ISBN: 1876 780 53 3
Author: Colin Macleod
Size: B5
Format: Paperback
RRP: $ 25.95 inc GST

A Strong Song

A Strong Song is the saga of the tragic confrontation of the Pintupi People with the white invaders of Central Australia in the period 1920s-1970s. We are all familiar with the family sagas of 19th and 20th century England, but this novel is the first attempt at a family saga of the Aboriginal peoples of the Western deserts.

Author, former judge Colin Macleod, is the well known writer of Patrol in the Dreamtime, the documentary history of his turbulent years in the Northern Territory in the 1950s, at the height of the stolen generation controversy. Patrol in the Dreamtime stirred up media and parliamentary controversy in the 1990s. Now A Strong Song will stir up even more controversy in the 2000s. Macleod tells an ugly story of rape, brutality, murder and the Coniston massacre of 1928 in the outlying regions of Alice Springs. But he also tells of some of the good things coming out of black-white contact. In any case, his story is much, much more than this kind of social history, because he feels his way into the heart and soul of his Pintupi heroes and heroines; he sees history from their point of view.

This is the heart-rending story of the children of mixed race who grew up in isolation, having lost their tribal spiritual traditions, but being regarded as second-class citizens by the whites. A Strong Song explores the depths of despair and degradation, but, slowly, works its way towards hope and even triumph.