Reverend Greenleaf’s sections were fascinating to me on account of their historical significance, and I’ve long been interested in the history of missions and missionaries.
What I really took away from August’s story though is the weight of intergenerational pain, and I feel I’ve gained a greater understanding about the importance of language and place within the context of cultural identity. August’s sections were drenched with sorrow, loss and grief, and yet, there was a hopeful glimmer, growing brighter as the novel approached its conclusion. This may be a work of fiction, but it is insightful and informed by reality. I enjoyed each section equally, to me, they each offered a lens of insight that taught me something. There are three stories unfolding within this novel, the links between all three becoming firmer as the novel progresses. It is a brilliant novel: deeply thought provoking, challenging, intelligent, sophisticated in style, and beautifully written, despite the brutality and sorrow that the history, and narrative, is awash with.
It’s no surprise to me, now that I’ve read it, that it has been the recipient of such critical acclaim and the winner of more than one prestigious award. This is a novel that I feel is best deeply contemplated rather than extensively commented on. But it is as much a celebration of what was and what endures, and a powerful reclaiming of Indigenous language, storytelling and identity. Profoundly moving and exquisitely written, Tara June Winch’s The Yield is the story of a people and a culture dispossessed. Determined to make amends she endeavours to save their land – a quest that leads her to the voice of her grandfather and into the past, the stories of her people, the secrets of the river. Her homecoming is bittersweet as she confronts the love of her kin and news that Prosperous is to be repossessed by a mining company. She returns home for his burial, wracked with grief and burdened with all she tried to leave behind. He finds the words on the wind.Īugust Gondiwindi has been living on the other side of the world for ten years when she learns of her grandfather’s death.
Albert is determined to pass on the language of his people and everything that was ever remembered. His life has been spent on the banks of the Murrumby River at Prosperous House, on Massacre Plains. Knowing that he will soon die, Albert ‘Poppy’ Gondiwindi takes pen to paper. In the language of the Wiradjuri yield is the things you give to, the movement, the space between things: baayanha. The yield in English is the reaping, the things that man can take from the land. Winner, Book of the Year, People’s Choice, Christina Stead Prize for Fiction at NSW Premier’s Literary Award. Winner of the 2020 Miles Franklin Literary Award.
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