The fringe dwellers torrent

The old world of tyrants and lies falls and gradually things are made new, a higher consciousness will always lead you towards the light, so be patient and have faith in that. One day, you will find yourself in a system that does not denigrate you, one that supports you to become ever more. The light has come but it may take time for tyranny to fall, and yet the Brave New World is gradually upon us, that now is guaranteed.

Stuart Wilde www. The Fringe Dwellers by Nene Gare. This is the story of two Aboriginal sisters, Noonah and Trilby. Noonah accepts her position as a dweller on the fringe of Australian society but Trilby refuses to. Get A Copy. Paperback , pages.

Published first published More Details Original Title. Western Australia Australia. Other Editions 8. Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Fringe Dwellers , please sign up. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of The Fringe Dwellers. I was in outback Western Australia recently, interviewing someone about the lifestyle in their small mining township.

After talking a little about the independence necessary in a place where your nearest supermarket involves a mile round trip, he went on to praise the low crime rate and sense of community. It's the sort of casual I was in outback Western Australia recently, interviewing someone about the lifestyle in their small mining township. It's the sort of casual remark you hear a lot. This book is an interesting case. The author was white, but the book is an intimate portrait of an Aboriginal family living on the edge of a small town in Western Australia in the s.

It's the sort of act of ventriloquism that we've learnt to be suspicious of nowadays, and perhaps there are some readers who would find it faintly patronising. But it must have been revelatory when it was first published in , and I still thought it was brilliantly and sensitively done. Nene Gare lived among Aborigines for many years, counting many as close friends at a time when this was rare it's still not especially common for a lot of white Australians ; her husband was later appointed Commissioner for Native Welfare, and one of the relative few that did not make the position look like a travesty.

The novel centres on the Comeaway family, who begin the story living in a humpy outside town, later move into council housing, and end up on a specially-built enclosure. This book lives or dies on the strength of its characters; luckily, they are brilliantly, complicatedly alive and they stop The Fringe Dwellers from being a grim, worthy kind of book and turn it into a much more interesting study which, apart from the social-historical interest, has all kinds of things to say about families and relationships and growing up.

The hero is the teenage Trilby Comeaway — awesome name — who rails desperately against a system that is horribly weighted against her.

Unlike her parents, who battle on with amiable weariness, or her sister Noonah, who keeps her head down and tries to fit in, Trilby is filled with fury at the whole of society and everyone in it. They still keep a line between us and them. Pigs live better than we do. I tell you I hate white people because they lump us all together and never give one of us a chance to leave all this behind.

And I hate coloured people more, because most of them don't want a chance. They like living like pigs, damn them. Still, this is that rare thing, a novel written to make a social point that never feels remotely preachy, full of anger but also full of warmth, and amusement, and love. View all 17 comments. Context is extremely important when reading a book like this. Nene Gare was a white woman writing about indigenous Australians. One can't believe that it is the authentic voice of a people - yet, taken into consideration the time it was written it was practically revolutionary.

Here was a story about Aboriginal people which humanised them to a white audience - it showed them as family, as people who loved and fought and struggled just like anybody else.

There are undoubtedly some sections which Context is extremely important when reading a book like this. There are undoubtedly some sections which are patronising, but the characters of Noonah and Trilby in particular are beautifully written -the essence of Trilby in all her teenage hormonal angst is captured so vividly, and Noonah's being caught between two worlds as she moves between home and work is captivating.

However, there are still gaps in the stories, but the book never feels like a rewriting of history or the 'noble white saviour' in the way that something like "The Help" does. The cast of characters in "The Fringe Dwellers" survive or fall because of themselves - and it's this silence in the novel that sums up the complexities of Australian society today and why reconciliation needs to be worked upon harder than ever. View 2 comments. Dec 23, Colleen Stone rated it really liked it Shelves: australian-fiction , aboriginal-issues , historical-fiction , readings.

Bruce Beresford made it into a film - that's got to be a good recommendation. I have always been intrigued and horrified by the parallel world in which Australia's dispossessed indigenous people are forced to live It was a good read and a real window into a world that would normally be closed to me..

Set in the nineteen fifties or early sixties in North West Australia, "The Fringe Dwellers" follows the lives of two aboriginal sisters, Noonah Bruce Beresford made it into a film - that's got to be a good recommendation. Set in the nineteen fifties or early sixties in North West Australia, "The Fringe Dwellers" follows the lives of two aboriginal sisters, Noonah and Trilby, and their friends and "'lations" as they go about making their lives within the context of a racially segregated Australia.

The novel opens as Noonah and Trilby are leaving a remote Mission Station where they have been placed by their parents from early childhood until their mid teens. Their mother placed them in care to ensure that they acquired an education and for her own convenience. While they leave the mission well cared for and with the desired education, they are emotionally starved, have lost touch with their culture and have aspirations that are unrealistic for an aboriginal girl at that time and in that place.

Noonah dreams of becoming a nurse while Trilby dreams of a loving husband who can provide for his family and a neat home in which to raise their children. Humble enough aspirations, but for the sisters, chasing those dreams will further alienate them from their culture and their family Back in the bosom of their loving but chaotic family, the girls discover that they are neither fish nor fowl. Noonah enters nursing training and spends her rare days off trying to stop the family from falling into one disaster after another.

While this path opens up for her reasonably easily, her emotional life hovers in a no man's land. For the more intuitive and feisty Trilby, finding a path is fraught with endless trials. She struggles to break through the race barrier finding resistance and prejudice at every turn. She resists becoming trapped in the cycle of poverty, babies, babies and alcohol abuse so happily being lived by her peers.

So what about my white guilt? I could say it was all so long ago and that it's no longer like that, but of course, while there has been some progress, the problem remains.

I could say that by shining a spotlight on the issue, the injustice must become evident and the situation begin to change, but who am I kidding? I could say that everywhere there is oppression, and in all communities, dispossessed and otherwise, it is the women who are most oppressed. Schoolgirl Leo Wockner Stockman Wilf Campagnoni Bert David Clendenning Headmaster Noanie Wood Miss Simmons Gabrielle Lanbrose Henwood as Gabrielle Lambrose Jack Mayers Constable Rob Johnston George Laurie Foell Colquhoun Kevin Dean Foreman Rest of cast listed alphabetically: Bruce Beresford Sticky Beak in town uncredited Craig Kadel Craig classroom student uncredited Produced by Hilary Heath Getting Started Contributor Zone ».

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