Tara June Winch
Winner of the 2020 Miles Franklin Literary Award, The Yield by Tara June Winch is a compelling narrative unfolding through three related threads. The threads combine to expose the racism, abuse, exploitation, government-sanctioned violence, and attempts to eradicate the culture of the indigenous peoples of Australia by their British colonizers.
The primary thread is of August Gondiwindi, an Australian Wiradjuri, who has been adrift in England for several years. She returns to the rural Australian town of Massacre Plains to attend her grandfather’s funeral. The second thread goes back in time with August’s grandfather, Albert ‘Poppy’ Gondiwindi. Diagnosed with a terminal illness, Poppy decides to compose a dictionary of his people’s language to preserve it for future generations. The final thread is in the epistolary form and goes even further back in time. Beginning in 1915, Reverend Ferdinand Greenleaf, a missionary sent to Massacre Plains, addresses a series of letters to Dr. George Cross of the British Society of Ethnography.
August’s return to her home generates difficult memories of her childhood and of her sister’s disappearance. Her interaction with her grandmother, aunts, cousins, and childhood friends also triggers some positive memories, especially of her grandfather’s love and devotion. Learning that her Poppy was writing a dictionary, August determines to locate the book. Her search immerses her deeper into her cultural heritage until she determines to stay in Australia to fight the mining company wanting to repossess their land.
Poppy’s Wiradjuri dictionary begins with the letter ‘y’ and moves backward through the western alphabet. The complete dictionary is available at the end of the novel. In the process of defining words of his native language, Poppy includes elements of his culture’s mythology and belief systems, his conversations with deceased ancestors, animal fables, his personal history, and his attempts to instill in the young pride in their cultural heritage. His language is lyrical when speaking of his ancestors and recalling their stories. He also chronicles the abuse he experienced as a child forcibly removed from his parents and thrust into a boarding school where he was forbidden to speak his language or practice his traditions.
Reverend Greenleaf’s letters reveal his recognition of the abuse and discrimination mounted against the indigenous population of Massacre Plains. His respect for them grows with time as does his anxiety to preserve their culture, their language, and their lives. His letters amount to a plea for justice and greater compassion for the people, but his pleas fall on deaf ears.
Tara June Winch, an Australian Wiradjuri, has written a complex, compelling novel chronicling the abuse, discrimination, and atrocities perpetrated on Australia’s indigenous peoples. Her language is powerful and unflinchingly honest. The three seemingly disparate threads coalesce to depict cultural genocide from different angles layered at different time frames. Her novel is a moving testament to the suffering of the indigenous population, their resilience, and their determination to retain ownership of their land and to keep their cultural traditions alive through language and action. She is well-deserving of the awards and accolades she has received.