General News
21 June, 2024
The desert holds many secrets
A girl walks out of the desert, not speaking, in bloodstained clothing, barefoot.
So begins the latest release from Kiwi author Lia Hills, a book five years in the making and set in the Wimmera and southern Mallee.
When this pre-teen stranger shows up literally on Beth's doorstep, the 30-something land regenerator and seed trader's instinct is to offer the new arrival not questions, but shelter; shelter from the elements and from whatever trauma has left her physically ragged and emotionally mute.
Unable to continue thinking of her sudden housemate as anonymous, Beth names her "Freya".
But while Beth and her publican-friend Nate might be patient enough to give Freya time to recuperate and begin to trust, the population of Gatyekarr, in general, is more demanding.
As the mainstream media begins to circle this unidentified "desert girl", so too do the district's residents - and only some of them mean well.
An imagined settlement about an hour's drive north of Horsham, not far from Rainbow and bordering the Little Desert, Gatyekarr has the typical trappings of almost any Wimmera town.
Ms Hills describes in detail the local pub (with its stuffed white fox on show as a trophy) and historical society (whose members are busily preparing for a back-to weekend) and the refusal of long-established family dynasties to face some uncomfortable realities from centuries past.
In this way, The Desert Knows Her Name weaves together fiction and fact, referencing real-life characters such as the Duff children who survived alone in the Wimmera bush for more than a week in 1864.
It also draws on considerable consultation with the Barengi Gadjin Land Council that represents the Traditional Owners from the Wotjobaluk, Jaadwa, Jadawadjali, Wergaia and Jupagulk peoples on whose Country the novel is set.
Despite the immediate intrigue of its storyline, this is not a fast-paced weekend read that can be squeezed between a Saturday morning game of kids' footy and restocking the kitchen cupboards on a Sunday afternoon.
Rather, it is a book to be savoured, consumed in stages, mulled over, considered and absorbed.
At a reading last week at the Dimboola Imaginarium, Ms Hills said every morning a Rainbow Bee-Eater would appear in the yard - “like a rainbow exploding from the ground” - and when she saw the list of options for the novel’s cover, she chose the bird which had been her companion during the writing process.
“I was firm. They kept showing me other options and saying ‘What about this one, or that one’, but I said no to them all,” she said.
The book features four “voices”, Ms Hill said. Beth, Nate, and the anonymous, mute girl who appears out of the desert are the obvious ones, but less obvious is the narrator, the land itself, which Ms Hills said had its own voice and its own story to share.
“The girl says she is not a ‘messenger’, but she and the land both have something to share,” she said.
“There are some uncomfortable, confronting themes in the book that challenge the way we think about certain long-standing issues, especially in small rural towns, and I’m looking forward to hearing what people think of these parts.”
Dimboola Imaginarium owner Chan Uoy said hosting authors like Ms Hills was an important promotion for both the writer and the region.
“Writing a book is difficult," Mr Uoy said.
"We’re talking about years of an author’s life, so when these stories come out, especially when they are about our towns and our region, it is important to celebrate them.
“We support them and promote them because stories like these are another way we can connect with other people beyond the Wimmera and grow their interest in us.”
The Desert Knows Her Name is available online, at the Dimboola Imaginarium, and at Redrock Books and Gallery in Horsham.