A story of exile and escape, of deep connection to Country, and of resilience and triumph over racial injustice.
'On the whim of the government authorities of the day, nineteen Wongutha people were exiled away from their Country and their people, sent a thousand kilometres away, almost to Perth. They were seemingly powerless. They were locked up, trucked off, given inmate numbers in a government compound – their fate was sealed. And then they escaped. It was perhaps the largest escape bid in the history of that place of exile. They escaped, and walked home to their Country...’
In 2020, ‘closed’ archival documents– hidden away from sight for nearly one hundred years – were declared ‘open’ by the state. And compelling new evidence came into the light, revealing that the 1921 deportation was not, in fact, a ‘whim’ but a coolly devised forced removal, centrally masterminded in the office of Western Australia's Chief Protector of Aborigines.
Through Silent Country’ is a journey of discovery and testimony which began when Carolyn Wadley Dowley stumbled upon a small reference to a remarkable escape story. Although at first it seemed faint, she set out to follow the trace of the narrative back to its origins, to the very edge of a remote desert in central Australia – Wongutha Country. There, the people she met not only confirmed details of the story but revealed how it was a part of the many stories which are their history. The stories of the Wongutha people, and careful archival research, enabled Carolyn Wadley Dowley to piece together a remarkable Australian story of injustice, survival and triumph.
"Just brilliant" Good Reading Magazine
"Required reading by anyone interested in Australia history" Antipodes
"As poingnant as it is brilliantly written" - Professor Tom Stannage
"The compassionate and wise Dowley … in her ingenious structure allows all the voices to speak, which not only allows the reader to see the historian at work with her sources, probabilities, and ambiguities, but privileges the voices of those who endured or still talk about these experiences … a notable achievement" - Professor Peter Read, Australian National University
"a thoroughly researched and beautifully written book [that] brings to light an extraordinary, though largely forgotten or neglected, Wongutha story. A story which is important as an acknowledgement of the appalling experience and remarkable achievements of those people who were captured on the edge of the Great Victoria Desert, transported like cattle 1,000 kms to incarceration at the notorious Moore River Settlement, but who then escaped and walked all that way back home. Truly, this is one of the great escape stories … a story which is emblematic of a traumatic Australia-wide history of racist attitudes and government policies endured by generations of First Nations Australians ... Her research of the written records is exhaustive... her intelligent and continuing interrogation of those written records too is first class. But her research beyond the files, to the memories and accounts of Wongutha people, and the sensitive way in which she foregrounds their stories is what struck us from the first readings as making this a most distinctive, indeed monumental work of historical writing" - Ray Coffey
