Cicada

by Moira McKinnon

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Allen & Unwin

In between the pains of childbirth, Emily thought about her doomed marriage. Emily had known William since he was adopted as sickly child in England. When they married, they replaced the refinements of 1918 London with the red dust of the Kimberley and William had become as harsh as the environment they found themselves inhabiting. At a time when Aboriginal people were thought of as ‘prehuman’, she knew that when the dark-skinned baby emerged into the dusty heat that her husband would be incensed. Indeed, the violent chain of events after the doomed child was born meant that she had to escape from their isolated property in the middle of Western Australia. Along with Aboriginal housemaid Wirritjil, they ran into the wilderness and the Emily became dependent on her servant to survive.

The air is heavy with approaching storms of long-awaited rains. Emily and Wirritjil are hunted by William’s brother Trevor and head stockman John and Emily’s sister is travelling from the other side of the world. Agents of AO Neville were out “protecting” Aboriginal people by enforcing genocidal damage to the population while Wirritjil reads the signs of the land and the animals to survive. Despite the language barrier, Emily learns about the richness of the bush and the desert and the importance of Wirritjil’s knowledge. It is a race against time as trackers, troopers and men who want to silence the women close in and Aboriginal law sets its own events in motion.

After graduating in medicine from the University of Western Australia, Moira McKinnon has studied emerging infectious diseases and the relationship with global and environmental health. She thinks that understanding the relationship that indigenous people had with the land is an important part of the future wellbeing of the environment and humankind. Cicada is steeped in tragedy, but the lessons from the story about how removed society is from nature are worth considering so that we don’t repeat the mistakes of those who travelled before us.

Lezly Herbert