The Hidden

by Ron Bunney

This is an adventure story based on fact and historical research of early Australia, set in the pearling town of Broome, NW Australia, in the early years of the last century. After her mother's death, Jess, the daughter of a pearling captain and an Aboriginal women, is forced to live in the mangroves to avoid capture and enslavement by white men. A cyclone hits, and Jess finds Matt, a young seaman, more dead than alive and in need of sanctuary. Matt helps Jess to overcome her distrust and hatred of white men and together they become successful pearlers.

Genres: Young Adult

206 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2000

Reviews

[Glenn Armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Hidden is an emotional and uplifting historical fiction story about an aboriginal girl and a white boy from the 1870s Western Australia. He is from the south and she is from the north. They have both had difficult and traumatic childhoods and ultimately their paths cross at a time when they each desperately need a friend/companion. I recently visited Cossack and was horrified by the appalling history of the pearling industry in that area and the inhumane treatment of the local aborigines. This is a difficult/sensitive subject to cover for the author and I think he has done a wonderful job.

[♥ Ashleigh ♥ Contrary to popular belief I'm not actually mad! · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a great story, something I quiet enjoyed – I actually only have one negative remark on it and that is it wasn’t emotionally brutal enough to the reader. Weird I know but I believe one of the points in this story was to show how unfair and cruel life was to the aboriginal people, which I believe Rob Bunney didn’t dive deep enough into. Im a big fan of shock and awe – it gets your point across quickly and effectively. If the author had made us more attached to the characters and didn’t pitter patter across the bad parts in this book we (readers) would have been more effected by what happened and maybe be in a more understanding petition and there for maybe help to stop it from happening again.
I am unsure if people realize how much crap a lot of aboriginal people still go through today, they are still badly stereotyped and discriminated against, they are killed in jail because of racism, they have the highest count of sexual abuse in Australia and are not receiving as much help as they should – I am unsure if that’s cause they are so far out in rural country its hard to get help out there or what. The aboriginals are also still be affected by the stolen generation – if you do not know what that is (its ok I didn’t until recently) its something you must look into. Even just gaining the knowledge of all this is helping, you cant understand or stop something if you know nothing about, so have a read around on the internet to better yourself and maybe help some others out.