[PDF] Download ☆ That Deadman Dance | by ☆ Kim Scott

By Kim Scott | Comments: ( 723 ) | Date: ( Dec 07, 2019 )

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, reBig 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

  • Title: That Deadman Dance
  • Author: Kim Scott
  • ISBN: 9781408829288
  • Page: 346
  • Format: Paperback

About Author:

Kim Scott

Born in 1957, Kim Scott s ancestral Noongar country is the south east coast of Western Australia between Gairdner River and Cape Arid His cultural Elders use the term Wirlomin to refer to their clan, and the Norman Tindale nomenclature identifies people of this area as Wudjari Koreng Kim s professional background is in education and the arts He is the author of two novels, True Country and Benang, poetry and numerous pieces of short fiction.

Comments That Deadman Dance

  • Lisa

    You can dive deep into a book and not know just how deep until you return gasping to the surface, and are surprised at yourself, your new and so very sensitive skin. As if you’re someone else altogether, some new self trying on the words. (p86)This is exactly what this entrancing new novel achieves. It is, as you read, as if all the preconceived ideas of this country’s history of Black and White relations fall away and a new paradigm takes their place. What if, Scott asks, the benefits of Wh [...]

    Reply
  • Jennifer (JC-S)

    ‘We learned your words and songs and stories, and never knew you didn’t want to hear ours…’This novel, winner of the 2011 Miles Franklin Award, is set in the early nineteenth century, when American whalers, British colonists and the Noongar people first made contact in the south of Western Australia. Much of the novel is set in a period of almost 20 years, and covers a stark change in the relationship between the indigenous and non-indigenous inhabitants. From their early reliance on the [...]

    Reply
  • Russell

    I don't need to say much about the book itself, because there are already more than enough good reviews, both here, and on other forums. Put simply, it is the story of what might have been, the story of a clash of cultures, and the story of dispossession. When I first finished the book, I felt it was one that every Australian should read. But I am saddened by some of the reviews: sure, not everyone has to like a book, and I agree that this one meandered through time and stories, but it is essen [...]

    Reply
  • Marg

    Some times, as a reader, I need a bit of a push to read a specific book. Usually, this happens with books that I wanted enough to buy but then I struggle to fit it in between library reads and review copies.So it was with this book. I bought it last year when I attended a Melbourne Writers Festival session which featured the author, Kim Scott, along with a couple of other authors talking about writing books from the indigenous perspective. In this case, Kim Scott is an indigenous Australian, a m [...]

    Reply
  • Jeanette

    Kim Scott's That Deadman Dance is an intriguing book, a fictionalised account of 'the friendly frontier' in the early 19th century south coast of Western Australia. Scott writes from the perspective of his Noongar ancestors as well as detailed research of the journals and records of the period. This is a bitter-sweet tale of missed opportunities and the inevitability of loss and dispossession shown through the prism of a handful of colourful characters - and particularly through young 'Bobby' Wa [...]

    Reply
  • Jane

    This is the best thing I've read in ages. It's just beautiful. So restrained and so gorgeous and so happy and so sad. And so odd, in such a charming and incredibly warm way.

    Reply
  • Betty

    As a European reader, used to novels which are linear in structure, I struggled with this book at first. The structure reflects an Aboriginal way of story telling: episodic, non linear. The narration changes to reflect the perspective of different characters, revealing the White settlers' view of the Noongar people of Western Australia's south west, and in turn, the Noongar people's view of the white setters and their gradual annexing of Noongar land. An important read.

    Reply
  • Garry

    I live in Western Australia, which is where That Deadman Dance is set. I was really looking forward to reading a story about the history of my home - about the time that the Traditional Owners of the land, the Nyoongar people, welcomed English settlers in the area that eventually became the city of Albany. Albany was a whaling town - I remember taking a holiday there the year that the last whaling station closed - and That Deadman Dance explores the start of the whaling industry too.Kim Scott ap [...]

    Reply
  • Monique

    (3.5 Stars)While, Scott is a gifted storyteller, I wasn't able to connect with his characters. The characters all felt sort of superfical to me, like they had no depth. This was mainly because there are so many characters and Scott spends a little time telling the background of each one of them. They all had unique and interesting stories but I just didn't feel any connection with any of them. And I love a good character based story.The main character in the story is Bobby, a Noongar boy, whom t [...]

    Reply
  • Mel

    The Deadman's dance is not a terrible book. However it also wasn't a very interesting book, at least to me. It probably mainly has to do with my lack of interest in Australian history but even a fictional retelling of the first settlement didn't keep my interest. Sadly, neither did the characters/ They were so unbelievable that it was hard to believe they were actually people. They didn't have much depth or personality. They seemed more like situations rather than actual people.There is however [...]

    Reply
  • Martin Chambers

    A wonderful book, one of my favorites. So this was first contact. Told from the point of view of a single character who is also all dispossessed indigenous people and who contains in him the entire history of first contact and subsequent dispossession, ‘That Deadman Dance’ explores how small misunderstandings arise in the interaction of two vastly different cultures, and lead to things more severe. How, perhaps, things might have been different. Of course, culture does not interact at all, i [...]

    Reply
  • Calzean

    The time setting and place - early settlers in Albany WA, whalers, interaction with the Indigenous people - were all interesting. The book's feature is the change in the White's attitude towards the Indigenous went from needing their help to active forms of exile, murder and abuse. I was hoping for an Aboriginal version of The Secret River but I found the style of the writing, the constant change of timelines and narrators hard to follow and not enjoyable.

    Reply
  • David

    An enlightening read focusing on the relationships between the increasing numbers of white settlers and the Noongar people - the native indigenous Australians in the Albany region of Western Australia. The novel is set in the early to mid 1800s, with the burgeoning whaling industry as the backdrop, and the attitudes and relationships between the races are seen to be constantly changing and evolving, with young aboriginal boy Bobby Wabalanginy often being the lynchpin between the two cultures.

    Reply
  • Kaylene

    Thoroughly enjoyable book, wonderful prose with endearing characters (Bobby, Menak etc). Although a work of fiction, it still presents an incredible insight into this time in history. I highly recommend this book.

    Reply
  • Emily

    If I could give it a lower rating, I would

    Reply
  • Nancy

    With apologies to reviewer Lisa who first captured this quote from this utterly extraordinary book to encapsulate the experience of reading it.'You can dive deep into a book and not know just how deep until you return gasping to the surface, and are surprised at yourself, your new and so very sensitive skin. As if you’re someone else altogether, some new self trying on the words.' (p86)There is so much more that I could say, but it has been most eloquently said in other reviews. For me, the ve [...]

    Reply
  • Andrew

    This is an excellent read which vividly portrays the story of the British colonisation of Australia in the early 19th century and the sad account of the indigenous people's appalling treatment .The dehumanization of the story allows us as readers to empathise with the experience as we meet a young Noongar man named Bobby Wabalanginy. He is a brilliant creation who we follow across the decades. The book initially is difficult to follow as we meet many different characters and move across the deca [...]

    Reply
  • Jan Reid

    That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott is the book that many readers (and Australians in particular) have been waiting for, perhaps without even realising it. Many authors have attempted to describe early settlement in Australia, but their efforts remain primarily from the European perspective. Scott, on the other hand, as the son of an Aboriginal father and English mother, was able to authentically deliver from both perspectives.Kim Scott is no stranger to fame. He is the first indigenous Australian a [...]

    Reply
  • 菁华

    I can't make my mind up about this book. The ending was really strong; the start was kind of slow: an annoyingly filmic montage that skipped back and forth in time, not grabbing hold of anyplace or anywhere quite enough to sink you into the story, so it took me a while to feel like it was starting. In parts the language is gorgeous and evocative. Elsewhere it's ordinary and weighed down by lengthy visual descriptions that weren't always vivid for me. I got a bit bored in some of the long passage [...]

    Reply
  • Alison

    This is not an easy book to read - the prose jumps around jarringly, requiring patience and not always in a pleasurable way. The tale, however, of intercultural encounters that inevitably eventually become dispossession, theft and murder, is compelling and so well told. The pervasive optimism of the central character - Bobby Wabalangay - and the refusal to let any character be a stereotype, stop the book from feeling grim, but at the same time, this is a sharp history about the conflict for reso [...]

    Reply
  • Carmen Tudor

    A wonderful Australian novel full of the spirit of oral storytelling and the sound of language. If you don't mind forgoing a usual narrative structure you'll find lots to love; if you need quote marks to get by you'll probably want to keep looking.NB Did I get it all? Not entirely. Does it matter? Not really.

    Reply
  • jimmygill

    I began this book with the best of intentions and high hopes. Both where dashed upon the rocks of the coastline on which this very novel is set. The remains trodden on by Bobby and his cohort as well as the plebeian settlers that have somehow become lost in the colonial history of Australia and wondered onto the pages of this rather unfortunate , which had me weeping within twenty pages and wondering whether I had become so bored I had forgotten how to read or that my mind had simply switched to [...]

    Reply
  • Max Davine

    Firstly Kim Scott's That Deadman Dance portrays, for a non-indigenous person, the finest and most respectful representation of it's indigenous characters I have yet come across. Older texts heinously allocate them the role of uncivil savages while modern media either portrays the helpless victim or the proud campaigner. While the latter two a certainly valid, none of the three are representative of what a character should be: a human being, complete with vulnerabilities, flaws and fears. It make [...]

    Reply
  • Angus Mcfarlane

    "the only thing worse than sailors in a ship was whalers in a ship; maggots in a floating abattoir"I read this book at the same time as reading moby dick, so the reference to whaling quoted above seemed particularly poignant, and since I dislike the practice, apt. There are many other evocative images in the book, and it probably warrants a slow read to appreciate them fully, but on the first read,I was keen to hear the story. Bobby, the main character is a lovable boy who grows to manhood over [...]

    Reply
  • Annabel Smith

    That Deadman Dance is a fictionalised account of early contact between the Noongar people of Albany, Western Australia, and Europeans settling in the area in the early 1800s.The novel centres on the story of Bobby Wabalanginy and his family and their gradual process of coming to understand both what the settlers seek, and what they offer. Bobby is a loveable character and the novel beautifully evokes the Noongar people’s sense of humour, and their connection with place. There is some stunning [...]

    Reply
  • Kylie van den Akker

    I wanted to love this book. But I just found it an enormous struggle to finish it. I didn’t want to give up on it. And I did finish it (I hammered through it in 4 days, or it would have sat on my bedside table half read for 6 months). The writing was beautiful, & very poetic. But the style was awkward to me, and I never really fell into the rhythm of it. And I just could not engage with the story & characters. I found the narrative very disjointed & had a hard time piecing it toget [...]

    Reply
  • Karly

    This is a book about the 'what if' of Australian history. Set in WA in what was called, 'the friendly frontier', the indigenous/settler relationships begin as ones of mutual reciprocity. There is always a sense that this will not last and you wait for things to shift to hostility. I loved the description of the WA coast and the way people were so able to live in harmony with what early settlers saw as the end of the earth. I found the plot meandered too much. It was often observational and lacke [...]

    Reply
  • Anne Fenn

    I can see why this book won the 2011 Mikes Franklin award. It's a very powerful imagination of a 10 year period of early West Australian history. The point of view's main focus is on blackfella Bobby, but there are a multitude of voices, both black and white. Kim Scott poetically presents thoughts, feelings, spoken words and actions to bring things to life. There's a lot of play to balance the slowly unfolding tragedy of changes to the life and land. You learn a lot, reading this book. Too much [...]

    Reply
  • Nicola-Jane

    The writing of my local and familiar landscape is exquisite, the story is a heartbreaking one, and the narrative is original and breathtaking in its achievement. While challenging at first, as the chronology is fragmented and the story is told from many points of view, I found myself surrendering to and embracing the 'timeless now' of the narrative. I highly recommend this book to all who are interested in understanding more of the colonial history of Albany and surrounds (in south-west Western [...]

    Reply
  • Jane Stabb

    Me and my people My people and I (he winked) are not so good traders as we thought. We thought making friends was the best thing, and never knew that when we took your flour and sugar and tea and blankets that we'd lose everything of ours. We learned your words and songs and stories, and never knew you didn't want to hear ours.

    Reply
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Name *
Email *
Website
  • [PDF] Download ☆ That Deadman Dance | by ☆ Kim Scott
    346 Kim Scott
  • thumbnail Title: [PDF] Download ☆ That Deadman Dance | by ☆ Kim Scott
    Posted by:Kim Scott
    Published :2019-09-05T00:56:36+00:00