Book Group Discussion Questions

BOOK-GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1.    When readers first meet Gabe, he is at his home along the Queensland coast. For the last forty-five years, he has rarely traveled more than a hundred kilometers inland. What does his choice to avoid the outback tell us about his inner conflict? How has his experience as one of Australia’s Stolen Generation impacted his view of himself, his friends, and his family? 2.    By the end of chapter one, readers know that Dana’s shamanic skills will play an important role in the story. At Halfway Downs, a rancher implies the skills are nothing but clever games. Even Dana admits that some of what he does is clever illusion, yet his own belief in the power to make people ill and to heal is strong. If someone is tricked into believing something is real, does the fact that it’s a trick make the experience any less real? Can the power of an individual to believe he’s been healed or made sick truly make them so? Considering that scientific studies have proven the power of prayer, what role does shamanic power have in modern society? 3.    Kevin hates Aboriginal people. Dana hates whites and Aborigines who didn’t grow up in their own tribal culture. How does the racist outlook of both men play off each other in the story? What does their interaction and their private thoughts say about the clash of traditional and European cultures in Australia today? How does this enlighten readers’ view of their own society’s racial strife? 4.    After Dana kills Ian, he covers the corpse’s face with a hat. According to his traditional beliefs, “If the ghost couldn’t identify the murderer, it couldn’t seek revenge.” What other “ghosts” haunt Dana and drive him to such extremes? What ghosts force Gabe to first undertake his outback journey then continue with it against all odds? 5.    Dana’s excuse for looting ancestral sites is that he has adapted to changing times. He “thought of the continent as a vast warehouse catalogued by clan lines. Spears, grinding rocks and mummies converted easily to cash, the modern measure of power.” Later, however, he regrets his inability to pass his wealth of knowledge on to a younger person. How else does our modern world measure power? Are any of these measures inherently good? Inherently evil? How many of these measures have the potential for both good and evil? 6.    On his journey, Gabe drives the same SUV that carried Ian into the outback when he was just days old. Dob had kept the vehicle in pristine condition in case his son ever needed it, and now the need is dire. Still, Gabe’s quest begins with a feeling of hopelessness that he’ll ever find out what happened. His relationship with Ian has the strength of the bond between brothers. What does Gabe’s poor relationship with his own brothers tell us about his quest? How does this reflect on the biological brother he lost when the adoption agency separated the two when Gabe was three? 7.    When Gabe first sees Rob, he is still in shock from the accident. Layered over Rob’s face, Gabe sees the face of his uncle. Later Rob is said to be Gabe’s father because he teaches Gabe the traditional ways. At the end, Gabe realizes that no matter what, he’s found an Aboriginal family in Rob and his relatives. What does the interaction of these two men tell us about how family ties are built? How does Rob’s own loss of a brother impact their relationship? What does their journey to find the truth about Ian tell us about the ties between brothers? 8.    In chapter five, Dana thinks about the facial names given by settlers to the trees. “Names were important. In the Tjukurpa, the ancestors created things by calling out their names. In that single act the flower bloomed, the lizard ran, water flowed.” What does Dana’s use of the traditional word for white people reflect about his view of Europeans? What does Gabriel Branch’s name tell us about him? Are there other names for characters that reveal individual traits, or as importantly, hide something? 9.    In chapter nine, Gabe remembers the day he was stolen from his family. He and his brother had been playing with a dead snake. Gabe braves the greater threat posed by the welfare agent to take candy from the white man. The Rainbow Serpent is an important Dreamtime tale for many Aboriginal tribes. How does the dead snake in Gabe’s past mingle with the creation power attributed to the Rainbow Serpent? How does the fact that he knows only snippets of traditional stories impact his life? How does he overcome his lack of traditional knowledge? 10.    In chapter ten, Dana justifies the fact that he never gets involved intimately with women outside his own race. The idea that a mixed-race child might result is too repulsive to consider. Gabe, on the other hand, has never dated an Aboriginal woman, claiming that too few live in Townsville. What do these choices reflect about how each man views his own people? How do these choices reveal what each man thinks about himself? 11.    In chapter eleven, Dana compares Zack to Ian. Dana admires both, knowing that the white men “who heard the earth whisper beneath their heels were rare…He could teach the smartest man every song and ceremony, show him how to find quartz and make magic with animal bones. But memorization and repetition would yield nothing without the music of the country in a man’s soul.” What does this comparison tell us about the lives of people in the outback today? How do those lives compare to how people live in Australia’s cities? What do the different lifestyles tell us about how people in different nations live today? 12.    Water plays an important role in desert life and in this story. Zack was born during a monsoon and is saved in part because rain slicks the railroad ties. Gabe saw the color of the ocean in the candy used to lure him near the welfare agents’ truck and ended up living near the ocean. In chapter seventeen, Gabe reflects that “Townsville was a cup of ocean breezes, the chatter of palm fronds and gulls brimming above mountain peaks. The desert was painfully bright, razor dry, and pocked with silent water holes.” How does water symbolize the differences between European and Aboriginal culture? In chapter ten, when Gabe wishes for nothing more than the ocean’s “saline precision” to wash him clean of the outback’s dust, what does he really want? When he compares the absolute silence of the outback to the crush of the ocean’s depths in chapter thirty-one, what does he really hear echoing out of his past? 13.    Gabe’s interactions with the police are contentious. Yet Commissioner Charles Dawson of the Alice Springs Police Department eventually saves both Gabe and Rob. Can cultural differences be overcome when the need is great? How can these larger triumphs impact the daily interactions of different cultures? Is spiritual law more important than man’s law? Can a balance be struck between personal belief and spiritual values? 14.    In chapter seventeen, Gabe visits Thin Creek and meets an elder woman. Her “spine had locked in a permanent bow. Hair the color of distant rain was tucked behind a band, her only article of clothing besides a pair of shorts. Her breasts had been emptied by mouths now as old as Gabe. The rest of her flesh hung neatly, as if she combed it every morning into long folds.” When she emerges from the forest, Gabe “could hardly stop staring. There was a light around her like sunshine through fog. She was the most beautiful person he had ever seen.” What does this passage tell us about Gabe’s journey so far? What does it tell us about the beauty everyone misses in the commonplace, or even in the ugly? 15.    Chapter nineteen is dominated by violence. Gabe remembers the stories he’d heard about white people peeling the skin off Aborigines to make cloaks and how terrified he’d been of his adoptive parents. He realizes that he will never find his friend and compares his sorrow to the cancers men find in their scrotums. He and Rob are pinned down by sniper fire and discuss the violence caused by racial epithets. How do these different forms of violence interact? Are hateful words more or less damaging than physical violence? In what ways are they more or less damaging? 16.    After Selena is kidnapped, her uncle Angus prays for Rob and Gabe by painting a scene on a piece of bark. He knows that Selena will be held in the prayers of women. Rachel, the songwoman who lives alone in the Tanami Desert, sends her spirit out to look for Selena. Matty, on the other hand, uses her rosary to pray for all of them. When Della collapses in a trance, the Baptist minister says she is talking with the angels. How are these various belief systems similar? How are they different? Do their differences truly matter when prayer comes from the heart? 17.    The book opens with the line, “When a man dies in the desert, he is completely alone.” When Kevin is killed in chapter thirty, he is also left to die alone. How do the deaths of these two men bring justice to bear on Dana? What does this parallel tell us about how lives are lived under the different societal mores in Australian culture?  18.    When Gabe and his biological brother were stolen, the cannibal song made Gabe feel safe. Why did he stop singing it after he was place with a white family? Why does he sing a different chant when he faces off against Dana in chapter thirty-one? 19.    The roles of women are important in this story and in Aboriginal culture. Although Gabe broke up with his girlfriend before beginning his journey, how does her strength guide him during his quest? How does Matty’s willingness to allow Rob to make his own choices even in the face of danger support Rob’s development? What is Della’s spiritual purpose? Could Gabe have rescued Selena if Rachel hadn’t sent her own spirit out to find her wandering soul?  20.    A literary magazine editor said, “Ms. Cunningham shows an Australia beautiful and brutal.” In what ways is the outback beautiful? In what ways is it brutal? How does this create beauty and brutality in her people? How does the beauty and brutality of our own society create beauty and brutality in its people?