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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Big-hearted, moving and richly rewarding, That Deadman Dance is set in the first decades of the 19th century in the area around what is now Albany, Western Australia. In playful, musical prose, the book explores the early contact between the Aboriginal Noongar people and the first European settlers.
'The novel's hero is a young Noongar man named Bobby Wabalanginy. Clever, resourceful and eager to please, Bobby befriends the new arrivals, joining them hunting whales, tilling the land, exploring the hinterland and establishing the fledgling colony. He is even welcomed into a prosperous local white family where he falls for the daughter, Christine, a beautiful young woman who sees no harm in a liaison with a native.
'But slowly - by design and by accident - things begin to change. Not everyone is happy with how the colony is developing. Stock mysteriously start to disappear; crops are destroyed; there are "accidents" and injuries on both sides. As the Europeans impose ever stricter rules and regulations in order to keep the peace, Bobby's Elders decide they must respond in kind. A friend to everyone, Bobby is forced to take sides: he must choose between the old world and the new, his ancestors and his new friends. Inexorably, he is drawn into a series of events that will forever change not just the colony but the future of Australia...' (From the publisher's website.)
Reading Australia
This work has Reading Australia teaching resources.
Unit Suitable For
AC: Year 12 (Literature Unit 4)
Themes
culture, Language, loss, nature, relationships, spirituality
General Capabilities
Critical and creative thinking, Ethical understanding, Information and communication technology, Intercultural understanding, Literacy
Cross-curriculum Priorities
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures
Notes
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Dedication: To Reenie, For all these years.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Braille.
- Sound recording.
- Large print.
Works about this Work
-
Beyond Mabo : Negotiating Indigenous Sovereignty in Kim Scott’s That Deadman Dance
2023
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Marginality in Australian Literature 2023; (p. 202-213) -
Remaking Contact in That Deadman Dance : Australian Reconciliation Politics, Noongar Welcoming Protocol, and Makarrata
2022
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Ariel : A Review of International English Literature , October vol. 53 no. 4 2022; (p. 91-122) 'In this article, I make the case for Noongar novelist Kim Scott's That Deadman Dance (2010) to be seen as an exemplar of Aboriginal-centered literary imaginings of reconciliation based primarily on adherence to traditional Laws rather than the state's limited recognition of native title. The novel decenters settler contact narratives through its depiction of Noongar welcoming protocols, thus affirming pre-colonial Aboriginal sovereignty. Furthermore, I contend that, through the novel's culminating scene in which settlers fail to understand protagonist Bobby Wabalanginy's ceremonial dance, which calls for justice through truth-telling and peace-making, Scott narrativizes the settler nation's inability to understand or accept terms of apology, forgiveness, and reconciliation derived from Indigenous cultural and political beliefs. Recognizing That Deadman Dance is not merely historical fiction but a novel about remaking contact draws attention to the all-too-frequently superficial performativity of settler-centric reconciliation politics and calls for narratives that do more than just meditate on settler guilt and complicity.'(Publication abstract)
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y
Polities and Poetics : Race Relations and Reconciliation in Australian Literature
Oxford
:
Peter Lang
,
2022
24390199
2022
multi chapter work
criticism
'A reconciliation movement spread across Australia during the 1990s, bringing significant marches, speeches, and policies across the country. Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians began imagining race relations in new ways and articulations of place, belonging, and being together began informing literature of a unique new genre. This book explores the political and poetic paradigms of reconciliation represented in Australian writing of this period. The author brings together textual evidence of themes and a vernacular contributing to the emergent genre of reconciliatory literature. The nexus between resistance and reconciliation is explored as a complex process to understanding sovereignty, colonial history, and the future of society. Moreover, this book argues it is creative writing that is most necessary for a deeper understanding of each other and of place, because it is writing that calls one to witness, to feel, and to imagine all at the same time.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
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Writing the Land, Writing Relations : Kim Scott's That Deadman Dance
2021
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Mabo’s Cultural Legacy : History, Literature, Film and Cultural Practice in Contemporary Australia 2021; -
Rhythm and Play in Tat Deadman Dance by Kim Scott
2021
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Reading Like an Australian Writer 2021;
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Dancing in the Deep
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 25 September 2010; (p. 23)
— Review of That Deadman Dance 2010 single work novel -
Narrative Retold from a Vital Vantage Point
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 2-3 October 2010; (p. 23)
— Review of That Deadman Dance 2010 single work novel -
Nothing Personal
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 325 2010; (p. 11-12)
— Review of That Deadman Dance 2010 single work novel -
[Review] That Deadman Dance
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 16 October 2010; (p. 25)
— Review of That Deadman Dance 2010 single work novel -
[Review] That Deadman Dance
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , October vol. 90 no. 3 2010; (p. 30)
— Review of That Deadman Dance 2010 single work novel -
Open to Exchange
2010
single work
column
— Appears in: The Age , 23 October 2010; (p. 26-27) The Sydney Morning Herald , 23-24 October 2010; (p. 34-35) -
First Contact
Toni Whitmont
(interviewer),
2010
single work
interview
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , October vol. 90 no. 3 2010; (p. 39) -
New Book for Award-Winning Author
2010
single work
column
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 17 November no. 489 2010; (p. 49) -
Noongar Storyteller Stays True to His Roots with Prize-Winning Novel
2011
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 3 March 2011; (p. 3) The Age , 3 March 2011; (p. 10) -
Colonial Prize 'An Amusement'
2011
single work
column
— Appears in: The Australian , 3 March 2011; (p. 8)
Awards
- 2012 winner New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Book of the Year
- 2012 winner New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Christina Stead Prize for Fiction
- 2012 winner Festival Awards for Literature (SA) Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature South Australian Literary Awards — Premier's Award
- 2012 winner Festival Awards for Literature (SA) Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature South Australian Literary Awards — Award for Fiction
- 2012 longlisted International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
- Albany - Denmark - Mount Barker area, Far Southwest Western Australia, Western Australia,
- 1800-1899