Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Crow Country, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Prejudice and Discrimination
Heritage and Land
Justice and Restitution
Violence and Integrity
Summary
Analysis
A crow flies high above a winter landscape. He spots a girl (later revealed to be Sadie) walking alone through the landscape, leaving a town behind her. The crow cries out, and the girl looks up.
By emphasizing the point of view of a crow looking down on the land, the book’s opening foreshadows the importance of land and landscape as a theme in the narrative.
Themes
Hearing the crow, Sadie looks up and says, “stupid bird.” She has just moved to the small town of Boort with her mother, on the shore of Little Lake Boort. However, today, Sadie is on her way to another lake, a secret one outside of town, where her mother used to bring Sadie and her cousins when they visited. Her mother had loved it here, which was why she moved Sadie to Boort.
The switch to Sadie’s point of view continues an emphasis on land and landscape. Sadie is in the process of exploring the town’s landscape, and her search for the secret lake outside of Boort suggests that the landscape has secrets and mysterious aspects that are not immediately obvious.
Themes
Sadie walks on, following a sign, looking forward to seeing the lake at any moment. Suddenly, she stops and gazes down at a valley—the lake has disappeared, revealing only a bed of mud. Sadie walks along the lakebed, listening to the crow crying overhead. As Sadie explores the lakebed, she finds a small graveyard, and then a group of stones standing in a ring. The stones are ancient, and there are carvings on them.
The discovery of the graveyard and circle of stones along the dry lake bed again suggests that the landscape hides secrets which may not be immediately discernible. The graveyard and circle of stones had been lost beneath the water of the lake, and are now revealed only because the lake has dried up.
Themes
Sadie notices the crow standing nearby. Suddenly it speaks, telling her, “This is Crow’s place.” The crow tells her that Waa the Crow is awake, and that now it begins. Baffled, Sadie asks what will begin, and the crow answers with a riddle: it tells her that the beginning and end are “always the same.” The crow also tells Sadie that Waa the Crow has work for her. It then unfurls its wings and vanishes into the sky.
The speaking crow reinforces the impression that all is not what it seems in the landscape. The lake has disappeared to reveal strange monuments, and now birds are speaking to Sadie. Also, the crow’s statement that this is “Crow’s place” suggests that the spot Sadie has found has a special significance. In speaking of “Crow” with a capital “C,” the crow refers to the ancestral Aboriginal spirit of Waa the Crow, an important spirit in Aboriginal culture.
Themes
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