Indigenous Voices and Bush potery have both come in the forms of poems or songs. But now, as our world develops and technology rules our lives, we rely less on poetry as a source of expression.
The Secret River, a novel by Kate Grenville, was written in 2005. It is written in modern times but the story is set in the 18th century.
This novel is great because it shows the transition between London, and Australia - how people might react to the changing landscape, changing surroundings and people. While reading The Secret River, you can feel the atmosphere change as you read the part in London, then the part in Sydney. It would be like you've never been to Sydney before, the sense of foreigness and isolation.
In The Secret River, we follow the journey of William Thornhill, a London resident with an average name. He embarks on his own adventure, along with a colony of other people, across the ocean to Australia. This is where they discover the brilliant sun that shines on Sydney, that the land is its own self.
When William comes face to face with the first Aboriginal, he feels scared. You start to feel scared with him, because of the way that the Aboriginal is described - fierce, strong, a stranger.
The story continues on depicting the relationship between the White colony and the Aboriginal Tribes. How they try and work out their differences and try to live amongst eachother. How all of it fails because of the lack of communication and how a battle errupts.
The Secret River is a very good insight into life back the colonisation days and it links both Indigenous Voices and Bush poetry.
