In Australia there has been much argument about the ‘black-armband’ view of history, of paying particular attention to the dark side of Australia’s colonial past, rather than celebrating achievements. Sarah Thornhill would argue that when such stories are hidden they cast a long painful shadow. It is the sequel to The Secret River, published in 2005. And it is truly a sequel, in that the events of that book have unforeseen consequences in this. Sarah Thornhill is William Thornhill’s youngest child, born after the events of Secret River. She gradually realises that she has an older brother, Dick, estranged from the family for reasons she doesn’t know. She falls in love with Jack Langlands, a half-caste who seems almost part of the family, indeed works with her brother Will as a sealer.
When Will drowns, the existence of his half Maori daughter is revealed and she is brought, unwillingly, by Jack to live with the Thornhills. She cannot speak English and is unresponsive, except to an Aboriginal stable hand. Although rechristened Rachel, she is always referred to as ‘the girl’.
When Jack and Sarah are discovered in a passionate embrace, Sarah’s step-mother vows to split them up, and indeed, after a conversation with William, Jack leaves angrily, never wanting to see her face again. Sarah believes it is his pride, but when on his deathbed, William sends her to try and reconcile him with Dick, it is revealed that the reason was Jack been told of William’s involvement in the massacre of some of Jack’s family that is the culmination of The Secret River.
Sarah agrees to marry a newly arrived settler, John Daunt. His property is a remote ride away and she feels very isolated. Daunt is Irish, together with his housekeeper, and occasionally there is music which affects them greatly:
“This was what it was to belong to a place. To be brought undone by the music of the land where you’d been born. The loss as sharp a pain as mourning a lover. Us currency lads and lasses had no feeling like that about the land we called ours. It had no voice that we could hear, no song we could sing. Nothing but a blank where the past was. Emptiness, like a closed room, at our backs.” (p197)
However, gradually, they grow closer and have a child. She realises that she does love him, and that she now has a new home and future.
The half Maori girl dies in childbirth and Jack reappears to persuade her to go to New Zealand and tell the story of her sad life. Although unwilling, she goes and understands that even when the stories are tragic, they need to be told for their effects not to continue to ripple through generations. Stories need to be told, good or bad.
