Fringe Dwellers

by Nene Gare

This is the story of two Aboriginal sisters, Noonah and Trilby. Noonah accepts her position as a dweller on the fringe of Australian society but Trilby refuses to.

Genres: Australia, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Classics, Novels, 20th Century, Coming Of Age

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Nene Gare (9 May 1919 – 29 May 1994) was an Australian writer and artist, best known as the author of the novel The Fringe Dwellers (1961), which was made into the 1986 Australian film of the same name directed by Bruce Beresford. She was also a talented artist and held five exhibitions in Perth, winning several art awards during the 1970s. She donated most of the proceeds from her art to charities, including Amnesty International, WA AIDS Council, the local dogs' home and a woman lawyer assisting Aboriginal women and children.

Reviews

[Warwick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was in outback Western Australia recently, interviewing someone about the lifestyle in their small mining township. After talking a little about the independence necessary in a place where your nearest supermarket involves a 450-mile round trip, he went on to praise the low crime rate and sense of community. ‘Despite the fact that we have quite a big Aboriginal community,’ he said, ‘we don't have much of a problem with petty crime.’

Interesting way to phrase it, I said….

It's the sort of casual remark you hear a lot. And I'm always surprised by how silent most Australian literature is on the subject – Aborigines are almost completely absent from works from The Thorn Birds to Cloudstreet, The Harp In The South to Oscar and Lucinda, A Town Like Alice to The Slap.

This book is an interesting case. The author was white, but the book is an intimate portrait of an Aboriginal family living on the edge of a small town in Western Australia in the 1950s. It's the sort of act of ventriloquism that we've learnt to be suspicious of nowadays, and perhaps there are some readers who would find it faintly patronising. But it must have been revelatory when it was first published in 1961, and I still thought it was brilliantly and sensitively done. Nene Gare lived among Aborigines for many years, counting many as close friends at a time when this was rare (it's still not especially common for a lot of white Australians); her husband was later appointed Commissioner for Native Welfare, and one of the relative few that did not make the position look like a travesty.

The novel centres on the Comeaway family, who begin the story living in a humpy outside town, later move into council housing, and end up on a specially-built enclosure. This book lives or dies on the strength of its characters; luckily, they are brilliantly, complicatedly alive and they stop The Fringe Dwellers from being a grim, worthy kind of book and turn it into a much more interesting study which, apart from the social-historical interest, has all kinds of things to say about families and relationships and growing up.

The hero is the teenage Trilby Comeaway – awesome name – who rails desperately against a system that is horribly weighted against her. Unlike her parents, who battle on with amiable weariness, or her sister Noonah, who keeps her head down and tries to fit in, Trilby is filled with fury at the whole of society and everyone in it.

‘Some [whites] let you get closer than others, that's all. They still keep a line between us and them. And when you look at the way we live,’ her eyes swept over the room scornfully, like grey lightning, ‘you can't blame them, can you? Pigs live better than we do. I tell you I hate white people because they lump us all together and never give one of us a chance to leave all this behind. And I hate coloured people more, because most of them don't want a chance. They like living like pigs, damn them.’

Trilby's self-destruction is hard to watch and Gare takes things to a pretty dark place before the end. Still, this is that rare thing, a novel written to make a social point that never feels remotely preachy, full of anger but also full of warmth, and amusement, and love.

[Sean Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Context is extremely important when reading a book like this. Nene Gare was a white woman writing about indigenous Australians. One can't believe that it is the authentic voice of a people - yet, taken into consideration the time it was written it was practically revolutionary. Here was a story about Aboriginal people which humanised them to a white audience - it showed them as family, as people who loved and fought and struggled just like anybody else. There are undoubtedly some sections which are patronising, but the characters of Noonah and Trilby in particular are beautifully written -the essence of Trilby in all her teenage hormonal angst is captured so vividly, and Noonah's being caught between two worlds as she moves between home and work is captivating. However, there are still gaps in the stories, but the book never feels like a rewriting of history or the 'noble white saviour' in the way that something like "The Help" does. The cast of characters in "The Fringe Dwellers" survive or fall because of themselves - and it's this silence in the novel that sums up the complexities of Australian society today and why reconciliation needs to be worked upon harder than ever.

[Mandy Partridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nene Gare has written a gut-wrenchingly true novel about Tribly Comeaway, a young Aboriginal woman living in rural WA in 1961.
Trilby doesn't want to be like the other young women living in the shacks of the reserve, always pregnant and carrying children. Her sister Noonah starts training to be a nurse when the girls leave the Mission school, and Trilby dreams of finishing school in town, then the freedom of the city.
The Comeaway family get a house in town, but fall behind with the rent, and when Mr Comeaway does get some money gambling, he disappears.
Nene Gare was an Australian writer who lived in PNG and all over Australia, she clearly saw the abject poverty and limited choices available to Indigenous people, who weren't even citizens at the time. And she has a great ear for slang and language.
Trilby makes a difficult choice, but given her lack of education or choices in general, an understandable one.
'The Fringe Dwellers' was made into a movie by Bruce Beresford in 1986.
I should give a Trigger Warning for Infanticide and Men's Violence against Women. I guess that's also a bit of a spoiler, sorry.

[Colleen Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bruce Beresford made it into a film - that's got to be a good recommendation. I have always been intrigued and horrified by the parallel world in which Australia's dispossessed indigenous people are forced to live

It was a good read and a real window into a world that would normally be closed to me .. but it activated the white guilt that lurks inside me.

Set in the nineteen fifties or early sixties in North West Australia, "The Fringe Dwellers" follows the lives of two aboriginal sisters, Noonah and Trilby, and their friends and "'lations" as they go about making their lives within the context of a racially segregated Australia.

The novel opens as Noonah and Trilby are leaving a remote Mission Station where they have been placed by their parents from early childhood until their mid teens. Their mother placed them in care to ensure that they acquired an education (and for her own convenience). While they leave the mission well cared for and with the desired education, they are emotionally starved, have lost touch with their culture and have aspirations that are unrealistic for an aboriginal girl at that time and in that place. Noonah dreams of becoming a nurse while Trilby dreams of a loving husband who can provide for his family and a neat home in which to raise their children. Humble enough aspirations, but for the sisters, chasing those dreams will further alienate them from their culture and their family

Back in the bosom of their loving but chaotic family, the girls discover that they are neither fish nor fowl. Noonah enters nursing training and spends her rare days off trying to stop the family from falling into one disaster after another. While this path opens up for her reasonably easily, her emotional life hovers in a no man's land. For the more intuitive and feisty Trilby, finding a path is fraught with endless trials. She struggles to break through the race barrier finding resistance and prejudice at every turn. She resists becoming trapped in the cycle of poverty, babies, babies and alcohol abuse so happily being lived by her peers.

So what about my white guilt? I could say it was all so long ago and that it's no longer like that, but of course, while there has been some progress, the problem remains. I could say that by shining a spotlight on the issue, the injustice must become evident and the situation begin to change, but who am I kidding? I could say that everywhere there is oppression, and in all communities, dispossessed and otherwise, it is the women who are most oppressed. It is the women who have less choices, less space to manoeuvre. This last argument universalises the issue and gives me a bit more distance from my guilt. Even more appealing, it allows me, as a woman, to step across the line and join my oppressed sisters.

But to get back to the book. It's a great read. You share in the triumphs and tragedies of a loving, tumultuous family. Their daily frustrations in putting food on the table, sharing whatever you have with others who, by virtue of being family have right to call on anything that you have.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review contains spoilers.

Appropriating another culture is now frowned upon in certain quarters, but Nene Gare’s, The Fringe Dwellers, is an example of how a writer can bring to life a story, sympathetic and convincing in its detail, that reveals a culture to a wide audience.
Published in 1961 and made into a film by Bruce Beresford in 1986, The Fringe Dwellers is the story of Western Australian Aboriginal family, the Comeaways. The protagonists are daughters, Noonah and Trilby. Noonah accepts her life on the fringes of town, but Trilby cannot.
Themes concerning all women, not just Aboriginal women, give the book universal significance: a mother’s role in the family, how to do the best for your children, taking hard decisions for the long term good, providing material sustenance and nurture in equal measure. There is a real attempt on Gare’s part to expose Aboriginal life to audiences never likely to come in contact with Aborigines. Between the lines, there seems a desire to say, this is why and how decisions are made, so white society should not judge.
Gare lived beside Aborigines for 10 years when her husband, Frank,was appointed District Officer with the Native Welfare Department in Carnarvon and was later transferred to the position of District Officer for the Murchison Region. Nene Gare wrote from those experiences and from her friendships with Aborigines. In this intimate look inside a family dynamic and in every carefully constructed scene, Gare is not exploiting Aboriginal culture, rather, she is exposing her knowledge of it.
Complaints might be made that she has appropriated Aboriginal culture, but in her exploration of its complexities and the problems and compromises of trying to be part of mainstream culture, she sends a message to white readers.
The action takes place in the 1950s and it is important to read the novel in the context of its time and not be deterred by the white author/indigenous characters paradigm. The history of the period serves as a background with social housing increasing and immigrants from Europe and Great Britain arriving. The wharves and the railway, once places of employment for Aborigines are now providing work for an expanding white population.
Then there is the sad downwards spiral of Trilby, a situation that could apply to any girl in any town or country.
Highly recommended for its insightful prose and sympathetic portrayal of those who live on the fringes of society.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

As many readers will know, although there is a debate today about whether or not it is presumptuous for non-Aboriginal authors to speak on behalf of a culture they do not share, The Fringe Dwellers by non-indigenous author Nene Gare was a landmark novel when it was first published in 1961. Larissa Behrendt has just written a book called Finding Eliza in which she analyses the representation of Indigenous people in Australian literature, and I will be interested to see if she includes The Fringe Dwellers in her survey because, despite being first published in 1961, it’s still widely read today. (It was also adapted by Bruce Beresford into an internationally acclaimed film in 1986).

Distrusting fiction, Nene Gare (1919-1994) wrote The Fringe Dwellers based on her life experiences in rural Western Australia. Wikipedia tells me that from 1952-54, her husband Frank was a district officer with the Native Welfare Department in Carnarvon and later in the Murchison Region, and the family was based in Geraldton. Today, even the name of that department makes us cringe, but it was the friendships that Nene Gare made with Aboriginal families that inspired her to write her novel.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2016/07/26/t...

[Felicity J · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved this book but I am aware of its limitations. I think its author, Nene Gare, who was married to the Native Welfare Commissioner of WA in the 1960s tried to listen as much as she could. She definitely has an ear for language and the dialogue sounds authentic. However, what she listened to was poured through the limited framework of the age.

The story is of the Comeaway family, particularly the sisters Noonah and Trilby. The sisters start at the mission where they are educated and return to their parents because they are of age. Noonah has a heart for people. Trilby strives for the dignity accorded to white people. She reminds me of Sybylla in My Brilliant Career.

The family is being assimilated into white society but the difficulty I have is that there is little sense that the characters have contact with any indigenous cultural history. Minor characters mention "going back to their country" but that is all. There is a pushy white neighbour who reaches out to Mollie Comeaway, the mother, because she is a Christian but somehow the charity comes over as patronising.

The enduring impression I have of the story is that assimilation doesn't fit the Comeaways and the Comeaways don't fit in the square hole. Perhaps Gare was more insightful than I thought.

[Gretel · Rating 3 out of 5]

First published in 1961, The Fringe Dwellers is a story about a loveable Aboriginal family in Australia, the Comeaways. Written by Nene Gare, a white Australian woman, you have to take this with a pinch of salt, but this is an enjoyable read that has so far stood the test of time. I was expecting this to be more of a young-adult read, but this book tackles tricky subjects and becomes very dark in some places; the racism faced by the Comeaways and their neighbours is particularly difficult to read. With everything they faced, I never stopped rooting for the family, and although Trilby spirals out of control and becomes a wreck, I understood her frustrations. What I feel the story could've done less with was Trilby's relationship with Phyllix; I found him to be quite toxic and didn't feel he was 'the good guy'. This edition of the book gets three stars, because even though I really enjoyed it, the new introduction gives way too much of the story away.

[Anne Mcginnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of course we have to look at this book in the context in which it was written..and it was ground- breaking in the sixties. However reading it today feels a bit awkward. Nene Gare is never patronising and obviously has a real affection for the Aboriginal people but she is telling the story from the outside and it always feels like it. I didn't find the Aboriginal voices and language rhythms authentic. Many of the themes were, and continue to be so today, but we are now fortunate to have so many wonderful Aboriginal writers telling their stories from the inside. ( Melissa Lucaschenko, who wrote the introduction, is one).
That said, this book still remains a significant piece of Australian literature and no doubt brought many readers into a world they knew little about. The vibrant characters and the universal themes make it still worth reading today.

[Calzean · Rating 5 out of 5]

While it was written by a white woman, the story of two aboriginal half caste sisters in the 60s and their family gave me a some insight into what it meant to a black person in rural Western Australia before they were allowed to vote and express their rights as Australian citizens. The white reader of the time to read must have been surprised that they had much in common with the aboriginal Comeaway family - love, laughter, relationships.

The aboriginal values of sharing was a highlight for me as well as their humour and easy going nature.

In recognising the life of those on the edges of society at a time when the White Australian policy was in full swing. Nene Gare gives a humanistic view into what still remains a cultural chasm.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

"So long as she had youth and strength and pride, so long would she seek to escape this life."

The theme of struggling to 'Fit in within your culture' appealed to me.

It's a good read. The characters are well developed and I found them empathetic.

It was also interesting to me because I know a local aboriginal elder, and when she was young, her family grew up living on the fringe. They lived in the dunes in a handmade dwelling like those described in the book. Not "black enough" for the mission and not "white enough" for the town.

[Chez · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was so much I loved about this book. The way that family is so important and helping family is more important than anything, in fact it is just a given. The characters were loveable and the topics that were dealt with in the book were hard hitting, heart wrenching and believable. Written in the 1960s I could picture Australia back in that time, the good, bad and ugly. Felt that I was taken into the family and was part of it. I could feel myself sitting in front of the oven with a cup of tea watching all the dramas unfold.

[Michael Pennington · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was looking forward to this book and wanted to try the imprint. Poorly written though and a struggle to get through.

[Kay Skinner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was written over 50 years ago. It is a sad indictment on Australia that many things haven't changed.

[Suzie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had a feeling I'd read this when I was in school, but it didn't ring any bells. It was ok but I found it hard to engage with the story. Not sure if it was the style of writing or the language used

[Lynda Wheelock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read considering the era in which it was written. I have many conflicting opinions though. Written by a white person who although she lived and worked closely with 1st nation people, is still white. Interestingly she touched on many of the racist issues but skirted past some that might have made her husband look bad, eg the stolen generation, death in custody and the fact that the parents were able to get their younger children back without any problems. It must have put a few noses out of joint in the 60s though. I read all the reviews and found them very informative and they gave me some further reading to do but I must say, I do prefer to read 1st nation authors non-fiction accounts of their lives that have no whitewash.

[Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An undersung piece of West Aussie lit. Given that it's a mid-century take on Indigenous experience told by a white author, I can't see this earning critical reappraisal anytime soon - but it's less problematic than you might expect. There's some attempt made to question the racist mores of 20th century Australia, but mostly they're just used as vague social forces for a fiery young protagonist to brush up against.

It's interesting, but it feels a bit quaint in comparison to the issues it touches on.

[Belinda Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sympathetic look at the way Australia was and probably still is in some parts. Certainly the longing for something better and the feeling of being captive to your circumstances, are as true today as they were when this book was written. And I like that there is only a sort of happy ending. Universal happy endings give me the shits.

[Amos O'Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Important to remember when this book was written, not that much has changed to be honest. I mean, we can’t even vote yes to give our indigenous people a voice in the constitution in 2023. I liked the book, including the language, and really appreciated the viewpoint ie from the fringe dwellers themselves. Deserves its place in the Pantheon of Australian literature.

[Miyuki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the spirit of Trilby, complex, teen, and emotional. Hope her dreams come true however challenging they may be.

[Meddlesome Wretch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but quite depressing to read. Ended up in the air which is annoying as I prefer more specific endings in books.