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'Finally, Louisa learns the truth: Convict Rock is a sanctuary established by her great-grandmother Eleanor—a sanctuary for Tasmanian tigers, Australia’s huge marsupials that were famously hunted into extinction almost a hundred years ago. Or so the world believes. Hidden in the rainforest at Convict Rock, one tiger remains. But now the sanctuary is threatened by a mining operation, and the last Tasmanian tiger must be lured deeper into the forest. The problem is, not since her great-grandmother has a member of the family been able to earn the shy tigers’ trust.
'As the summer progresses, Louisa forges unexpected connections with Colin, with the forest, and—through Eleanor’s journal—with her great-grandmother. She begins to suspect the key to saving the tiger is her very own music. But will her plan work? Or will the enigmatic Tasmanian tiger disappear once again, this time forever?
'A moving coming-of-age story wrapped up in the moss, leaves, and blue gums of the Tasmanian rainforest where, hidden under giant ferns, crouches its most beloved, and lost, creature.' (Publication summary)
Affiliation Notes
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Thylacines and the Anthropocene
In Music for Tigers, the recovery of the thylacine is entangled with the protection of lutruwita / Tasmania's wild spaces. Anthropocene themes are made explicit early on: "Logging and mining are a real and continued threat in the region ... Old growth rainforests help combat climate change. In our current climate crisis, protecting them is imperative". The novel positions First Nations voices as expert and that, despite frontier violence and colonial dispersal, they remain "true custodians of all the land".
Louisa is from a family of scientists, but is much more interested in becoming a musician. When the family's rainforest reserve is threatened by industry, Louisa's mother insists that she travel from Toronto to spend her summer there. She befriends Colin, a teenager on the autism spectrum, with a talent for cooking and a deep knowledge of the area, and learns about her family's long history of conservation, including protecting some of the last thylacines. Only one thylacine remains on the property, which the family hopes to relocate into the care of local Elders. Here, the novel skirts tension between the settler family's claims to place and First Nations' unceded sovereignty. Luckily, the thylacine is attracted to Louisa's rendition of Waltzing Matilda.
Music and a neurodivergent teenage character—Samson, a boy with Down syndrome—also feature in Sarah Kanake's thylacine novel Sing Fox to Me. Kanake is part of the country music duo The Shiralee, and weaves folk lyrics throughout the narrative.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Paws for Thought
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 1 January 2022;
— Review of Music for Tigers 2020 single work novel ; The Boy, the Wolf and the Stars 2020 single work children's fiction
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Paws for Thought
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 1 January 2022;
— Review of Music for Tigers 2020 single work novel ; The Boy, the Wolf and the Stars 2020 single work children's fiction
- Tasmania,
