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'This revelatory story of the most tragic, cruel, brave and misguided episode in Australia's history – the 'saving' of a unique race, the Tasmanian Aborigines – is seen through the eyes of an obsessive young present-day narrator. Breathtaking and visionary in its scope, The Savage Crows breaks new fictional ground in its affecting portrayal of the collision of worlds, generations and mythologies. From suburban apathy and cynicism blossoms a wild, foolhardy and beautiful hinterland of time and space.'
Source: Publisher's blurb (Penguin 2001 ed.)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also sound recording.
Works about this Work
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Walk on the Wild Side : Literature in the Time of Choleric
2013
single work
essay
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , vol. 28 no. 1/2 2013; (p. 75-83) -
The Other Side
2012
single work
column
— Appears in: The West Australian , 1 September 2012; (p. 22) -
Lunch Booking
2012
single work
autobiography
— Appears in: The West Australian , 1 September 2012; (p. 22) -
'Grace of the Crocodiles' : Towards Deterritorialization
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Engaging with Literature of Commitment : The Worldly Scholar (Volume 2) 2012; (p. 231-244)'In an article entitled 'Minimal Selves,' Stuart Hall suggests that 'identity' is formed at the unstable point where the 'unspeakable' stories of subjectivity meet the narratives of history, of a culture.' This essay is an attempt to explore just such an articulation of identity, as it crystallizes at the boundary between the private and the public in one of Robert Drewe's most recent novels, Grace (2005)...' (From author's introduction 231)
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y
The Roving Party : Extinction Discourse in the Literature of Tasmania
2009
Z1775389
2009
single work
thesis
'The nineteenth century discourse of extinction - a consensus of thought primarily based upon the assumption that 'savage' races would be displaced by the arrival of European civilisation - provided the intellectual foundation for policies which resulted in Aboriginal dispossession, internment, and death in Tasmania. For a long time, the Aboriginal Tasmanians were thought to have been annihilated. However, this claim is now understood to be fanciful. Aboriginality is no longer defined as a racial category but rather as an identity that has its basis in community. Nevertheless, extinction discourse continues to shape the features of modern literature about Tasmania.
'The first chapter of this dissertation will examine how extinction discourse was imagined in the nineteenth century and will trace the parallels that contemporary fiction about contact history shares with it. The novels examined include Doctor Wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World by Mudrooroo, The Savage Crows by Robert Drewe, Manganinnie by Beth Roberts, and Wanting by Richard Flanagan. The extinctionist elements in these novels include a tendency to euglogise about the 'lost race' and a reliance on the trope of the last man or woman.
'The second chapter of the dissertation will examine novels that attempt to construct a representation of Aboriginality without reference to extinction. These texts subvert and ironise extinction discourse as a way of breaking the discursive continuities with colonialism and establishing a more nuanced view of Aboriginal identity in a post-colonial context. Novels analysed here include Drift by Brian Castro, Elysium by Robert Edric, and English Passengers by Matthew Kneale. However, in attempting to arrive at new understandings about Aboriginality, non-Aboriginal authors are hindered by the epistemological difficulties of knowing and representing the Other. In particular, they seem unable to extricate themselves from the binaries of colonialism.' (Trove)
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Aborigines, Lost and Found
1977
single work
review
— Appears in: Southerly , March vol. 37 no. 1 1977; (p. 111-117)
— Review of The Glass Canoe 1976 single work novel ; The Savage Crows 1976 single work novel -
[Review] Tales of Mystery and Romance [and] The Savage Crows
1977
single work
review
— Appears in: The National Times , 12-17 September 1977; (p. 19-20)
— Review of Tales of Mystery and Romance 1977 selected work short story ; The Savage Crows 1976 single work novel -
[Review] The Savage Crows
1976
single work
review
— Appears in: Nation Review , 19-15 November 1976; (p. 117)
— Review of The Savage Crows 1976 single work novel -
A Journey of Discovery
1976
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 16 October vol. 98 no. 5028 1976; (p. 58)
— Review of The Savage Crows 1976 single work novel -
[Review] The Savage Crows
1976
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian Weekend Magazine , 23 October 1976; (p. 33)
— Review of The Savage Crows 1976 single work novel -
Getting a Head : Dismembering and Remembering in Robert Drewe's The Savage Crows
2003
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , May vol. 21 no. 1 2003; (p. 54-66) The article examines the use of bodily metaphors of dismemberment and beheading in Drewe's novel about the fate of the Tasmanian Aboriginal people, The Savage Crows, in the light of the Western historic notion of the 'social body' and the body of the state. It concludes that 'In a critique of the ways in which contemporary Australian society rests on but denies the fragmentation and dismemberment of Aboriginal communities in the past, this novel dismembers and fragments a contemporary Aboriginal community, and in the process, repeats the theft of William Lanney's head for white purposes, in order to produce a coherent (white social) body ... at the close of the narrative' (65). -
The Savage Crows: A Personal Chronology
1983
single work
autobiography
— Appears in: Kunapipi , vol. 5 no. 1 1983; (p. 65-72) -
Moments of Encounter in Mudrooroo's Wooreddy
2003
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Austral-Asian Encounters : From Literature and Women's Studies to Politics and Tourism 2003; (p. 204-216) -
In the Service of Complex Truths : The Aims and Art of Robert Drewe's Fiction
2005
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Westerly , November vol. 50 no. 2005; (p. 26-41) A discussion of Robert Drewe's repeated questioning in his writings of notions of 'truth'. -
First Voice : Robert Drewe Looks Back on the Writing of His First Novel
2006
single work
column
— Appears in: The Age , 11 March 2006; (p. 29)
- Tasmania,
- Sydney, New South Wales,
- Perth, Western Australia,
- Flinders Island, Bass Strait Islands, Tasmania,