That Deadman Dance
Encyclopedia
That Deadman Dance is the third novel by Western Australian author Kim Scott
. It was first published in 2010 by Picador (Australia) and will be published in the UK, US and Canada in 2012 by Bloomsbury. It won the 2011 Regional Commonwealth Writers' Prize
, the 2011 Miles Franklin Literary Award, the 2011 ALS Gold Medal
, the 2011 Kate Challis RAKA Award, the 2011 Victorian Prize for Literature and the 2011 Victorian Premier's Literary Award
, Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction.
The novel's hero is a young Noongar man named Bobby Wabalanginy. Clever, resourceful and eager to please, Bobby befriends the new arrivals, joining them hunting whales, tilling the land, exploring the hinterland and establishing the fledgling colony. But slowly – by design and by accident – things begin to change. Not everyone is happy with how the colony is developing. Stock mysteriously start to disappear; crops are destroyed; there are 'accidents' and injuries.
As the new arrivals impose ever stricter rules and regulations in order to keep the peace, Bobby Wabalanginy's Elders decide they must respond. A friend to everyone, Bobby is forced to take sides: he must choose between the old world and the new, his ancestors and his settler friends. Inexorably, he is drawn into a series of events that will forever change not just the colony but the future of Australia.
The Miles Franklin judges described That Deadman Dance as "a powerful and innovative fiction that shifts our sense of what an historical novel can achieve. Its language is shaped by the encounter of Noongar and Australian English, producing new writing and speech. It tells the story of the rapid destruction of Noongar people and their traditions. At the same time, there is the enchanting possibility of the birth of a new world in the strange song, dance, ceremony and language that are produced by these encounters of very different peoples."
Kim Scott
Kim Scott is an Australian novelist of Indigenous Australian ancestry. He is a descendant of West Australian Noongar people.- Biography :...
. It was first published in 2010 by Picador (Australia) and will be published in the UK, US and Canada in 2012 by Bloomsbury. It won the 2011 Regional Commonwealth Writers' Prize
Commonwealth Writers' Prize
Commonwealth Writers is an initiative by the Commonwealth Foundation to unearth, develop and promote the best new fiction from across the Commonwealth. It's flagship are two literary awards and a website...
, the 2011 Miles Franklin Literary Award, the 2011 ALS Gold Medal
ALS Gold Medal
The Australian Literature Society Gold Medal is awarded annually by the Association for the Study of Australian Literature for “an outstanding literary work in the preceding calendar year.” From 1928 to 1974 it was awarded by the Australian Literature Society, then from 1983 by the Association for...
, the 2011 Kate Challis RAKA Award, the 2011 Victorian Prize for Literature and the 2011 Victorian Premier's Literary Award
Victorian Premier's Literary Award
The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards were created by the Victorian Governmentwith the aim of raising the profile of contemporary creative writing and Australia's publishing industry....
, Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction.
Plot synopsis
That Deadman Dance is set in the first decades of the 19th century in and around what is now Albany, Western Australia, an area known by some historians as 'the friendly frontier'. The book explores the early contact between the Aboriginal Noongar people, European settlers and American whalers.The novel's hero is a young Noongar man named Bobby Wabalanginy. Clever, resourceful and eager to please, Bobby befriends the new arrivals, joining them hunting whales, tilling the land, exploring the hinterland and establishing the fledgling colony. But slowly – by design and by accident – things begin to change. Not everyone is happy with how the colony is developing. Stock mysteriously start to disappear; crops are destroyed; there are 'accidents' and injuries.
As the new arrivals impose ever stricter rules and regulations in order to keep the peace, Bobby Wabalanginy's Elders decide they must respond. A friend to everyone, Bobby is forced to take sides: he must choose between the old world and the new, his ancestors and his settler friends. Inexorably, he is drawn into a series of events that will forever change not just the colony but the future of Australia.
Awards and nominations
- Commonwealth Writers' PrizeCommonwealth Writers' PrizeCommonwealth Writers is an initiative by the Commonwealth Foundation to unearth, develop and promote the best new fiction from across the Commonwealth. It's flagship are two literary awards and a website...
Best Book, South-east Asia and the Pacific, 2011: winner - Miles Franklin Literary Award, 2011: winner
- ALS Gold MedalALS Gold MedalThe Australian Literature Society Gold Medal is awarded annually by the Association for the Study of Australian Literature for “an outstanding literary work in the preceding calendar year.” From 1928 to 1974 it was awarded by the Australian Literature Society, then from 1983 by the Association for...
, 2011: winner - Kate Challis RAKA Award, 2011: winner
- Victorian Prize for Literature, 2011: winner
- Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction, 2011: winner
- Indie Book Award, 2011: shortlisted
- Prime Minister's Literary AwardsPrime Minister's Literary AwardsThe Australian Prime Minister's Literary Awards were announced at the end of 2007 by the incoming Rudd Ministry following the 2007 election. They are administered by the Minister for the Arts....
, Best Adult Fiction Book, 2011: shortlisted - Western Australian Premier's Book AwardsWestern Australian Premier's Book AwardsThe Western Australian Premier's Book Awards is an award for books, scripts, digital narrative and a People's Choice. Awards are provided by the Government of Western Australia, and the awards process is managed by the State Library of Western Australia...
, Premier's Prize and Fiction Book, 2011: winner
The Miles Franklin judges described That Deadman Dance as "a powerful and innovative fiction that shifts our sense of what an historical novel can achieve. Its language is shaped by the encounter of Noongar and Australian English, producing new writing and speech. It tells the story of the rapid destruction of Noongar people and their traditions. At the same time, there is the enchanting possibility of the birth of a new world in the strange song, dance, ceremony and language that are produced by these encounters of very different peoples."