CARPENTARIA – QUOTES

1) Alexis Wright’s
“All the main characters of this book are like islands of self-sufficiency that act alone. (…) The book asks what
becomes of the islands we have created, of communities, our places and ourselves.”

2) Epigraph about the 4 natural elements

water and earth and fire and air - Seamus HEANEY’s poem ‘The First Words’

3) Chapter 1 - From time immemorial - p.1 - incipit – in CAPITAL LETTERS - nation, conflict
« A NATION CHANTS, BUT WE KNOW YOUR STORY ALREADY […] THE GATES OF HEAVEN WILL OPEN BUT NOT
FOR THE WICKED. |…] BLACK GIRLS FROM A DISTANT COMMUNITY WHERE THE WHITE DOVE BEARING AN
OLIVE BRANCH NEVER LANDS. ARMAGEDDON BEGINS HERE.»

4) p.4 - the dump and the White v Aboriginal

“They had lived in a human dumping-ground next to the town tip since the day Normal Phantom was born.
(…) The descendants of the pioneer families, who claimed ownership of the town, said the Aboriginal was
really not part of the town at all.”

5) p.7 - memories ab « before » ab Abor people

« the museum of scarce memorabilia »

6) p.9 - changing name of river ab Waanyi language

« the river only had one name from the beginning of time. It was Wangala.

7) p.10 - history’s traces – narrator to the reader

« There was no tangible evidence of [the Phantoms’] existence. […] Even Uncle Micky’s collection […]
cartridges used in the massacre of the local tribes [But no tourists go to Micky’s museum. […] That’s fighting
for you. Fighting, fighting all the time for a bit of land and a little bit of recognition. »

8) p.11 - telling stories ; old people

« The old Gulf country men and women who took our besieged memories to the grave might just climb out of
the mud and tell you the real story of what happened here. »
9) Chapter 2 – Angel Day – incipit in CAPITAL LETTERS - hope in children, old people and ghosts, story-telling

p.12 « A CHILD ASKED IF ANYONE COULD FIND HOPE.

THEY NO LONGER KNEW WHAT HOPE WAS. […] LUCKILY, THE GHOSTS IN THE MEMORIES OF THE OLD FOLK
WERE LISTENING, AND SAID ANYONE CAN FIND HOPE IN THE STORIES : THE BIG STORIES AND THE LITTLE
ONES IN BETWEEN. SO... »

10) p.17 about Norm ‘s capacity as a sea man

described as having “inherited his father’s memory of the sea”

11) p.21 Angel’s clock then Virgin Mary’s statue ‘This is mine’//wish to blend in the Whites’ world ; own
« To leave without [the clock] was a betrayal of the future […] the Phantom children would be going to school
on time. »

12) p.30 conflict within families, the Aboriginal community // land taking from them by Whites
“The war of the dump burst apart the little world of the Phantom and their related families. (…) Every family
had to know the story of the past. Know, to go about their separate ways, by reclaiming land from fighting
long ago.”

13) Chapter 3 (42) – Elias Smith comes… and goes cyclone – Elias / Moses – Joseph Midnightinventing
his tribe and langage – Ab to get their children discover the white secrets in schoolbooks
– the State’s failed attempt to change name of Desperance to Masterton – Truthful
gardening in the prison cell and garden – Captain Nicoli Finn, coast guard names Elias
Smith and to guard town but mysterious fires – Elias must leave
p.49 Elias Smith
“You could tell this man might be equated with the Dreamtime world because when his memory was stolen,
the mighty ancestral body of black clouds and gale-force winds had spun away, over and done with, in a
matter of a flash .”

14) p.78 about Elias’s capacities

“acquire other people’s memories. They gave him their imagination. Through adopting their childhood
memories as his own, he was able to close the gap on the past he could not remember.”

15) Chapter 4 (89) – Number One House Elias leaving - Norm – Pirate his cockatoo bird – Kevin – Inso and
Donny – Girlie Janice Patsy – Abilene the mythical « merciless killer » wild pig
p.95 the mine stealing people’s words
« their words were being stolen by the bad people »
16) p.99 about Norm telling stories among which his grandparents being slaughtered by Whites while his
father watched hidden
“distilled memory like the flooding river emptying into the sea »

17) p.113 about Kevin’s sisters forcing him on his bed as he has a convusling fit after having been attacked
by Eastsiders gang and having been defended by his 3 sisters – Norm not moving an inch
« he collapsed into unconsciousness […] the three |…] feeling relieved that they had restored some order to
their lives.”

18) Chapter 5 (114) – Mozzie Fishman Mozzie – nomadic preacher – born of an old couple rejected by
the community – Angel Day falling in love with him – Will in his convoy – discovering
Elias’s corpse in the lagoon
p.117 intolerance
people « feeling the old couple […] would have to go. Their impatience was the normal way people of the
modern world of the white man went about their business, the general attitude to your fellow mankind’s
acts of intolerance. »

19) p.147 Old Cyclone or Old Midnight – Joseph Midnight’s father – invented fictional Abilene pig story
« He believed in magic and became the first person in contemporary times to turn imagination into reality. »

20) Chapter 6 (152) – Knowing fish Will understands Elias has been murdered – hides from the mine
men (including Inso and Donny) and into a cave with Aboriginal paintings – Father
Danny questioned by mine men then helps Will – Will bringing Elias’s body to Norm’s
workshop and remembering his childhood with his father – then rowing out to sea in
search of Hope and Bala
p.178 Irish Father Danny to the mine people – Bible reference Moses the parting of the waters leading
the Israelites to safety
« « he was blessed. Blessed be, to have driven through the path in the waters God’s holiness created for his
servant.

21) Chapter 7 (196) – Something about the Phantom Family Norm about restoring fish – discovering
Elias’s body workshop – then his daughters who start a fire to burn the body – Truthful
coming and going to sleep with Girlie
p.210 ab Kevin
« because it might have been a dream, or they might think he was seeing things, because he did see ghosts,
and the snake spirit, and other spirits of the ancestors […] came to tell him the future but nobody believed
him. »
22) Chapter 8 (219) – Norm’s reponsibility Norm taking Elias’s body to the groper’s place – Telling
stories to Elias, about Angel and white fishermen catching a groper then dying on the
beach – a groper takes away Elias’s body - troubling dreams – attacked by spirit world
people – lands on beach covered in dead fish – visited by devil woman Gardajala trying
to seduce him
p.260 about Norm’s capacities and using the observance of nature to interpret
“see signs like neon lights sitting on signposts jutting out from the ocean […] a map which would give him
reason”

23) p.261 Norm’s urge to speak

« He needed to be heard over the silence. »

24) Chapter 9 (264) – Bala, the child of hope Bala trying to move Norm’s boat – Norm mistaking him for
Will – N remembers Angel and blames her for their children’s education – Bala urges N
to hide but N unwilling thinking he is on this island as a punishment for what Will has
done – a storm – flood water towards the sea Norm put on his boat by spirit people – he
rescues Bala clinging on a tree – Bala telling bad men Hope fall from the sky – N believes
Elias helped him find his grandson
p.283 birds with powers, skills to warn about a storm – narrator comment in italics -
« Bird squalls calling up the rain [ …] And people died useless deaths. People who were fishing people, people
who grew crops, people who had families and told each other stories. [ ...] bird squalls warning of the drop
pressure in the atmosphere. […] the wise weather birds »

25) Chapter 10 (295) – The giant in the cloak narrative back to Desperance – strange events happen
when the wet season comes – 3 Abo boys arrested for Gordie’s murder (night when N
left with E’s body) – Bruiser and Truthful beat them then T remorseful stops and
threatens B if not stop – Kevin picked up by White young gang who torture him – Girlie
finds Kevin badly injured , taken to hospital – no one arrested – Girlie denouncing –
Truthful disturbing dream w gey-skinned Abo , discovers the 3 boys hanged themselves,
turns mad feeding them – B blames the suicide on T – nobody opposes
p.296 nature taking power
« mould of strange-coloured greens invaded every dampened premise, person or thing. The mildew […]
spread a magical, sea-like world above water »
26) Chapter 11 (350) – The mine narrative back to Fishman leaving Desperance (and Angel Day)
when N left with E’s body – two years previously he had helped Will escape aft he had
damaged the pipeline – the mine gave Midnight a house but he sent Hope and Bala
away in E’s boat bec he feared for their safety – when W returns he sings him directions
but caught by mine men – helicopter Hope thrown out W prisoner in mine – spotted by
two Fishman’s men – rescue party fire – W reluctant to leave wants to kill the guards
eventually killed as they chase him – explison destroys the mine
p.355 Will’s inner thoughts when he is w Joseph Midnight looking for Hope and Bala
« This war with the mine had no rules. Nothing was sacred. It was a war for money. »

27) p.367 about poetic nature

« the low-flying feathered clouds that swarmed noisily through the skies. »

28) p.385 nature raging against pollution

“Will closed his eyes and saw the tremendous fury of the winds gathering up the seas, and clouds carrying
the enormous bodies of spiritual beings belonging to other worlds. Country people, old people, said it was
the sound of the great spiritual ancestors roaring out of the dusty, polluted sea all of the time nowadays.
Will believed this. Everyone clearly saw what the spirits saw.”

29) p.391 Abo supposedly obedient towards White people

« We were supposed to say, Oh ! No ! You can’t do things like that et the, umm, beg your pardon, please
and thank you, to the arrr, em, WHITE MAN.’

30) Chapter 12 (402) – About sending letters Mozzie fears Angel’s life in danger – tells his men to take
her to a town in the South – Will wants to put the two mine workers’ bodies in E’s boat
but M bury them – believes evthg started going wrong when Elias left and the mine
arrived that Bruiser killed Gordie bec he knew too much – tells him T hanged himsf – the
men’s bodies put in E’s boat in lagoon – take bodies of 3 Abo boys to a cave w
underground sea in canoes – hear helicopters – W leaves them – meanwhile police
arrest boys driving A who hitchhikes back to town but gets into a truck and disappears -
A said to be living in a strange and gloomy world overseas – Fishman receiving letters ab
her life but denies knowing her

p.418 about Mozzie Fishman and his dead sons

“when their destination was reached, they would live in a state of harmonious coalescence with their
ancestors.”

31) p.419 unshakeable Will

« Noise or silence, nothing had bothered Will Phantom. »
32) p.438-9 writing / dreamtime - letter ab Angel for Whites – a dream ? - rhyme for choosing
« all she thinks about is Fishman or Angel. Eenie, meenie, miney mo, whose dream ? […] ‘Don’t send letters to
Mr Fishman.’ Letters were only from whitefellas to ther whitefellas.’

33) Chapter 13 (440) – The wash Will remembering the fruit bats’ plague – town flooding – Lloydie Smith’s
pub with his mermaid – in upper room remembers his childhood, important people for
him : Joseph, Norm, Fishman, Hope, Bala, Bala, Elias – swept away floating rubbish
island first fertile then falls apart with white ants and then loads of seagulls
p.446 bats carrying deadly disease
« Bats were high on the town’s list of things that can go wrong in the world. [ …] carried a deadly disease […]
which could spread to humans. »

34) p.462 the illusionary old woman saying Will is responsible for the cyclone
“the storm […] searching for a Law breaker she said, that had caused the creation spirit to come after him.”

35) p.467-8 about Mozzie Fisman to Will and his knowledge of an itinerary of sites
“Even though the Fishman never went to sea, he mentioned an itinerary of site places along the coast for
making storms and counter storms powerful enough to wipe out the entire enemy […] if you knew how to
navigate by stars. […] ‘You got to be a fish… a wizard to find any of those places.’ ”

36) p.474-5 the catastrophic requiem (‘Gloire à Dieu au plus haut des cieux, et sur terre, paix aux hommes
de bonne volonté’) and the rubbish island
« What a catastrophic requiem […] God’s angels singing : Gloria […] voluntatis. […] he had been dumped onto
an extraordinary floating island of rubbish.’

37) p.477 Will’s resisting thanks to Norm’s teaching about the stars and Fishman’s song about cycles
“He developed a keen eye for the movement of the stars, staying awake to sing the Fishman’s ceremonial
song cycles all night, from the raising of the star across the eastern horizon to the setting of the big maliwi star
in the west. Then he would sleep. These were the rhythms of his life which he lived through like lines of
poetry.”

38) p.481 Will’s nightmares on his island compared to a fictional play

« The night on his island turned out to be an extraordinary masterful playwright […] Another grand play,
another brand-new scenario of horror. »

39) p.483 Will – a native on his island

« the sole inhabitant on his sinking oasis : a native ? »
40) Chapter 14 (484) – Coming back Norm at sea ‘40 days’ w Hope and Bala – Bible dreams references
- led by the stars – H scared of water and night sky – lands on where Desperance
should be but nothing left - H leaves to search for Will / N starts to believe in
her /not seeing ‘the gropers helping her’ - dogs ‘speechless’ in the deserted
town – Norm takes Bala to build his home again on the same place as before

p.499 about Norm and Bala -

“All dreams come true somehow, Norm murmured […] the home he would rebuild on the same piece of land
where his old house had been, among the spirits in the remains of the ghost town, where the snake slept
underneath. […] Neither spoke, because neither would have heard the other. It was much better to listen to
the mass choir of frogs – green, grey, speckled, striped, big and small, dozens of species all assembled around
the two seafarers, as they walked.
It was a mystery, but there was so much song wafting off the watery land, singing the country afresh as
they walked hand in hand out of town, down the road, Westside, to home.”