under ‘Control’.

Explain the meaning of the word ‘massacre’ and tell students that many massacres of Aboriginal people took place during the colonial period (up to Federation in 1901) and beyond, up to the middle of the 20th century. The University of Newcastle’s colonial frontier massacres map identifies instances of frontier violence spanning 1788–1930. If appropriate, you could share short extracts from the ‘Massacres’ section of this Queensland Human Rights Commission resource (pp. 7–8, corresponding with pp. 15–16 in the overall document). Following this is a list of major recorded massacres in Queensland between 1831 and 1918. Please be aware that this may be distressing for Aboriginal students. Any discussion would need to be approached with extreme caution and supervised closely by the teacher. If you are NOT confident leading such a discussion, OR if there are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students in your class, then you should avoid it altogether. If you do elect to explore some of this material, do NOT focus on descriptions of violence; you can simply cite where massacres have occurred and how many people were killed. This will demonstrate the scale and scope of the violence without the need for traumatic descriptions.

Worldviews

NOTE: You might like to utilise the worldviews note-taking framework for the following activities. This can be done individually, in pairs, or in small groups.

One of the most important elements in Carpentaria is the contrast between different worldviews. The settler colonial view emphasises the superiority of Western knowledge and ways of thinking in explaining and mastering the world. Through this lens, Dreaming stories like the Rainbow Serpent are regarded as interesting but mythical, offering little value or instruction as to how humans can exert control over nature. By contrast, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander worldviews emphasise the interconnectedness of humans, ancestors, and all of creation. This reciprocal relationship is important to the holistic health and wellbeing of humans and the environment.

It may be helpful to explore some of the ideas in this 2024 Conversation article, as well as this ABC Education resource by Adnyamathanha and Ngarrindjeri woman Jacinta Koolmatrie.

Approaches to the land

Explain the difference between ‘country’ and ‘Country’, and help students to understand the importance of the latter for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The following resources may be useful:

• AIATSIS – Welcome to Country: What is Country?
• Common Ground – What is Country?
• Reconciliation Australia – Acknowledgement of Country and Welcome to Country: The distinction between ‘country’ and ‘Country’
• Evolve Communities – Connection to Country: Why is Country important to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People?

Ask students to locate the Murray River on Google Maps. This is the longest river in Australia, spanning New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. Students should complete a brief research task in response to the following question:

Why is the Murray River important to the people who live along it?

The Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) has some useful information about why the river system matters, as well as its value to First Nations peoples. Once students have had time to respond to the research question, share the MDBA’s explanation of how the Basin formed over hundreds of millions of years. Then, with reference to the importance of creation stories, show students the Bangerang account of how Dunggula (the Murray River) came to be.

Ask students to explore the similarities and differences between the two accounts, making connections to what they already know about worldviews. They can use this to begin exploring the differences between Aboriginal and non-Indigenous perspectives on the land.

As an alternative (or in addition) to researching the Murray River, students could investigate some of the significant lands and waters in the Gulf region. A good option would be Boodjamulla National Park, which is the site of several important Dreamings for the Waanyi people, including the Rainbow Serpent (Bujimala), Eagle Hawk (Jarrbikala), and Storm Bird (Duwa). Students should read the Elders Customary Protocols to understand the Waanyi people’s connection to this Country. The Queensland Government’s overview of Waanyi culture may also be useful.

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Disparate attitudes to country vs Country can be seen in the 2020 destruction of Jukaan Gorge by mining company Rio Tinto. The sacred rock shelter in Western Australia’s Pilbara region was more than 40,000 years old and held thousands of significant objects. It was legally blasted by Rio Tinto in the pursuit of profit. This is reminiscent of the fundamental dispute over the Gurfurritt mine in Carpentaria. You might like to use an account of the Jukaan Gorge destruction to further explore the two worldviews presented in the novel.

Note that the Waanyi people have their own history of dispute with a multinational mine (the Century Mine). This is detailed by the Carpentaria Land Council Aboriginal Corporation, as well as in an essay titled ‘On writing Carpentaria’ by Wright herself.

Knowledge and storytelling

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander storytelling traditions perform a variety of functions. Many stories have a practical purpose and are grounded in truth; Koolmatrie has written about this for the Australian Museum (and also delivered a TEDxAdelaide talk).

Captain James Cook has long been credited with bringing science and law to this continent, as if First Nations peoples did not have their own explanations of the natural world or their own laws and customs. Consider, for example, First Nations astronomical traditions. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ knowledge of the stars goes beyond storytelling to provide guidance for everyday activities throughout the year. The stars are a way to navigate both space (like a compass) and time (like a clock or calendar).

Share a selection of articles and videos about First Nations astronomical knowledge and traditions. Suggestions include:

These sources challenge the settler colonial belief that Aboriginal people were ‘primitive’ nomads with little or no culture or knowledge of the world in which they lived. To consolidate learning, guide students to complete a thinking routine like +1 or take note.

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Personal response on reading the text

Ask students to keep a reading journal as they read Carpentaria for the first time, writing chapter summaries to capture key events and their own responses to the text. Alfred Deakin High School has a useful fact sheet on their eHub; it may be useful for guiding students through this process. You can also provide a reader-centred response (PDF, 76KB) to J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings as a way of modelling a response to Carpentaria.

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Outline of key elements of the text

Plot

Work with students to develop a plot summary for the novel. This can be approached as a group activity, with each group taking responsibility for one or two chapters. Limit the number of dot points that students can provide for each chapter. Collate their work make the summary available to the whole class. Padlet’s timeline feature may be an effective tool for this exercise.

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Characters

NOTE: At the time of writing, there are two editions of Carpentaria available from Giramondo Publishing: one from 2006, and another from 2023. This resource will provide page references for both, marked by either OE (old edition) or NE (new edition). Where there is no difference between editions, only one page reference has been provided.

The central characters in Carpentaria are the members of Normal ‘Norm’ Phantom’s family, especially his wife Angel Day and his activist son Will, the latter of whom sets out to destroy the nearby Gurfurritt mine. Two other important characters are Mozzie Fishman, a religious zealot who advocates for Aboriginal spirituality and ways of living, and Elias Smith, a white mariner and genuine friend of Norm who washes ashore with no memories .

There are, of course, many other characters in the novel, including the white residents of Uptown in Desperance. Wright satirises several of these characters; standouts include the brutal mayor with the burlesque name, Stan Bruiser, and the local policeman Truthful, whose name represents the opposite of his character. Other residents of Uptown are presented as caricatures with few individual qualities. This is emphasised by the fact that almost all of them have the surname ‘Smith’ (p. 72 OE / p. 71 NE).

Students should consider how Wright constructs characters in her novel. Have them respond to the following prompts in their reading journal:

• Select ONE character from Carpentaria and locate the portion of the novel where they are first introduced. What does the reader learn about the character at this point in the story? Explore the use of language in the character’s construction.
• Consider how Wright constructs the inner life of ONE character from Carpentaria. Again, find evidence of this in the novel.
• Consider and note down the core values of FOUR central characters.
• Consider which characters are static and which are developing. Find evidence of these in the novel.
• Consider how the reader has been positioned to respond to TWO characters in the novel.

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Themes

As a class, complete the generate-sort-connect-elaborate thinking routine to capture students’ initial ideas about the themes of the novel (these will be explored in more detail in the Close Study section). Map their thinking on the board and have students copy down the information in their reading journals.

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Synthesising task

Welcome to Country

Professor Marcia Langton is a prominent Yiman and Bidjara anthropologist, geographer, and academic. She is the author of Welcome to Country (along with The Welcome to Country Handbook*), a book that – as the name suggests – highlights a range of First Nations owned and operated tourism experiences across the country. The book also explores aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, including a chapter on the importance of storytelling.

* Reading Australia resource available

Part Two of the book, entitled ‘Exploring Indigenous Australia’, contains dedicated chapters for each of Australia’s states and territories, as well as the Torres Strait Islands. For example, on p. 203 (of the 2018 edition) Langton describes the Mossman Gorge in Queensland, which is located on Kuku Yalanji Country. The description incorporates the tropical features of the area along with the cultural knowledge and storytelling traditions of the local people.

Students are to write their own 300-word description of the Gulf country that could be included in a new edition of Welcome to Country. The description should include:

• the physical features of the land, e.g. coastline, inland hills, rivers and lakes, forests, caves
• typical weather conditions and patterns, and the wet and dry seasons
• aspects of the cultures of local Aboriginal language groups, e.g. stories, important sites, connections to land/water/sky

As there are multiple Aboriginal language groups within the Gulf of Carpentaria region, it may be best if students focus on one or two of these. They should seek authentic and accurate information from reputable sources, preferably those authored by Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people, and cite them meticulously. Reading sections of Welcome to Country would also help in completing this task.

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The writer’s craft

Narrative structure

The statements below refer to Carpentaria’s narrative structure. Display the table and ask students to indicate whether they agree or disagree with each statement. They also need to note down their reasoning. This can be done individually, in pairs, or in small groups.

Follow this with a whole class discussion in which students justify their viewpoints and give evidence from the text to support their positions. The yarning circle model may be a useful way to facilitate this conversation (see Initial Response > Introductory Activities > The Dreaming).

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Approach to characterisation

Readers can analyse characters by observing:

• what they do and how they do it
• what they say and how they say it
• how they think and feel
• how they are received and commented on by other characters
• how the narrator presents and responds to them.

They can also consider:

• the development and growth of the character over the course of the narrative
• whether they are stereotypical or nuanced
• how one character aligns and/or contrasts with other (dis)similar characters, representing different attitudes, values, and beliefs
• the character’s role as a protagonist OR antagonist in relation to the plot’s progression.

Finally, readers can reflect on:

• the significance of the character’s affiliations to the overall story
• the character’s role as a member of one or more groups, OR as a symbol for a philosophical idea
• the reader’s interpretation of the character’s contribution to the story (e.g. how the representation of a character contributes to a theme OR to the construction of a group).

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Allocate each student ONE of the central characters from Carpentaria and ask them to analyse that character using the character retrieval chart (PDF, 73KB). Make sure you explain any terms they are not already familiar with (e.g. interiority, stereotype, speech tagging). They can refer to the sample analysis of Angel Day (PDF, 81KB) if they need additional scaffolding.

Finally, using their completed retrieval charts, students are to write a profile of their assigned character. A sample profile for Angel Day has been provided:

Angel Day is described by her estranged husband, Norm Phantom, as a ‘hornet’s nest’. She regards herself as the keeper of the land on which she lives, but is characterised as a difficult woman. Her antagonistic attitude contributes to a ‘war’ between the people of the Pricklebush, and she even abandons her family in favour of her lover, Mozzie Fishman.

Angel endures hardship throughout her life. She says that she was driven to ‘temporary insanity’ because of her loneliness. There is also an allusion to a sexual assault by the violent mayor Stan Bruiser. In spite of this, Angel is determined to improve the condition of both her and her children’s lives, and is prepared to work hard to achieve her goals. For example, she singlehandedly builds the Phantom family home with materials recovered from the dump. She also shows courage in defending her family, even standing up to Bruiser’s harassment.

Angel is a complex character who seems to cause shock and consternation among the Pricklebush people and the white residents of Uptown alike. At the end of the novel she is picked up by truckies, never to be seen in Desperance again, though Mozzie’s zealots claim to see her in their dreams long after she has departed.

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Protagonists and antagonists

A protagonist is a positive central character that helps move a story forward. They are normally opposed by an antagonist, who works against their goals to create conflict. This MasterClass article provides a good explanation of each character type.

Norm and Will Phantom could be considered the main protagonists in Carpentaria. Interestingly, there is also an overarching positive force provided by the Rainbow Serpent, which created the Gulf country billions of years ago and is omnipresent and omnipotent in the novel.

Direct students to respond to the following questions in their reading journals:

• What are the qualities of the Rainbow Serpent that make it a possible ‘protagonist’ or positive force in the story? Remind students that protagonists work towards the central story goals. They should refer to the Dreaming stories told by Norm Phantom and the narrator throughout the novel.
• Which character(s) act as the antagonist to the life-giving Rainbow Serpent? Remind students that antagonists work against the central story goals. You might also refer to the MasterClass article, which suggests that antagonists are not always human but can also be represented by inanimate forces.

Groupings

There are three main groups of characters in the novel. Direct students to respond to the following questions in their reading journal:

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Norm Phantom

Of the characters in Carpentaria, Norm Phantom is one of the most spiritually aware. He understands that he must take Elias Smith to ‘the gropers’ place’ and bury him at sea (p. 236 OE / p. 231 NE) so that he can journey to the spirit world. Shortly after, he witnesses a groper exodus as the fish ascend into the sky from the sea (p. 257 OE / p. 251 NE). Norm remains at the gropers’ place to replenish his fish and is caught in a severe storm that threatens to destroy him and his boat. It occurs to him that he should not have attempted to accompany Elias on his journey, and senses that he has trespassed on forbidden ‘spiritual country’ (p. 267 OE / p. 261 NE).

Students should read pp. 264–275 OE (pp. 258–268 NE) to revisit Norm’s relationship to the world around him.

Elias Smith

Elias Smith is an interesting character who stands apart from the three main groups. He is a mariner who is caught in a cyclone and subsequently loses his memories; he walks out of the sea the next day with no recollection of who he is or how he arrived. Elias is seen by Uptown as both a guardian angel and a symbol of their colonial forebears (pp. 56–57). His arrival also has some connection with Dreaming stories from the Pricklebush.

Discuss the following questions in relation to Elias:

• In what way is the Dreaming story on p. 44 linked to Elias’ arrival?
• What possible identities do the residents of Uptown consider for Elias before deciding that he is an angel (see p. 73 OE / p. 72 NE)?
• In what ways does Elias assist the Pricklebush people as the story unfolds?

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Setting

Carpentaria begins with a story about the Rainbow Serpent (also referred to as the ‘ancestral serpent’), who descended from the heavens billions of years ago to create the lands and waterways of the region now called the Gulf of Carpentaria. This provides the overall setting for the novel. As the story unfolds, readers are reminded of the importance of the lands and waters to the Aboriginal peoples who have lived there for millennia.

There are several characters who are particularly connected to Country in the Gulf region, including Norm and Will Phantom, the latter of whom feels the presence of ancestral spirits in the cyclone at the end of the novel (p. 470 OE / p. 457–458 NE). Mozzie Fishman also has a deep knowledge of the area, taking Will and his zealots to an ancient cave so they can lay to rest the three boys who died at the police station. This results in a profound spiritual experience (pp. 436–440 OE / pp. 424–428 NE).

Although the Gulf country was forged in deep time, it has since been overlaid with contemporary settlements and structures. These are the sites of various conflicts in the story, including Uptown, Pricklebush, the rubbish dump, and the Gurfurritt mine.

The chart below lists various settings and relevant quotes from the text. Ask students to link Wright’s descriptions and language choices to the use of symbolism (you may wish to revise this prior to completing the activity). They can then link the symbolic qualities of each setting to the key themes of the novel. If students come across other relevant quotes in their reading, they should add these to the table.

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Use of parallels and contrasts

As has already been mentioned, Carpentaria explores the contrasts between the histories, cultures, spirituality, language, and worldviews of the Pricklebush people, and those of the white colonial settlers in Desperance.

There is an important parallel between events at the beginning and end of the story, both involving Norm Phantom. On p. 13 we learn that Norm is angry at Angel Day because she refuses to move from their home, which sits on top of a snake spirit’s nest. In fact, his resentment is so great that he leaves his family for five years (p. 17). On the very last page of the book, however (p. 519 OE / p. 505 NE), Norm makes plans to rebuild his home on the very same spot he once sought to escape, as a symbol of hope for his and Bala’s future.

Point of view

The story of Carpentaria is told by an all-knowing narrator who stands outside the action. Wright has written in the third person omniscient point of view.

Direct students to read this MasterClass article and respond to the following questions in their reading journals:

• Why might Wright have chosen to use the third person omniscient point of view?
• Read about the advantages of third person omniscient narration. How did Wright make use of these in Carpentaria?

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Voice

In her 2007 HEAT essay, Wright explained that she wanted to tell a ‘traditional long story’, emulating the style of oral storytelling that would be familiar to many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Even though Carpentaria went on to win the Miles Franklin Literary Award, Wright felt that she had taken a big risk writing in this voice.

Eugenia Flynn (a Larrakia, Tiwi, Chinese Malaysian and Muslim writer, researcher, and community organiser) has written about Carpentaria’s ‘grand narrative voice’ in a 2022 essay. She notes the tendency by non-Indigenous readers to characterise the novel as ‘foreign’ and ‘difficult’, and links this to the rejection of Aboriginal narrative styles and Aboriginal voices throughout Australia’s history.

Using Flynn’s essay and Wright’s own commentary, explore the concept of ‘voice’ in Carpentaria. Allow time for students to work through the essay in small groups, and to ask questions and seek clarification where needed. Finish by inviting students to share their observations and ideas from their reading with the whole class.

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Language and style

Aboriginal English

More than 80% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people speak a variety of Aboriginal English (AbE). There is a pervasive view among speakers of Standard Australian English (AusE) that AbE is a form of ‘broken’ or ‘incorrect’ English; this is a misconception, as AbE has its own grammatical rules, sounds, and vocabulary. AusE is simply another variety of English that has been codified and accepted as the ‘standard’ in Australia, particularly in official communications and settings.

Wright understands that First Nations languages and storytelling traditions have been suppressed for a long time. Remind students that the novel is deliberately written in a style that is reminiscent of oral storytelling, which Wright hoped would engage more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers. It would be interesting to explore the abstract of this 2020 essay – which discusses Wright’s use of the English language – in light of these ideas.

Direct students to the following articles by Bardi and Kija person Sharon Davis:

• AIATSIS – Aboriginal English (up to the Aboriginal English quiz)
• IndigenousX – Aboriginal English: what isn’t it?

Students can read through and summarise the information for their own understanding. Have them finish by completing a web quest (PDF, 72KB) and/or taking AIATSIS’ Aboriginal English quiz.

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Poetic language

As has been discussed previously, Wright presents readers with an Aboriginal worldview that challenges the dominant perspective of colonial settlers. Students will also be aware that the style of Carpentaria recalls oral storytelling traditions. As this 2022 essay points out, the transition ‘from songlines to written lines’ imbues the novel with a poetic quality. This is evident from the very first pages, which tell the story of the creation of the Gulf of Carpentaria.

There are some interesting ideas about poetic language in this 2024 article for the Australian Academy of the Humanities. It might be worth exploring this as a class, or pulling out some of the points from the second half of the piece. You can then work with students to identify examples of poetic language in Carpentaria, starting with pp. 1–3. It would also be interesting to explore Chapter 3, paying attention to the various ways Elias Smith is described.

Descriptive language

The novel is also rich in descriptive language, which creates an authentic setting for the story. An excellent example can be found on p. 383 OE (pp. 373–373 NE), when Will sails towards and then disembarks on one of the clay islands in his search for Hope and Bala.

Aboriginal realism

Carpentaria has often been described as magical realism, a genre of literature that blends the real world with fantastical elements. This term is highly contested when referring to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writing because the elements that non-Indigenous readers might consider ‘magical’ or ‘mythical’ are grounded in real spiritual beliefs (Wuilli Wuilli, Gooreng Gooreng, and Wakka Wakka author Lisa Fuller has written incisively about this topic). It may be more appropriate to describe Carpentaria as an example of ‘Aboriginal realism’, a term that has been used by Wiradjuri writer, poet, and academic Jeanine Leane.

As has been mentioned elsewhere, Carpentaria is heavily informed by the important stories and beliefs of the Aboriginal people living in the Gulf region. Norm Phantom is said to keep a library of stories in his head (p. 246 OE / p. 240 NE), which prepare him for his encounters with the sea woman (pp. 245–246, 261–263, 273–274 OE / pp. 240, 255–257, 267 NE) and the bush woman Gardajala (pp. 274–275, 280 OE / pp. 268–269, 272 NE). It is the old people’s stories that sustain Norm and give him the requisite knowledge to survive his treacherous journey – including his encounters with spiritual beings.

For more information about Aboriginal realism, specifically in Wright’s novels, you can consult the following essays:

• ‘Questions of Genre, Refusal, and Cultural Adaptation in Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria’ by Michael R. Griffiths
• ‘Alexis Wright’s fiction, Aboriginal Realism, and the Sovereignty of the Indigenous Mind’ by Cornelis Martin Renes

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Text and meaning

Exploration of themes

Strictly speaking, a theme is a universal idea or message explored in a text. More modern approaches to ‘theme’ involve a consideration of the way readers respond to a story, in addition to the idea(s) directly presented by the author or embedded in the text. Readers might, for example, reflect on Norm Phantom’s love of fishing, Angel Day’s ability to build a house, or the Desperance Town Council’s plan to build a monument, and connect them to broader ideas such as marine conservation, women’s empowerment, or the superficiality of Australian colonial culture.

Readers are more likely to identify themes in a story by responding to its conflicts. There are many themes in Carpentaria that emerge from conflicts between characters, some of which are listed below. Students may be able to add to this list through their own reading.

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Meaning in context

Use the English Textual Concepts and Learning Processes booklet to develop students’ understanding of context (see p. 14, which is p. 8 in the overall document). Begin by considering how context relates to the study of texts within the English classroom, then connect this to the events of Carpentaria:

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Synthesising task

Refer students to the list of themes they explored earlier. Assign ONE theme each to small groups of students and ask them to carry out some research to extend their knowledge. They may also, in consultation with you, investigate a theme of their own choosing.

Each group should then present a panel exploring their assigned theme, with reference to its importance throughout the novel. The panels:

• will be structured classroom discussions, with group members taking on the role of panellists while the rest of the class serves as the audience
• should be facilitated by a chairperson or panel leader, who will ensure roughly equal contributions from all panellists and maintain flow in the discussion
• will expose students to new perspectives and different ways of approaching topics of interest/concern
• will allow students to demonstrate their ability to listen to and acknowledge other viewpoints, and to use non-verbal strategies to support their verbal communication
• will encourage collaboration and productive learning and foster critical capabilities

For more tips, see the panel discussion worksheet (PDF, 112KB) from Reading Australia’s teaching resource for Ghost Bird.

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Ways of reading the text

Different perspectives

In Deep Time Dreaming Billy Griffiths explains what modern archaeologists have discovered about ancient Australia, going back more than 60,000 years. This knowledge – while not new to most Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples – is changing how many non-Indigenous Australians see their country. In fact, Griffiths asserts that there is no such thing as ‘non-Indigenous’ Australian culture, as our present-day society sits on more than 60,000 years of First Nations histories. This supports the worldview that Wright presents in Carpentaria.

In Making Australian History, Anna Clark argues that there are many ways of recording and sharing the stories of a nation (e.g. rock art – students may recall the cave covered in ancestral paintings from Carpentaria). She explores the family history of Australian poet Judith Wright, who initially celebrated her forebears as constructive frontier pioneers, but revised the account 20 years later to acknowledge the violence carried out against Aboriginal people. Clark suggests that white Australia has constructed a positive and rational narrative about the modern nation, and agrees with Alexis Wright that Aboriginal storytelling offers a different way of seeing the world that resists colonial constructions of identity.

Another writer who explores the political power of storytelling is Larissa Behrendt, a Eualeyai and Gamillaroi writer, lawyer, and academic. In Finding Eliza* she explores the stories told by an English woman named Eliza Fraser, who was shipwrecked off the coast of Queensland in 1836. Behrendt identifies the personal, political, and financial motives for such stories and argues that they do not tell ‘the truth’, but instead construct a version of reality that promotes the storyteller’s interests (it would be interesting to consider this in relation to the stories Uptown tells about Elias Smith, and indeed its own origins, in Carpentaria). Fraser’s story of ‘capture’ by the local Butchulla people is now considered one of Australia’s first fake news stories. In 2023 the island where she was shipwrecked was officially renamed K’gari, the original name used by the Butchulla people.

* Reading Australia resource available

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Comparison with other texts

In Finding the Heart of the Nation, Torres Strait Islander writer and justice advocate Thomas Mayo interviews Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across Australia as a way of supporting the Uluru Statement from the Heart. The early chapters and personal/community stories reflect similar themes to those in Carpentaria, such as the sacredness of the land and questions about history.

Professor Marcia Langton’s Welcome to Country Handbook* also connects with themes in Carpentaria. On p. 56 she discusses respect for Old People and ancestral beings, and how the presence and influence of Elders is felt in both the landscape and in knowledge systems. She also dedicates a chapter to storytelling, which not only provides an overview of its importance, but also lists many contemporary poets, playwrights, filmmakers, and authors whose works may interest readers. Naturally, Wright is included in this list.

As Langton highlights, there have been many celebrated books by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers published in recent years. The following accessible texts explore similar ideas to those in Carpentaria:

• The film Ten Canoes (2006), directed by Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr, is the first feature-length film made in First Nations languages. It tells two interwoven stories set in the distant past among the Yolngu of the Arafura swamp in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. One of these is a Dreaming story set in the ‘ancient present’. According to the trailer, the film is ‘a celebration of the art of storytelling’. There is also a fruitful comparison to be made regarding the use of humour. This 2016 review highlights Ten Canoes’ playfulness and levity; meanwhile, this 2022 essay unpacks the comic elements in Carpentaria (including the narration; the naming of people and places; and the satirical or hyperbolic traits and behaviours exhibited by Wright’s characters). Additional curator’s and education notes for Ten Canoes are available from the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA).
• ‘We Are Going’ is a moving and effective poem by Aboriginal activist, poet, and educator Oodgeroo Noonuccal. In the poem, a group of Aboriginal people assert their belonging to the lands on which a town now sits. Students will notice parallels with Carpentaria, particularly in relation to the environment and the contrast between non-Indigenous and Aboriginal ways of living. You can listen to Noonuccal recite the poem in a recording from 1986.
• Kayang and Me is a family history of the Wilomin Noongar people by Noongar writer Kim Scott and his Elder Hazel Brown. The book is written in two voices and explores the connections between family, Country, culture, and history in Aboriginal communities.
• Set in 1968, Tony Birch’s Ghost River follows two Aboriginal boys growing up in working-class Collingwood who form an attachment to both the Yarra River (Birrarung) and a marginalised group of Aboriginal men who live along it. The river holds spiritual and symbolic meaning for both the boys and the men, but the titular ‘ghost river’ is in fact another river, part of deep time, flowing underneath the Yarra since before colonisation. You can read more about this in the introduction to Environmental Justice Australia’s Re-imagining Birrarung report, or in Birch’s 2019 Meanjin essay.
• Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray (River of Dreams) is a novel by prolific Wiradyuri author Anita Heiss (also the editor of Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia*). Like Carpentaria, Heiss’ novel is set on culturally and spiritually significant land, following a young Aboriginal woman who is subjugated by white colonial settlers. An interesting feature of the novel is its title; Heiss has used Wiradyuri language to emphasise the importance of reclaiming and revitalising First Nations languages. This is also the case for her book Dirrayawadha (Rise Up).

There is also an interesting comparison to be made to the poem ‘At Cooloola’ by Judith Wright. The poem evokes the beauty of the coastal landscape within the Great Sandy National Park, just north of the Noosa River in Queensland. Judith Wright presents the natural world as being imbued with a spiritual quality, which bears some similarity to Carpentaria. She also acknowledges that she comes from an old pioneering family, and feels implicated in their past transgressions (this is unpacked in a 2018 Sydney Review of Books essay). Pioneering is a specifically European enterprise linked to the Age of Discovery. In a settler colonial country like Australia, pioneers are generally celebrated for laying the foundations of the modern nation. But Judith Wright – who advocated for both conservation and Aboriginal land rights – is acutely aware of how pioneering figures have marginalised and dispossessed First Nations peoples. Such awareness is lacking in the white characters of Carpentaria.

* Reading Australia resource available

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Evaluation of the text

Literature not only entertains its audiences, but also responds to changing social and cultural values. In writing Carpentaria, Alexis Wright presents three interrelated concepts: the right to control, manage, and care for Country; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sovereignty; and reconciliation with the settler colonial population.

Reconciliation in Australia is complex and ongoing, though there is generally greater acceptance and understanding of First Nations histories and cultures, as well as of past injustices. Reflecting on Carpentaria in her HEAT essay, Wright said that she hoped the book would celebrate the ‘contemporary Indigenous world’ and provide a more complex and substantial portrait than was typically presented in Australia at that time (this tended to be ‘pathological’ and ‘paternalistic’). She also spoke about the importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people ‘affirm[ing] our existence on our terms’.

At the time of the 2022 Australian Reconciliation Barometer, Australia was making sustained progress towards reconciliation. In the same year, however, a Northern Territory Supreme Court Judge made several contentious and sweeping claims about Aboriginal cultures and communities (as outlined in this 2022 Guardian opinion piece). Such claims oversimplify and misrepresent complex situations, perpetuate settler colonial myths and attitudes, and ignore the ongoing impacts of colonisation on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

In the years since Carpentaria was published, First Nations literature has expanded enormously, helping to dismantle the myths, prejudices, and antiquated views of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. It is clear that 21st century Australia still has much work to do in this space. But as Kamilaroi, Scottish, and English writer/editor Darby Jones outlines in this 2024 IndigenousX article, the antidote to colonial (mis)representation can be found in the diverse ‘counter-stories’ offered up by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers. Carpentaria and Alexis Wright are chief among them.

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Rich assessment task: receptive and productive modes

Discourse and Norm’s identity

A discourse is a way of using language and behaviour to establish individuals as members of a social group. It is also a way of demonstrating how that group thinks about the world. Members of a social group establish their identity through discourse: they speak the same language, share similar beliefs/values, and know how to behave towards other members of the discourse – but also how to treat outsiders. A discourse defines who has power, who can or cannot speak, and what can be spoken about.

A helpful metaphor for this concept is that of a club, with rules for who is and isn’t a member, how members ought to behave, and what causes/interests they should prioritise. Another metaphor is that of an identity kit. Belonging to a discourse involves ways of talking, acting, believing, valuing, and relating that make us into this or that person. Our membership of overlapping discourses creates our sense of identity.

Ask students to think about Norm Phantom and the discourses to which he may or may not belong. You might like to brainstorm some ideas together. Then focus on two important discourses in Norm’s life: the ocean (he is recognised as a supreme fisherman) and the Phantom family (of which he is the head).

Provide students with TWO blank discourse charts (PDF, 56KB). Working individually or in pairs, they will complete one chart each for the ocean and Phantom family discourses, drawing on ideas and evidence from Carpentaria. You might like to provide them with a sample chart (PDF, 120KB) that illustrates the discourse of medicine.

Once they have completed their discourse charts, students can use them to write a description of Norm as one of the main protagonists of the novel.

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Synthesising core ideas

Carpentaria won Australia’s most prestigious literary prize, the Miles Franklin Literary Award, in 2007. Its power as a text comes from Wright’s ability to present, on one level, a conflict between people and over the land; and, on another, a portrait of a world that has been shaped and animated by Dreaming and ancestral spirits. The judges described the novel as ‘richly imagined and stylistically ambitious’; their full comments are available online.

In addition to the Miles Franklin, Carpentaria went on to win the ALS Gold Medal, the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award, and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award. It has since been studied by academics in Australia, China, India, the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, and Japan.

From initially being rejected by publishers, to being written about, translated, and taught around the world, Carpentaria has had a long and lasting impact. Having been included on France’s national curriculum as recently as 2021, it is clear that Wright’s story transcends language and distance, and continues to resonate with readers in the present day.

Students could undertake a personal reflection on what they have learned from reading Carpentaria, as well as from class discussions and their own reading/research. You might like to give them some prompts to help them get started, such as:

• What have you learned about deep time from Wright’s novel?
• How did learning about the experiences of First Nations people impact you?
• Were there characters that served particular purposes? Do you think some offered a different perspective or point of view?
• What have you learned about First Nations histories and cultures?
• Have you been able to take anything you have learned from this unit of work into your everyday life?

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Rich assessment task: productive mode

On p. 10 of Making Australian History (which you can preview on the publisher’s website), Anna Clark encourages readers to push the boundaries of what they understand to be ‘Australian history’. She lists some of the varied forms that history can take, which includes poetry and fiction.

Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s poem ‘We Are Going’ expresses the impact of colonisation on Aboriginal peoples and cultures. As discussed in the Significance section, the poem offers a contrast between non-Indigenous and Aboriginal ways of living. Although it can be read like a lament, it is also a powerful call to action, urging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to stand up and fight for justice. You can read and listen to the poem thanks to the NFSA. It may also be useful to discuss what Noonuccal herself has said about the poem; you can find an important quote in this 1977 interview, reproduced by Meanjin.

Task (for students)

According to the 2022 Australian Reconciliation Barometer, both First Nations people and the general community believe that institutions should work to improve reconciliation. This includes 74% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and 72% of the general community, who believe that Federal Government should do its part.

As an interested and enlightened Australian who would like to see deep time incorporated into accounts of the past, you will prepare a presentation for a gathering of parliamentarians to propose a more inclusive alternative to the conventional view of Australian history. As part of your presentation you should recite some or all of Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s poem ‘We Are Going’ and explain why it is significant in the present day. It would also be appropriate to refer to Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria, and to any other reading or research you have done as part of your study.

The purpose of your presentation is to give parliamentarians information to guide their thinking and approach to matters that affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Your presentation should be carefully planned and rehearsed. Make sure you draft and edit your talking points thoroughly.

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