Prejudice and Discrimination Theme Analysis

In Kate Constable’s time travel fantasy Crow Country, Sadie, a young Australian girl, learns about Aboriginal history from the dark-feathered crows that begin speaking to her when she and her mother, Ellie, move to Boort—a small town in rural Australia that hides secrets about the dark past of Aboriginals and white Australians in the district. On various occasions shortly after arriving in Boort, Sadie is mysteriously whisked to a past time in the town’s history—often when she is wandering around historic sights, such as a monument to veterans of World War I. Sadie’s experiences reveal that the historical legacies of prejudice and discrimination continue to inform relations between whites and Aboriginals in the present. The novel suggests that it is only by actively forging alliances across the divide—as Sadie and her mother do—can these legacies of prejudice and discrimination be overcome.

The novel establishes that the prejudice and discrimination faced by Aboriginals—who became a subjugated people in their own land once white settlers arrived in Australia—has deep roots. When Sadie is whisked back to the year 1933, she inhabits the body of her great-aunt Sarah Louise (also nicknamed Sadie), who was the daughter of Clarry and Jean Hazzard. She then witnesses firsthand the historical discrimination to which Aboriginals were subjected. She learns, for instance, that the town was reluctant to put up WWI veteran Jimmy Raven’s name on the war monument, in spite of the fact that Jimmy, like Clarry Hazzard and Gerald Mortlock, had fought for Australia. Jimmy is an Aboriginal man who lives in Boort, and the town’s reluctance to honor his contribution to the war effort is based entirely on his race. Sadie also notes that her father treats Jimmy better than most of the other white townspeople do. Most townspeople, for instance, would never serve Jimmy tea in their best china, as her parents do when he comes for a visit. This again points to the unfair second-class status Jimmy occupies as a result of being Aboriginal and underscores the novel’s broader condemnation of racial discrimination.

Importantly, the historical prejudice against Aboriginals which Sadie witnesses in 1933 has its echoes in the present-day world in which she lives. Ellie, Sadie’s mother, tells Sadie that as a young woman she dated David, an Aboriginal man who currently lives in Boort. The relationship ended, however, in part because it was frowned upon by the townspeople, who did not condone an interracial union between a white woman and an Aboriginal man. David is furthermore physically attacked by Craig Mortlock, Ellie’s ex-boyfriend, who is unhappy that Ellie left him for an Aboriginal man. When David and Ellie reunite after Ellie and Sadie move to Boort, they again experience the town’s displeasure. This is especially apparent in the scene when Ellie, David, Sadie, and David’s nephew Walter walk into a pub together one night: the white townspeople seated in the pub stare at the four, clearly disapproving of the mixed group. Likewise, the ostracism and isolation that Walter faces also seems to derive to an extent from his Aboriginal identity. When he joins Sadie for a game of pool at the back of the pub, the other teenagers make derogatory remarks about him before banishing him and Sadie from the table largely because of Walter’s presence. The ostracism that Walter faces from the other teenagers, therefore, suggests the extent to which legacies of prejudice and discrimination continue to affect social relations between even the young white and Aboriginal residents of the town.

Ultimately, the novel suggests that it is only by forging alliances across racial divides that such past and present legacies of discrimination can be overcome. Ellie and David’s relationship exemplifies a bridge that links together Ellie, a white woman, with David, an Aboriginal man. Although the townspeople initially disapprove of this relationship, Ellie and David nonetheless stick together, and provide support for one another. Ellie, for instance, confronts Craig Mortlock about his violent attack on David when they were younger. Likewise, Sadie becomes very close to Walter; he is the first person she confesses her secret to about the crows speaking to her, and it is with his help—as well as Auntie Lily’s—that Sadie secures Jimmy Raven’s “special things” and carries out the duty that the crows charge her with. The cross-cultural and cross-racial alliances that both Ellie and her daughter forge with David and Walter, respectively, expand to include others by the end of the story. For instance, after Lachie Mortlock—son of Craig Mortlock, and young heir to the wealthy land-owning Mortlock clan—reconciles with Walter and Sadie, the three of them work together to restore the destroyed graves of both Jimmy Raven and Lachie Mortlock’s ancestors. Furthermore, David becomes more accepted in the town through his coaching of the football (soccer) team. As the team’s first Aboriginal co-coach, David’s involvement with the team leads to the forging of links between the town’s Aboriginal and white residents—given that the footy team is an important part of the town’s social landscape. Thus, in helping lead the team—which is made up of white schoolboys—to success, David wins the respect of many of the town’s white residents, compelling them to view and treat him with more respect.

Legacies of prejudice and discrimination against Aboriginals in Boort run deep and shape social relations both in the past as well as in the present. Yet deep as these legacies run, the novel suggests that they are not immutable. Through the alliances that are forged between the characters of different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds—between Ellie and David, and between Sadie and Walter—the novel suggests that there is hope for a more accepting future. It is through such alliances that such hierarchies of race and culture can be challenged and overcome.