Manganinnie

by Beth Roberts

It is the 1830”s during the Black Drive in Tasmania, Australia’s southernmost island territory. Manganinnie, a palawa Aborginal woman of the Big River People, finds herself separated from her people. It is like they vanished in thin air!! She thus begins a lonely journey looking for any survivors of her clansmen.
Manganinnie is given the gift of the little white girl, Jo Jo, whom she rescues when the girl wanders away from her brothers while on an outing in the bush. Sharing a unique bond of love with the girl whose hair is the colour of Ballawainnie, the scared red ochre, gives Manganinnie the hope she needs to fulfill her role as teacher of Common Knowledge.
Follow their amazing journey, as they traverse the Tasmanian countryside. The story magically submerges the reader into how life was for the original inhabitants of this unique island before colonization.

156 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

Reviews

[Christina Baehr · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one should really be on any Aus/NZ Charlotte Mason homeschooler’s shelf. I suspect that there may be issues with the changing interpretations of Tasmanian indigenous cultures (now called “palawa”). I would love to see an annotated or revised edition reflecting this. In the meantime, this is the first living book I’ve found on this subject. This novel slows you down to a nature-based pace. The experience of reading it is similar to MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN or ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS. Reading this novel helped me to look at the landscape around me here in Tasmania more attentively and deeply. It was very gripping and moving to my young daughters, and made them much more curious about the people who lived here before us.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Manganinnie is a classic piece of Australian children’s fiction and should be read by everyone, everywhere. It’s a beautiful, sad, lovely and powerful story about the Tasmanian Aboriginal people and a fictional survivor of the 1830 Black Line, when a line of Europeans marched the state to annihilate and confine Indigenous people. It’s a truly wonderful read and a wonderful introduction to the ancient Tasmanian Aboriginal culture. I hope more people read this book.

[Rivqa]

What to say about this little book? I picked it up as part of my research for my convict-era novel, while very conscious of the limitations of a book about Aboriginal Tasmanians by a white author would have. First published in 1979, it hasn't aged well. There are some lovely descriptions, but some historical inaccuracies that even I'm aware of with my very limited knowledge. Most concerning is the plot, which features an Aboriginal woman kidnapping a settler child. Hardly the basis for a respectful depiction of Aboriginal culture, even with the flimsy justifications in the story. All in all, it's a lesson in what not to do, and (if I want to spin it positively) a reminder of how far we've come in our understanding of the damage of cultural appropriation and carelessly spun narratives about the "other". I'll be reading some Melissa Lucashenko as a palate cleanser.

[Sean Harding · Rating 3 out of 5]

I saw the movie of this in about 1980 with a school excursion, the film was pretty good from memory, I never knew it was based off of a novel and when I found this the other day I decided to have a read, it is certainly not brilliant and feels like a first novel and a look how much research I did here, anyway still a decent read, and good for younger readers to understand our history.

[Travellin Penguin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good children's book. Australian Indigenous