Winner of the Queensland Premier Award for a novel of state significance, the novel category in the Victorian Prize for literature, the ARA Historical Novel Society Australasia’s adult novel prize and the Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary award.

It was also longlisted (but not shortlisted) for the Stella Prize and the Miles Franklin award which the author (a Goorie of Bundjalung and European heritage) won in 2019 with her previous novel.

Now I think a string contender for the Booker Prize and Women’s Prize given its very welcome UK publication by OneWorld.

The novel is set in what is now Brisbane and in an area which has briefly been given the titular colonial name and is told over two timelines:

In 2024 – Eddie Blanket, a vociferous and fiercely defiant centenarian ends up in hospital after a fall. There a white journalist is fascinated by her stories (not just of her life but of what she recounts as having been passed down to her) and makes plans for her as “Queensland’s Oldest Aboriginal” to take centre stage in the celebrations of the Cities bicentennial – Eddie largely telling the stories for the pleasure of company and having someone to listen to. Her activist granddaughter Winona is rather horrified that Eddie is making her stories sanitised for a white audience – in particular saying that relationships between the Aboriginal inhabitants and white colonisers (and particularly the pioneer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Petrie) were not entirely bad. Eddie’s Doctor – Dr Johnny – a white but who has recently discovered some aboriginal ancestors and who identifies as Goomeroi – falls heavily for Winona – but the two bicker repeatedly and particularly over what Winona sees as Dr Johnny’s completely unfounded claims to be black. Meanwhile Eddie is haunted literally by the presence of an ancestor whose identity and purpose in visiting her she cannot work out.

In 1854-55 (with a brief 1840 prologue) we get the story of the (fictionalised) Mulanyin – from a saltwater Goorie group but who travels to Brisbane and falls in love with Nita who works as a servant in the household of Tom Petrie’s parents. While Mulanyin and Nita are courting and dealing with the traditions and expectations of both of their peoples (and of the Petries) Mulanyin gets involved with a number of historical figures and incidents including Petrie’s founding of his own farm, the botched execution of the Aboriginal lawman Dundali (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dundalli) and the mass flour poisonings of his people – becoming increasingly radicalised by the latter.

Overall I found this a fascinating novel.

The historical sections are immersive – not always easy to follow given their unapologetically extensive use of Aboriginal words, customs and spiritual views, but ultimately very rewarding for the very strong sense they give of mid 1850s Queensland in all its complexity as the Goorie and other tribes realise that the colonial settlers/invaders (themselves dealing with the troubled convict post founding of their City) are here to stay.

The present day sections sometimes function more as light relief as despite their heavy themes there is a sense the characters are all a little exaggerated/cariactures, perhaps not helped by the modern sections being less frequent which means there is less time for character development.

Overall, a powerful rewriting of colonial myths.