“Departure”, by Kim Scott; “Our Hero, Our Brother”, by Liz Hayden.

“Departure”, by Kim Scott; “Our Hero, Our Brother”, by Liz Hayden.  Review of Australian Fiction 15: 4.

For Lisa’s Indigenous Literature Week

Review of Australian Fiction presents digital copies of short stories pairing a well-known author and a less famous one.  Kim Scott, a prominent Indigenous Australian writer, has published several novels, including the prize-winning That Dead Man Walking. Here a story of his appears with one by Liz Hayden, about whom I could not find information online.  Both stories deal with young Indigenous adolescents are taken by sinister,  Indigenous captors.

In Scott’s story Tilly, dressed in her school uniform and caught up in her music, rides a bus to visit her Indigenous father.  When she gets off the bus she is met and taken ominous men.  In Hayden’s story Cleon, an adopted boy is taken off the street and killed.

The mood of both stories is grim and threatening.  Both reveal innocence and safety lost.  Hayden’s story is well-written, but Scott’s simply has more punch.  I was not sure if she benefited by being presented with him.  His sparse tale left me with a host of unnamed fears.  He uses silence to wonderful effect.  What we don’t know is always the worst thing possible.  Both stories also left me aware of how I dislike short stories.  I wanted disparately to be told what was happening and why.