Stranger Country

by Monica Tan

Tracks meets Wild in this account of Chinese Australian journalist Monica Tan's 6 month odyssey though outback Australia.

'Will I ever really belong to this country? As a Chinese Australian? As a non-Indigenous Australian? . . . I was 32 years old and barely knew the country of my birth. It was time to change that.'

What happens when a 32-year-old first-generation Australian woman decides to chuck in a dream job, pack a sleeping bag and tent, and hit the long, dusty road for six months?

Thirty-thousand kilometres later, Monica Tan has the answer, and it completely surprises her.

In mid-2016, Monica left Sydney, unsure of her place in Australia. As a Chinese Australian city slicker, she couldn't have felt more distant from powerful mythologies like the Digger, the Drover's Wife and Clancy of the Overflow. And more importantly, Monica wondered, how could she ever feel she truly belonged to a land that has been the spiritual domain of Indigenous Australians for over 60,000 years?

Stranger Country is the riveting account of the six months Monica drove and camped her way through some of Australia's most beautiful and remote landscapes. She shared meals, beers and conversations with miners, greynomads, artists, farmers, community workers and small business owners from across the nation: some Aboriginal, some white, some Asian, and even a few who managed to be all three. The result is an enthralling and entertaining celebration of the spirit of adventure, a thoughtful quest for understanding and a unique portrait of Australia and all it means to those who live here.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Australia, Memoir, Audiobook, Book Club, Biography Memoir

317 pages, Paperback

First published March 4, 2019

Reviews

[Anne Fenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Monica Tan gives us a fantastic way to see Australia. Why? She's youngish, 32, Chinese Australian female, traveling alone for months through the most remote parts of Australia. Her original goal was to investigate the differences between parts of the country, inspired by her time in China where there are such many varied regional contrasts. Possibly deeper motivation came from her own questioning about where she belonged. However by the time she's back in Sydney, we can see how much else she's learned.
Her focus is on indigenous Australia, she is often with the mob on country, in towns or parks or land , coast, seashore, all inhabited today by descendants of the original inhabitants. As a Chinese Australian, she recognises her forebears were part of the story of displacement of their people. More than this, she later takes her learning to share in her teaching young people in the city, teenagers often with migrant backgrounds who may also have felt they didn't belong . We are all part of this country is an incredibly valuable lesson.
Monica's background as a journalist means she researches things she sees, then writes very informative, easily accessible explanations of a wide variety of things of a mining, industrial, geological, historical, sociological or environmental nature. She's a great writer, highly descriptive, poetic, funny, personal elements are part of the book's appeal. She ventures further into the personal, her fears along the way, her episode of romance, her fishing misadventures, her car...
Love the title too.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting and pretty enjoyable read of this young woman's journey of exploring her land of her birth. Travelling beyond the safe coastal rim that most of us cling to. Travelling solo, with eyes and ears open deliberately setting out to learn more about the original people of this land, and at the same time she naturally finds a whole lot of stuff about herself and her perceptions and assumptions.
A trip I imagine many many of us would so like to take, fashioned in our own manner.
Please do read it for yourself. I do not want to attempt to interpret her interpretations of all she learned from and about the amazing culture that grounds and centres this land.
You may find some of her story and thinking quite challenging, it is apparent when you scan through the reviews that many of my fellow Australias who have read this have been challenged and have responded with the safe knee jerk response of justification. Please allow yourself to face the challenge and think and then go forward from here and learn more from the raft of current amazing publications. But most of all, maybe take time to seek out you local traditional people's, sit and listen and observe. Don't try and "become them" but listen and behave in respect and a whole new world will open itself.

[Derek · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting book on an asian perspective of Australian culture. Sadly, the author comes across as condescending towards those she disagrees with or thinks differently to her.

[Nadia Zeemeeuw · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was reading this book after almost a year since my last trip to Australia. And in these gloomy lockdown days it was exactly what I needed.

[Julie Bozza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable read, with a vivid look at the Australian landscape and peoples, mostly in easy-to-read prose with occasional flights into poetry. Tan sets out to explore the country itself and to seek more familiarity with the Indigenous peoples and their cultures. She finds far more diversity than she'd anticipated, both in the present and the past, including the significant presence of the Chinese (and other Asians). The story is thus very affirming in terms of Australia having long been a multicultural country. ... Alas, we still need to sort out how best to work with that rather than against it.

I wouldn't have the nerve to travel so far alone, and through such isolated country. So it's just as well that I did a shorter but similar trip with my family when I was a kid. Otherwise I'd have a bad case of wanderlust right now!

[Janette · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was truly looking forward to reading this book. I love travel memoirs and really wanted to read about the experiences and challenges of a solo female traveller in our vast Australian landscape. Her quest to visit indigenous communities and sites was not only an interesting concept, but one which gave the reader a greater insight into Australian indigenous cultures and languages. Monica's research on the different Aboriginal groups was impeccable and the journey flowed beautifully, until she sought out Australians of Chinese descent. That's when the tone of the memoir shifted to a negative narrative on the ills of colonisation to the point of blatant discrimination against all non-Chinese and non-Indigenous Australians.
'Non-Indigenous Australians have always known or feared that we are nothing but shitty, distorted photocopies of compatriots in our respective motherlands.'
Sentences such as these pepper the second half of the book. I take personal offence to the sentiments expressed, since Australia is my motherland. My ancestors arrived in Australia as slaves. They may have been branded as convicts or criminals, but their crimes were small and they had no say in where they landed. To think that people survived the long journey from England or Ireland, half-starved and lying in their own filth, only to be faced with a hostile land with no food and no facilities is testament to their strength of character and their ability to survive against all odds. They built, they planted, they reaped, and despite the land being occupied by Indigenous people, they did the best they could under the circumstances. But they not only survived, they multiplied, and as a fifth generation Australian, I found part of the narrative to be extremely offensive to me and to my family. This is my history but Monica chose to ignore the bigger picture, making this a very blinkered and narrow-minded story.
It is true that Indigenous Australians have not been fairly treated, and we, as a nation, are working towards closing the gaps, by that I mean ALL Australians, regardless of their colour or ethnic background.

[Lydia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Monica Tan is a refreshing voice, her book shines strong as a profound word, particularly significant because it hails from a unique female and Chinese Australian perspective.


‘Stranger Country’ is a beautiful blend of travel journal, indigenous history, cultural identity with gracious undertones of self discovery.


In her early thirties, Tan has a crisis of sorts with a realisation, that like many Australians, she has a very limited knowledge of Indigenous history.

Coupled with, her own cultural heritage search as a Chinese Australian, Tan embarks on a path of discovery to find who she is and where she has come from.


A six month sojourn ensues, and the book is largely compiled from journal entries over this time. Six months of living with the bare necessities, driving through the Outback and reckoning with one’s soul.


Tan meets many curious characters, that she embodies so vividly in her writing. Exploring breathtaking and spiritual landmarks while wrestling with deep and difficult musings.


I loved Stranger Country, right from it’s striking orange cover to the words of profound wisdom. Tan is an intelligent, vibrant author who is a joy to read and engage with.

[Blair · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. Very much reads like something by a journalist for The Guardian. The book is a very worthy travelogue by a young Asian-Australian woman through the outback that has all the right opinions about Aboriginal Australians but ultimately feels lifeless. It's polished enough but there's no excitement in it.

[Benjamin Farr · Rating 4 out of 5]

3½ stars

An interesting, well-researched travel-memoir of a young woman's journey through the heart of Australia.

[Lisa]

Abandoned at p.45
I am so tired of ignorant young people blaming their teachers because "they weren't told" about Australia's Black history and culture.
These things were and are comprehensively covered in Australia's National Curriculum which has been in place since 2009.
Prior to that, Anna Clark's research showed that young people were bored by Australian history because they heard the same topics — the Stolen Generations and Aboriginal dispossession — over and over again all through primary and secondary school.
If this opinionated young author didn't know anything about it, it's because she wasn't listening, not because she wasn't taught.
I don't rate books that I don't finish.

[Jessicat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, it delivered an interesting perspective and as food for thought for so many topics.

Was a bit slow at the beginning but became an interesting literary dive into the Australian country from places I’d never heard of or had imagery of.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

For once I'm actually adding a book I didn't quite finish reading. My library loan ran out, and I didn't have a chance to finish it, but hopefully I can get back to the last few pages sometime.

Overall, I think this is a valuable read. It was fascinating (and horrifying at times) to get more insight on the history of my country, hear Indigenous Australian's perspective, and be prompted to think a bit deeper about questions of colonisation. I did, however, find it information heavy at times, as though the author was really trying to pass on her research and conclusions rather than tell a story. I think would be best read as food for thought and a gateway into one's personal research and exploration of our country, its history, and how that might inform us to make better decisions now.

[Laura Van Der Meulen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! Through her travels the author provided much insight as to how outsiders can embrace and honour aboriginal culture to bring fulfilment to our modern lives.

[N · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating. Tan deftly weaves together her journey and the history of the regions / places that she visited exceptionally well. Immensely enjoyed reading about Eddie Ah Toy's family and his Chinese heritage that could be traced back to the Gold Rush during the 18th century. I guess I shared some similar sentiments to Tan.

Like for Eddie, for many of us non-Indigenous Australias our ancestral village - whether in Ireland, China, Vanuatu or Germany - has faded from descendant memory. We cannot sing its songs. We cannot cook its foods. If you were to show us a photo of its waters or hills, we'd hold it in our fingers as a light-winged curiousity fluttered across our faces but no great yearning would surge in our hearts.

Yet we live in an Australia alienated from the landscape. We huddle nervously in towns and cities where it's a piece of piss to forget whose land this really is. In this wired-up, globalised economy you really can live without a firm sense of national identity or shared culture. We may pride ourselves on being global citizens, but what does that mean beyond 'global consumers'?T he whole notion of Australia fades in vitality when you can use an iPhone designed in America, made with German, Korean and Japanese parts, assembled in China and pruchased on a recent holiday in Hong Kong.

.. Non-Indigenous Australians have always known or feared that we are nothing but shitty, distorted photocopies of compatriots in our respective motherlands ... We love Europe for its history even though we live in a country with the world's oldest living civilisation, and we know more about the Jewish genocide in Poland than we do about those that ocurred in our own backyard.

[Hermine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating read in which to learn more about Indigenous heritage and the history of Australia. Monica asked many questions about identity, colonialism and power, ultimately trying to understand who gets to belong in Australia, and really, who gets to decide that.

She writes,

"I wanted to learn about Indigenous Australia as I travelled, having acknowledged that like most Australians I knew not nearly enough. But I was afraid that wherever I went, I would be here and Indigenous people over there, the gulf between us unbridgeable”.

This book helped me bridge that gap between my own perspective as an ABC, and that of indigenous Country. Her doubts of cultural appropriation and exploitation, being both the oppressed and the oppressor, and having a hyphenated identity were all questions I'd asked myself in the past.

I especially enjoyed reading about her time at Pine Creek where she learnt about the first actual ABCs. They were part of pioneer Australia, settling the country and building a history and community alongside both Indigenous and white Australians. It gave me a more nuanced version of colonial Australia, showing who belonged, and how different groups fit in with each other. Identity really does depend on the context or location where the question is asked, and I appreciated the mainstream narrative subverted to include others. With that, I do wish they captured some of these Asian-Australian perspectives in Growing Up Asian in Australia to bolster the sense of belongingness and as an accurate reflection of the history of Australia.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an Australian born in south Sydney to ethnic Chinese migrant parents (though mine were refugees from Vietnam), there is a lot I can relate to in Monica's story of getting out of her comfort zone in so many different ways, and discovering a sense of belonging in a country that sometimes doesn't feel like others will allow you to call home. Having spent the last seven years abroad I've come to realise that sometimes it's our own positioning of ourselves as 'other' sometimes that is the source of feeling unsettled. I listened to this as an audiobook which was nice as it felt like I was on the journey alongside the author. Thanks for sharing your story!
To other people who found some sections of the book unpalatable, I hope that you think about the author's intention not as being critical of white people in opposition to non-white, but rather as an expression of a personal exploration of identity, social history, place and belonging.

[Suzesmum · Rating 3 out of 5]

18🇦🇺🎧AUSTRALIA: Audiobook narrated by the author. Firstly, I would like to give my kudos to Monica Tan for making this journey. I think it was incredibly brave of her to travel unaccompanied into the Australian outback as a novice camper. I definitely wouldn’t had the courage or conviction to do it. And kudos too for wanting to not only see our beautiful country but also learn and connect with the land and our Indigenous people in search of her own identity as an Australian. I really wanted to like this book more, but in the end I was over it. I reached my limit of being preached toby a leftie Millennial after Part 4. Also, the overly descriptive accounts of the birdlife just didn’t keep my attention. Tan did a great job pronouncing Indigenous words, yet regularly mispronounced common words, which was also irritating.

[Jyv · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first half of the book was ok. It was the second half of the book that I found rather self-righteous and judgemental when she meets other Chinese Australians who are 4th generation. (Why she is surprised by this I don't know. Obviously there would be descendants from the gold rush era).
At the same time I was reading another book of travels through Australia by a journalist and there was a marked contrast - more mature and more interesting, so this influenced my judgement of this book.
Overall I found her tone annoying, with her general assumptions and immaturity. (This woman is obsessed with fishing.)

[Desney King · Rating 3 out of 5]

A valiant (albeit wordy) attempt at presenting a balanced perspective of complex issues.
Unfortunately, I couldn't finish the book; rather, I flicked through to the end.
There are so many missed opportunities to present the dilemma of Aboriginal people living off country in places like Alice Springs and in remote communities where mining and other money-driven enterprises have forced hundreds of people from several different nations to live together off their own country, resulting in misery, addiction and many forms of abuse.
A worthy effort, with many critical issues skimmed over or not addressed at all.

[Perry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished this book some time ago but have only just got around to reviewing it.

First of all, it is very well written, as one should expect from a good journalist. Tan never wastes words and has a gift for original, well turned phrasing.

As it says in the blurb, as an Australian of Chinese ethnicity she went in search of her place in Australia and in the process provided an understanding of our place in Australia.

For anyone with an interest in how Australia has arrived at its current social composition and culture, I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

[Vivienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

#65. Stranger Country by Monica Tan. The story of Monica Tan's 6 month, 30,000 km journey around Australia, the places she sees, people she meets, perceptions and truths she discovers and the discoveries she makes . . . often about herself.
She draws parallels between her own Chinese Australian heritage and the indigenous Australian heritage. She wonders if she is one of the colonised or the colonisers.
An interesting but not riveting read. A very honest attempt to recount experiences and ideas but still a feeling of privilege and cliche. ***

[Michael Brasier · Rating 2 out of 5]

i thought that the premise of this book was very interesting and I felt that I really learned a lot about a number of different indigenous aboriginal tribes and the land that they came from. I also enjoyed the exploration of the history of the Chinese in Australia and their impact in colonising the country. I was less interested in some of her more journal-like entries covering what she ate and romance that she was involved in. I would describe it more as meandering than riveting.

[Robyn Gibson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this should be a Book Club read. What the huge conglomerates have done to our country and indigenous Australians is absolutely despicable.
Monica Tan went 30,000 kilometres without all the necessities she should have had in that little car of hers. No sav nat phone! it's a wonder she made it!
She's right when she said the Chinese people helped the early Europeans.
Hand this book to your teenagers to read.

[Mackenzie Johnston · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of those books that is just so easy to read. Looking at Australia’s history and landscape from the perspective of a young, half Chinese half Australian female traveling solo in her rav 4, was a completely new and compelling experience. Her bravery is inspiring, as well as her desire to understand her personal ancestry and forge her own place in this country once and for all. Will make you want to plan a trip around Aus!

[Eva You · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed Monica Tan's novel topic, processing identity in circumstances parallel with my own.

This writing gives voice to members of diaspora whose stories are barely broadcast (both in positive or negative light). Ultimately, Monica Tan is bringing visibility to one of the many Culturally and Linguistically Diverse experiences in Australia, where "grey-area", "neither here nor there," etc. narratives are subconsciously endured.

Ultimately an enlightening read.

[Emil Lenc · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave a refreshing perspective on outback Australia. As an ABC (Australian Born Chinese) Monica takes a journey around outback Australia and writes about her fascinating encounters with indigenous and non-indigenous Australians along the way. A worthwhile read with lots of thought-provoking issues being raised.

[Tash · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting travel novel. Mixes ideas of personal story with reflection and response to vivid environmental and cultural landscapes of Australia.

Would recommend for readers who want to learn and read more about perspectives of the culturally understood notions of the Australian out back and the multiplicity of histories and futures of Australia.

[Vonne Learmonth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book really interesting for a number of reasons. Monica Tans journey was fascinating, the information that she imparted about the Australian outback was of real interest. Her ability to connect with the local Aboriginal people gave real insight into the most ancient culture in our world. I’m not sure what audience she was aiming at.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome journey, fascinating reflection on Australian identity in all its complexity and diversity. Tan offers valuable insight into Australian history, the discordant relationship with first Australians and with the land. A great read that can only enrich understanding of identity.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought the authors respectful narrative about involvement with some of the aboriginal groups in the north of Australia as well as dabbling in some of the early history of the region was very interesting .