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Chapter 12
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Crow Country, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Prejudice and Discrimination
Heritage and Land
Justice and Restitution
Violence and Integrity
Summary
Analysis
Sadie dreams that she is walking across a plain at night. She sees a huge crow, crying, its eyes revealing a very deep grief. Sadie wants to comfort the crow, but when she tries to touch it, it disappears.
The dream of the crying crow conveys a vision of loss and sadness. The crow’s sorrow can be seen to embody grief over the violent destruction of Aboriginal culture.
Themes
On Saturday, Ellie and David go to watch the footy game while Sadie stays at home. She is bored, but she is afraid to visit the circle of stones again, given her dream about the crow. When Ellie and David return, they all decide to go to the pub, and Sadie is happy to join in after a dull day.
Sadie’s reluctance to visit the stone circle suggests that the dream she had is an indication that all is not well at the site. She senses that something has happened there, or will happen there, that will lead to grief or even violence.
Themes
At the pub, Craig and Amanda Mortlock and their kids, Lachie and Bethany, take the table next to Sadie, David, and Ellie’s. When Craig and Lachie start talking about footy and Lachie tells his father they need a new coach, Ellie interrupts and suggests David, who had been a coach down in Mildura before he moved back to Boort. Craig acknowledges the Mildura players were great, but then makes derogatory comments about how the players, who were Aboriginal, couldn’t “take discipline.” Tension escalates between David and Craig, especially when Craig suggests that David’s nephew Walter isn’t doing so well in Boort.
The casual racism of the town’s white residents is reflected in Craig’s comments about the Aboriginal players of Mildura. Craig’s statement that the players were undisciplined feeds into stereotypes of Aboriginals as lazy and rebellious. Because David is aware of the connotations of Craig’s statement, tensions escalate between the two and David unfairly loses out on a coaching opportunity for which he is clealy well-qualified. Furthermore, Craig attacks David’s own nephew Walter, implying that Walter isn’t doing well in the town because he is Aboriginal.
Themes
Ellie comes to Walter’s defense, pointing out that people in the town always say that “black boys make trouble, but white boys just have accidents.” Ellie then refers back to the incident at the Invergarry Lake, when Craig nearly drowned David. Ellie, David, and Sadie rise to leave.
Ellie calls out Craig on his prejudice, pointing out how white boys and Aboriginal boys are spoken about and treated differently in the town. She points to Craig’s own bad behavior in the past towards David, as an example of how it is actually often white boys, not Aboriginals, who cause trouble—trouble that can easily escalate into violence. It’s also noteworthy that Craig never faced retribution for his behavior and that he still holds the land that doesn’t rightly belong to him, which indicate how unjust the racial structures in the town are.
Themes
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Just as they make it outside, Lachie catches up with them. He tells them that Craig says he’s sorry for offending David, and implores David to coach Boort’s footy team, the Magpies. David says he’ll think about it. Lachie then asks if Sadie wants to play pool. She wants to say no, but before she can, her mother agrees to let her stay. David and Ellie leave, and Lachie guides Sadie back into the pub.
It’s not clear whether Craig’s apology—delivered by Lachie—is entirely sincere or not, or whether it is offered only so that David is wooed into coaching the footy team. That Sadie feels the impulse to say no to Lachie’s offer to spend time together reveals that her feelings towards him are changing—and not for the better—after his bad behavior towards her and Walter in their previous encounter at the pool room. This change indicates that racial injustice can have negative consequences for all kinds of interpersonal relationships.
Themes
