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Chapter 1
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Sister Heart, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Colonial Violence
The Bonds of Kinship
Resilience
Freedom and Bondage
The Healing Power of Nature
Summary
Analysis
Someone escorts Annie to the office of a government man, who sees that Reverend Dale has assigned her the name Anne and suggests “Annie” instead. Annie remains mute. The government man confidently assures himself that she’ll be talking soon, as she settles into her new home. He dismisses her to go make new friends as she furiously thinks to herself, “This is not my home.”
The government authorities clearly think that what they’re doing is not only okay, but also in the best interests of children like Annie. Readers, who have experienced the terror and trauma of Annie’s journey alongside her, know better. But despite all she’s suffered, Annie still clings to the truths she knows: her home is elsewhere, and although people have taken her away from her home, they can never truly take her home, her memories, or her identity from her.
Themes
Outside children flock around Annie, asking her name and where she’s from. One, a girl with light hair and eyes, shoos the other children off. As the dinner bell clangs—startling Annie as it calls the children to eat—the girl introduces herself as Janey. She offers Annie her friendship and her hand. Uncertainly, Annie takes Janey’s hand and follows her to the dining hall.
The flock of children illustrates how many families in addition to Annie’s have fallen victim to separation. This isn’t an isolated or uncommon occurrence, which makes the practice all the more horrific. Janey has presumably suffered the same thing as Annie, and she stands ready to help a fellow child.
Themes
In the dining hall, the children eat hungrily. They don’t talk. The strange-smelling food makes Annie even more homesick. When she sees Janey looking longingly at her serving of bread, Annie offers it to her. Gratefully, hungrily, Janey gobbles it down. She promises to share the next fish she catches with Annie. And she promises to teach Annie all the tricks to keep hunger at bay. Annie just wants to be left alone.
Janey’s hunger suggests the ways in which the school isn’t taking good care of the children it supposedly serves—Janey is borderline starving. The food itself doesn’t interest Annie, but it’s clear that she’s starving in a way, too: she is symbolically starving for connection with others. The bread she shares with Janey foreshadows the mutual support they will find in each other as friends.
Themes
Annie receives a uniform and follows Janey to the dormitory where Janey assigns her to the bed that used to belong to Margy, before Margy was sent out to work. An older girl, Nancy, stalks up demanding to know whether Annie is a “nor’wester or sou’wester.” Janey answers, saying she reckons by Annie’s appearance that she’s a nor’wester. Nancy shoves a fist close to Annie’s face. Annie doesn’t flinch. Nancy tells Annie that the nor’westers stick together but that Janey is pretty good for a sou’wester. After she leaves, Janey tells Annie that Nancy likes to fight the big kids—especially sou’westers—but that she’s usually nice to the younger ones, like them. Annie lays down in the strange bed and pulls the blankets up over her head, trying to shut out the noise of the other girls and Janey’s incessant friendliness. She weeps.
At first, it seems as if Nancy is invested in defining—and defending—her in-group (nor’westers). After all, bereft of their individual families and their communities, the children in the school have little to cling to that helps to shore up their sense of identity. But Nancy’s acceptance of Janey suggests that kinship bonds work differently in the residential school. Here, blood ties and culture aren’t the most important. Instead, the children form bonds based on who can provide them with support and care in the harsh environment of the school. At this point, Annie can’t imagine a close relationship with someone she’s not related to—but Nancy models what that might look like.
Themes
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Janey shakes Annie awake the next morning. The dormitory stinks (the toilet is overflowing) and the air is freezing. Annie doesn’t want to get out from under the blankets, but Janey warns her that she’ll get in trouble for sleeping in. Bedbug bites cover Annie’s arms. Janey hands Annie a broom, explaining that they all have morning chores. Plus, sweeping will get her blood flowing and warm her up. Then, in a whisper, Janey asks if Annie wet the bed. Annie resents Janey for bossing her and asking such embarrassing questions. But Janey explains that lots of girls wet the bed, especially on their first night. As Annie starts sweeping, she remembers helping Aunty Adie with this chore in Boss’s house. He always noticed if they neglected the corners.
The overflowing toilet, rampant bed bugs, and freezing room further emphasize the poor living conditions at the school. Although the authorities imply that poor living conditions among Aboriginal communities justify taking children for their protection, Annie (and Janey and the rest) were better off in their own communities than here. The real reason for taking the children—preparing them to serve as domestic staff for wealthy White families—quickly comes into focus through the morning chores. And the systemic way in which Aboriginal people experience servitude and exploitation comes into focus when Annie remembers cleaning Boss’s house back on the station.
Themes
Too heartsick to eat, Annie stares at her plate of breakfast. Janey whispers that she must eat something; if her stomach growls in class, Teacher will think she farted. Teacher hates farting, snorting, and laughing. Laughing most of all, especially when she thinks it’s directed at her. The other children hiss at Janey to be quiet; they don’t want to get in trouble for talking. But Janey replies that someone has to teach the new girl what she needs to know. Annie nibbles at her bread, dropping crumbs onto the table. Janey picks them up and licks them off her finger.
Janey’s warnings—and the other children’s fear that her whispering will get them all in trouble—suggest how many rules bind Annie’s life now. What’s worse, it seems as if some of the rules are traps laid to catch unsuspecting children and give Teacher or the other authorities a chance to punish them. Even before readers meet Teacher directly, Janey makes it very clear that Teacher dislikes the children under her authority.
Themes
Outside, Janey asks Annie if she’s ever been to school before. Maybe, Janey suggests, Annie will finally learn to talk! Annie turns away, and Janey tries to soothe her sore feelings. She says that she likes the “stories and singin’” part of school, and visitors, because then the children get better food. Annie forlornly thinks about the songs and stories she learned from her Mum and aunties. Nancy interrupts to introduce Annie to two other nor’westers, Emmy and Dot. Nancy reminds Annie that the nor’westers and the sou’westers keep to their own kind, but Janey interrupts to say that she has nor’wester and sou’wester friends. Janey reminds Nancy that the older girl owes her for the “stuff” she’s helped Nancy acquire. But Nancy warns her to shut up lest they all get in trouble. And all the children, nor’wester and sou’wester alike, run toward the classroom.
Yet again, the book makes it very clear to readers that everything the school claims to be doing—teaching the children, taking care of them, preparing them for life—were things that the children’s own families were already doing a much better job of it back home. This again challenges the idea that the authorities are improving the kids’ lives. And if they’re not, the only thing that’s left is the uncomfortable truth that this isn’t about helping these children at all—instead, the purpose of the residential school is to destroy Aboriginal culture and tear families apart in order to exploit people. Nevertheless, the interactions between Nancy, Janey, and the others show that no matter how poorly they’re treated, these children refuse to relinquish their humanity. Deprived of their own communities, they forge new relationships and help one another out in the school.
Themes
In the schoolroom, the children sit by age. Janey points out Teacher, the stiff and pinched-looking woman who runs the school and rarely smiles. The nicer teachers never stay for long, and the children fear they’re doomed to be stuck with Teacher because no one else will employ her. Teacher wears her glasses around her neck by a ribbon, because once some of the boys contrived to steal them—a crime for which they were whipped. As class begins, Teacher introduces Annie, who slouches in her chair, embarrassed by the attention. Janey is happy to have finally learned her new friend’s name—although Annie thinks angrily to herself that it isn’t her name. It belongs to the government.
The story about the glasses dramatizes the adversarial relationship between Teacher and her charges. Her classroom management suggests she’s more interested in controlling—and humiliating—the children in her care than actually teaching them. With silence as her only means of protest all that’s happened to her, Annie continues to hold her tongue. By refusing to acknowledge the government’s name, she stakes a claim to her own identity and her own future, rather than the sad life the authorities have planned for her—several years of training followed by a lifetime of servitude.
Themes
Teacher approaches Annie and taps on her desk with her pointing stick. She appreciates Annie’s quietness, and she tells the girl that she’ll succeed in school if she tells the truth, pays attention and works hard. And if she remembers the most important rule: at the school, everyone speaks English rather than “native gibberish” because English is “the language of kings.” Children who speak their native languages “get whacked,” according to Janey. The other children titter nervously, drawing Teacher’s ire for laughing. She shouts for “silence!” and glares at Janey, who bites her lip to keep from smiling. Annie realizes that Janey doesn’t like Teacher.
The book clearly implies that Teacher wouldn’t (or will not, when she finds out) like Annie’s quietness because it is an act of rebellion rather than a show of respect. Teacher describes very clearly what the other adults in the book have thus far suggested—a belief in the superiority of English culture (which she labels as civilized) to Aboriginal culture (which, in her eyes, is backwards and uncivilized). Thus far, Annie has been suspicious of Janey’s bubbly and talkative nature—the realization that neither of them like Teacher seems to make her reconsider.
Themes
Teacher spells out a big word: obedience. It’s important, she tells her students, because if they’re obedient and “respect [their] betters,” they will succeed. Then she gives Annie a small word to spell, cat. Annie refuses to repeat the word or its letters after Teacher—English hurts her head and is hard on her tongue and makes her miss speaking to Mum in her own language, Teacher learns from Janey that Annie can understand English, but that she cannot—or will not—speak it. She sighs because the government has sent her “another backward child.”
Again, Teacher’s lesson heavy-handedly seeks to remind the children of what she believes is their inferiority and her own superiority—as a White woman, she considers herself one of their betters. But it’s equally clear that she is neither kind nor compassionate. On this count, Janey and others (even the gruff Nancy) are clearly far better people. And now that Teacher knows Annie can speak but just won’t, her opinion of the girl does indeed change.
Themes
After lessons, Teacher keeps Annie and Janey in the classroom. She doesn’t like the wild look of Annie’s curly hair, which she worries might harbor lice. Janey lies, assuring Teacher that the grumpy lady checked Annie’s head when she arrived. Teacher tells Janey to help comb Annie’s hair and to make sure that she does her after-school jobs properly. Janey says she will. Out of the classroom, she asks if Annie likes school. Annie shakes her head no, and Janey agrees with her. The only parts she likes, she says, are writing stories and singing songs.
Not only does Teacher seek to impose control over the children by policing their language, but she also declares Annie’s physical appearance itself too wild for the school. Teacher clearly wants to force Janey into policing Annie, but readers have already seen enough of Janey to know that she won’t do that—she’ll look out for Annie instead. And Annie seems to trust Janey’s kindness a little more now, too, because although she remains silent, she begins to communicate just a little bit.
Themes
Doing chores keeps Annie’s homesickness at bay, at least for a little while. But it comes flooding back as soon as they’re done, something that Janey quickly notices. She tells Annie that ruminating on bad things will just make her feel worse. So will going hungry, which she assumes Annie must be after how little she ate at dinner and breakfast. Janey asks Annie to help her find her little brother, Tim. Annie nods that she will, because she knows Mum would want her to help and because she knows that little kids get into trouble easily. Janey leads Annie into the bush, describing some of Tim’s misadventures. Once he picked up a snake. Another time, he climbed too high into a tree while pretending to be a mudlark, and then he fell out and broke his leg.
Without Annie saying a word, Janey seems to know how she’s feeling. While some of this can be explained by their shared experiences—Janey has already been through the tough transition that Annie is now experiencing—it also points to Janey’s beautiful, loving character. It’s clear that she feels a connection with Annie, and this in turn hints that Annie doesn’t have to go through everything alone. Importantly, it’s the idea of family—both Janey’s connection with Tim but also Annie’s own love for her Mum and baby sister—that encourages her to go with Janey into the bush. And this, in turn, encourages the bond of emotional sisterhood between the girls to grow.
Themes
This time, Tim is safely watching mudlarks from behind a bush. He reminds Annie of her baby sister. She starts to cry, and Janey asks who she misses. Annie only nods or shakes her head, but eventually Janey works out that Annie has a baby sister. Janey tells Annie how sad and homesick she was when she arrived. But then she found Tim, who she is convinced is her long-lost baby brother. When her brother was a baby he got sick and Janey’s mother took him to the hospital. She never got him back. When Janey saw Tim at the school, she felt certain he was her brother because of their similar freckles. Janey assures Annie that new kids come each month—maybe she will be reunited with her sister that way someday. But Annie doesn’t want her sister to come here. She wants to go home.
The story Janey tells about the loss of her brother to the authorities when he was an infant underlines the cruelty and callousness of a government that steals children from their families. It also subtly hints that Janey could, after all, be wrong about Tim. There’s no conclusive proof that he is her lost brother—he doesn’t remember his family, and even his name “Tim” comes from the government. But it’s equally clear that it doesn’t matter if they’re physically related or not. Their emotional bond makes them siblings. And this, in turn, offers hope to Annie that she might not have to face life as alone as she is now, even though she’s still focused on her own blood family.
Themes
The mudlark flies away, and Tim chides Janey for being noisy. She apologizes for comforting Annie. Tim asks if school made Annie cry. The old instructors were kind, but not Teacher, who uses her ruler to viciously punish the children. Janey stole her old ruler and buried it, but Teacher just got a newer, sharper-edged one. Janey tells Annie that she and Tim have a trick to make themselves better. Sometimes, when they feel like crying, they laugh instead. Tim picks up a pebble and hands it to Annie, solemnly telling her it’s a laughing stone. When she feels sad, she should squeeze it and laugh—just not in the classroom. One time Tim did that accidentally, and Teacher whacked him for being a “rude, stupid boy.”
The bird can come and go as it pleases. Once, the children had a similar level of freedom, but now they’re trapped by the school. Still, by watching the birds and by spending time in the bush outside of the watchful eyes of their keepers, the children keep alive their feeling of freedom and autonomy. It’s clear how important hope and friendship are to surviving this place given how nothing that any of the kids do—even depriving Teacher of her favorite tool—changes their lives for the better much. Instead of trying to change things, Tim and Janey suggest that Annie beat the system by keeping the important part of herself—her feelings, her memories, and her vulnerabilities—to herself.
Themes
Janey offers to show Annie her and Tim’s “crying tree.” On the way, they see more birds—magpies and a kookaburra. Janey draws a snake in the dirt with a stick, and Annie makes the outline of a goanna (a lizard native to Australia). Janey points out more wildlife: birds called honeyeaters and the redback spiders whose poisonous bite can make a child sick. She also warns Annie about the plentiful (and deadly) dugite and tiger snakes that live in the marsh around the school. Annie wonders if Janey ever stops talking.
Seeing the birds and talking about other animals improve Janey’s mood, even if Annie remains sullen and silent—the nature lessons seem unimportant in the face of her losses. But it’s clear that spending time in the bush reinvigorates Janey. And although she gets sidetracked before she takes Annie there, the crying tree clearly provides a place of solace and refuge that helps Janey and Tim survive the school.
Themes
Janey picks up a few soft twigs and plops to the ground in a clearing. Annie sits, too. The thick, shady bush is a relief after the school, but it isn’t home. It isn’t familiar. It would be easy to get lost here. Janey twists the twigs into a little bush doll. It isn’t at all like the doll Annie once saw a visitor bring to the station. But it feels “smiley” and comforting. Janey tells her to put it in her pocket and carry it around like a mother kangaroo carries its joey. Or like Annie used to carry her baby sister.
Janey has already taken Annie under her wing, but the gifts of the laughing stone and the bush doll affirm their budding friendship in an almost ceremonial way. Janey offers the doll as something of a replacement baby sister and as a way of offering a sort of soul sistership to Annie. It’s not sophisticated, but it means more to Annie than any fancy doll could.
Themes
The crying tree is large and old with a child-sized hollow in the trunk. Janey offers to share it with Annie, because she and Tim are the only ones who use it for their crying place. Everyone else considers the tree unlucky because it’s the one Tim fell from when he broke his leg. But Janey says that maybe the fact that he didn’t hurt himself worse actually makes it lucky. Annie and Janey sit side by side in the hollow. Janey says that she used to share the tree with her friend Margy before Margy turned 14 and got sent to work on a farm. And after a while, sitting in the tree and watching the wildlife around them, Janey falls silent.
The crying tree crystalizes the healing power of nature—it’s the place where Janey and Tim come to be calmed and soothed when they’re upset or have been mistreated by Teacher. The idea of reclaiming it as lucky even though it’s where Tim broke his leg points to the resilience of these children, their unwillingness to let the terrible things they’ve endured—and are enduring still—dictate their inner lives. Janey and Tim make a family and will make their own way in the world, no matter what hopes or plans Teacher and others have for them.
Themes
That night, Nancy lends Janey her comb so Janey can braid Annie’s hair. Like a lot of the other kids, Nancy owes Janey a favor for some object that Janey acquired for her. As she works, Janey tells Annie about Margy, whom she misses terribly. Margy once told Janey that their chores were training so they could enter Service when they turned 14. Janey doesn’t want to enter Service, though: she wants to go home. Annie wants to go home, too, but she doesn’t want to wait until she’s 14, either! She shivers in the unfamiliar cold. Janey promises that after a while, her blood will thicken up and the cold won’t bother her so much. Other girls grumble from their beds, telling Janey to shut up. Janey snaps that she can talk if she wants to.
Janey appoints herself Annie’s guide at the school (a role Teacher confirms by putting her in charge of showing Annie where to go and attempting to tame Annie’s wild hair). But although she understands the rules, she often doesn’t follow them. She talks (in whispers) at mealtimes, she steals things both for other children and for revenge (like burying Teacher’s ruler). In other words, she refuses to let the school authorities—or her classmates—change her. She clings to her own sense of humanity and individuality in the face of their abuse and their attempts to change her essential nature.
Themes
In the dark, as she braids Annie’s hair, Janey whispers bad news: Mum won’t be coming for Annie. Of course, Mum wants to, but how can she? She won’t know to ask for “Annie,” and she will look for Annie under her old name. The government will keep Annie’s fate a secret from her mother. But the girls can keep secrets, too. Janey’s secrets include what she remembers of her family and her language and her life before she came to the school. And her real name. For how awful their circumstances are, at least Annie and Janey have an advantage over those like Tim, who were taken from their families at such a young age that they don’t remember anything. Annie remembers her family. And when her hair is combed smooth, she gives Janey a grateful smile.
Annie has been at the school for a little while and—although she still hasn’t spoken—her friendship with Janey has begun to blossom before Janey hits her with the hardest, harshest truth of the school. There is no going home. The authorities intentionally take children so far away from their families and change their names in a deliberate attempt to ruin the bonds of kinship and familial relationship. The cruelty is the point—because the authorities want to remake these Aboriginal children over in the mold of culture of the White ruling class. In this environment, remembering is a radical act of defiance, as is Janey’s insistence on her role as Tim’s sister.
Themes
Annie wakes from a nightmare to vomit the disgusting soup she ate for lunch all over the floor. Janey hears her crying and starts crying too. In the morning, Nancy gives Annie rags to clean up her vomit. Janey, Emmy, and Dot help. Nancy doesn’t—she has a weak stomach—but she does braid Annie’s hair before school. Teacher doesn’t like braids, but in the night, Annie’s hair has gone all bushy again, and Teacher likes that even less.
When she suffered from seasickness on the voyage from the station, Reverend Dale at least tried to help Annie out (although his help was tinged with expectations of her gratitude rather than coming from a place of true kindness). In the school, the only kindness and care she gets comes from the other children, who step in to offer one another the love and support they’ve lost with their families. Teacher doesn’t care about Annie’s wellbeing, only the extent to which Annie conforms herself to Teacher’s narrow ideas of what’s acceptable.
Themes
Teacher stares but doesn’t say anything about Annie’s hair, and when a boy laughs at Annie’s fat braids, Teacher quickly punishes him with several sharp whacks of the ruler against his hands. Teacher hears a snort, and she turns on Tim, accusing him of laughing at her. Janey interrupts, saying that Tim has been coughing—everyone knows he has a weak chest. Annie isn’t sure that he wasn’t laughing, but Teacher doesn’t whack him. Instead, she reminds him to keep his sweater on against the cold. Of course, the sweater isn’t going to do very much as it doesn’t fit. But there’s been no yarn this year for Janey to make him a new one.
Shortly after Annie arrived, Janey and Tim warned her about how Teacher feels about laughing in the classroom. It’s clear that she fears that the children’s laughter points at her, and she punishes them harshly both to maintain her sense of authority and because she fears their ridicule. Although she has the power and authority, it’s clear that her fear of the children torments her psyche. Tim’s cough—and his ill-fitting sweater—pointedly remind readers of the school’s failures to adequately care for the children’s physical needs.
Themes
After class, Janey demands to know whether Tim was laughing or coughing, and he confesses he was laughing over the mean boys’ comeuppance at Teacher’s hands. She’s still worried, noting that his breath sounds “wheezy,” but he tells her not to “fuss.” After he runs off, Janey points out the blooming wildflowers to Annie. Warmer weather is coming, which will be better for Annie’s thin nor’wester blood and Tim’s bad chest. The children call one flower “bacon and eggs” because it looks like the food. Annie has never had it, but Janey did once. It was delicious.
This interaction reminds readers yet again that it doesn’t matter whether Janey and Tim are biological siblings or not. In the ways that matter—love, concern, and care—Janey is Tim’s big sister. Her concern over his health suggests something more than an average cold, too—something deadlier or more chronic, which school authorities should be worried about, too, if they really care about the children. But they don’t care—Janey’s obsession with talking about food instead suggests that she and the others are borderline starving.
Themes
The braids weren’t good enough and the school authorities shave Annie’s hair. She feels ashamed, even though Janey tells her that this happens to all the new kids. But the little kids cry out “Baldy! Baldy!” as they run past, and some of the girls in the dormitory tease Annie too, at least until Nancy beats them up to keep them quiet. Annie hides under her blanket. Janey tells her it could be worse—she had her hair shaved in the winter, and she wasn’t even given a hat to wear while it grew back. Soon, in the summer heat, Annie will be happy to have short hair. Janey offers to check Annie’s scalp for freckles, but Annie doesn’t care about that.
The indignities Annie suffers continue to accumulate. She never seems to get a break, and again, the book clearly implies that the cruelty is the point of many of these practices. There’s no evidence that Annie has headlice, so the shaving stems instead from Teacher’s dislike of her Aboriginal hair. Nancy and Janey show solidarity by comforting Annie and protecting her from the teasing of the other children. But Annie is still too traumatized to fully accept the relationship—one of kinship (symbolized by the idea of shared freckles) more than simple friendship—that Janey offers her.
Themes
Janey promises Annie that her hair will grow quicker than she realizes…if she stops worrying about it. She promises to tell Annie when two weeks have passed so she can see how quickly it’s grown for herself.
Janey offers the idea of Annie’s growing hair as a promise of better things to come. But it’s also a cruel reminder of how long Annie has been—and will be—stuck in the residential school.
Themes
One day after class, Janey can’t find Tim. She gets worried, even though Dot and Emmy remind her that he’s not a baby anymore and likes to hang out with the other boys sometimes. Nancy swears that she saw Tim with his friends. She tells Janey to stop worrying and have some fun of her own. The girls make themselves flower crowns and garlands. Nancy declares herself a queen—which is like a boss, Janey explains to Annie—then says that they’re all queens. The strut around until the dinner bell rings. There, Janey sees Tim, safe and sound, with his friends—just as Nancy said.
While the children form friendships and alliances, it’s clear that the relationship Janey shares with Tim (the kind of relationship she also wants to share with Annie) goes beyond mere friendship. In all the ways that matter, Tim is her brother (even if they have no way of knowing whether they actually share the same parents). The girls’ playacting shows how they’ve managed to hold on to some of their precious childhood innocence and imagination despite the awful circumstances of their lives.
Themes
In the classroom, Annie keeps her head down and tries to shrink from view every day when it comes time for Teacher to pick someone to read aloud. But one day, Teacher slaps Annie’s desk with her ruler. Angrily she confronts Annie about knowing English, which Teacher recently learned from looking in her file. She accuses Annie of lying about not knowing the language and of being rebellious because she refuses to speak. Teacher asks Annie to repeat a nursery rhyme, and when Annie can’t make her voice work, Teacher slaps her—hard—across the hands with the ruler. When Annie refuses to cry, Teacher continues the abuse, hitting her across the back of her legs. Annie shoves Teacher off and runs from the classroom to the crying tree.
The book has made it clear that Annie’s silence stems primarily from trauma (although it is also a way to defy the adults who have stolen her from her family). Yet Teacher interprets it in the least charitable way possible, as mockery and disrespect for Teacher’s authority. Yet again, Teacher betrays her dislike and suspicion of the children and takes these out by punishing them in cruel and violent ways. Yet, what comes through most powerfully in this moment is Teacher’s powerlessness to achieve what she wants. Beating Annie doesn’t make her more likely to talk—it just shows how cruel Teacher is.
Themes
Later, after class and chores, Janey and Tim find Annie at the crying tree. As Janey inspects Annie’s injuries, Tim tells Annie how much he hates Teacher for bullying the children. He gives her a mudlark feather as a tiny gift. Janey warns Annie that her legs will hurt a lot the next day, but that pretending they don’t hurt will help her. Annie knows they’ll hurt no matter what.
Janey and Tim comfort Annie at the crying tree, further reinforcing the emotional bond between the three of them. The crying tree does indeed offer solace of a sort, even though the children cannot forget their imprisonment in the school. Unlike the birds, they cannot fly away at will. But they can love and support one another.
Themes
As punishment, the school authorities don’t let Annie have dinner. She’s in trouble for lying to Teacher about knowing English, for laughing behind Teacher’s back (which she didn’t do), for shoving Teacher, and for not “know[ing] her place.” She knows that if touches Teacher again, she’ll be whipped—or worse. Janey, Nancy, Dot, and Emmy sneak food and cool, wet rags into the dormitory. They encourage Annie to eat, to keep up her strength. And they warn her that Teacher will be on the lookout for any chance to beat Annie again. Annie feels her voice rattling inside her like a trapped animal that can’t get out. She lost it when the policeman took her away and she doesn’t know when—or if—she will find it again.
All of the other crimes of which Annie is accused ultimately stem from not knowing her place, and this reminds readers of the emotional, cultural, and physical violence inherent in the colonial project. Although Aboriginal peoples lived in Australia long before the first Europeans arrived, European Australian society judges itself inherently superior. Janey encourages Annie to eat because the resilience necessary for survival requires strength, a lesson Janey clearly learned herself in the past. And in this moment, if readers had any lingering doubts, Annie explains that her silence isn’t within her control. She’s not being defiant—she’s traumatized. But Teacher still punishes her for it, increasing her trauma.
Themes
That night, Annie dreams of cleaning Boss’s house with Aunty Adie. She remembers being sent there from the out-camp. Aunty Adie taught Annie how to keep her feelings to herself—how to hide her “inside” face behind a blank “outside” face. Annie wakes from the dream in tears. She tried to put on a brave outside face when she left the ship. She wonders if having a tough face will eventually make her tough enough to survive the awful school.
The dream reinforces Janey’s advice to Annie to hide and protect her true self from the White authorities. Annie is probably right in her fear—to a point. By herself, she doesn’t have enough strength to resist. But, with the love and support of her kin—Aunty Adie in the past, Janey in the present—she might just find it.
Themes
In the morning, Janey warns Annie not to try running away—nearly everyone gets caught and viciously punished for the attempt. Annie wonders how Janey always seems to know what she’s thinking. She wants to run away so badly. But she doesn’t know how she can run home across the water. As they leave the dorms for breakfast, Janey promises to pay Teacher back for hurting Annie.
Janey’s near-psychic ability to know what silent Annie thinks suggests the affinity the girls share—they’re soul sisters even if they’re from different communities. It also universalizes Annie’s experiences, reminding readers that nothing that happens to her (or Janey, or Tim, or Nancy) is unique. Instead, it represents the suffering that thousands of children were subjected to in the residential schools.
Themes
Annie’s legs slowly heal, but now Janey’s are hurting. She got “the strap” for stealing Teacher’s glasses—her revenge on Teacher for shaming and beating Annie. She stole the glasses openly, without even bothering to hide them, as if she wanted to get caught. When Nancy, Dot, and Emmy ask her why, she says that getting away with it wasn’t the point. She stuck Teacher’s glasses in her shirt and got them so sweaty gross that Teacher refused to even touch them. The next day, despite the pain of her bruises, Janey finds pleasure in mocking Teacher’s ugly loaner glasses—Teacher won’t even touch the ones Janey polluted. The loaner glasses neither correct Teacher’s vision nor flatter her. Instead, they magnify her eyes, making her look like a bug.
Janey demonstrates her love for Annie—and her irrepressible spirit—by stealing Teacher’s glasses. The abuse she endures at the school don’t extinguish her rebelliousness or make her more willing to conform—instead, it emboldens her to cling ever more tightly to whatever freedom and autonomy she can find. Teacher’s reaction to the glasses demonstrates a fear of contamination and betrays her racism. This, in turn, highlights the hateful, narrow thinking that contributes to her own suffering. She’d rather go around half blind than touch something an Aboriginal child has handled.
Themes
One morning, it’s so cold in the dormitory that Janey and Annie can see the fog of their breath. Janey suddenly remembers that it’s been more than two weeks since Annie’s head was shaved. She tells Annie to check her hair. It’s grown, but it will take a long time to get back to its original length. Annie wishes she had a hat to protect her head from the cold air. Or a sweater. Janey knit her sweater—which has a baggy neck and one sleeve longer than the other—herself. If the school gets any wool—or any old sweaters she can unravel for the yarn—Janey promises to make a sweater for Annie.
The cold dormitory offers yet another pointed reminder of how poorly the school takes care of the children it houses. The last person wearing a sweater was Tim, and his sweater wasn’t keeping him from getting sick, either. So the cold also darkly hints that more bad things are about to happen. Janey’s love and care (and wonky hand-knit sweaters) can’t protect Janey, Annie, and Tim from everything.
Themes
Annie shivers and Janey pulls one of her arms out of a sweater sleeve, offering it to Annie. Linked by the sweater, the two walk clumsily toward the dining hall. Dot and Emmy link arms and stumble after them, teasing them for how funny they look. And suddenly, Annie is laughing and crying at the same time. She trips and falls, pulling Janey down with her. And as they tumble to the ground, she hears her own voice sobbing, “Janey, Janey.”
Annie doesn’t even have a sweater to keep her warm on cold mornings, but she does have the love and friendship of Janey. It isn’t as good as having her own sweater—they stumble and fall—but it’s better than nothing. Importantly, Annie recovers her voice in the context of her love and friendship with Janey. The authorities took her voice when they took her from her family. No matter how much Teacher bullies her, the authorities can’t restore what they’ve stolen. Only love can do that.
Themes
