This is, without question, going to be one of my top reads of the year. This is interesting because I've never really vibed strongly with Heiss' writing before. She often writes in genres I don't read much, like romance and the godawful-named 'women's fiction' (AKA books about emotions and relationships) and her straightforward style combined with a focus on internal life has never been my favourite. But in Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray, these are exactly elements combine in perfect ways with a very powerful story.
Heiss has a rare capacity to see events through varying eyes and perspectives and the heart of the book is the relationship between our protagonist Wagadhaany, and Louise, the Quaker woman who depends upon her. Through this key connection, Heiss explores how White paternalism works to meet the needs of the settlers, rather than those they profess to protect. (view spoiler)
The book's focus is on Wagadhaany, and we spent most of our time in the White homesteads and towns of her daily life, but Heiss also draws evocative portraits of Wiradyuri communities, those still on their land, and those who have been moved. I would have liked more of these characters to come to life, but that would be a different book.
Obviously, at the centre of the book is the river: and Heiss pivots her characters around their varying levels of expertise in understanding how to live with, and not in opposition to, the river. There are some thrilling sequences showing the Gundagai flood at the start, and the trauma of this event hangs over the book. The river is also a place of sustenance and danger to the Wiradyuri communities.
Heiss doesn't flinch from showing the slavery (in practice, not name) that existed in Australia for Aboriginal (and other) workers. Each member of Wagadhaany's 'employer' family has a different justification for their treatment of her, and a different way of coping with the pressures of colonial life. None are monsters or saints, the most interesting aspects of the novel are how these communities forge connections enmeshed in the coercion.
Heiss skill in writing romantic relationships shows in Wagadhaany's partnership with the (only slightly implausibly) perfect Yindyamarra, which beautifully captures book flirtation and the deepening adult partnership. Louisa's marriage is also sensitively written, providing another forum to play out dynamics of power and love.
All up, this is an engrossing, leisurely, sensitive and warm exploration of the relatively recent past