Crow Country

by

Kate Constable

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Justice and Restitution Theme Analysis

Themes and Colors
Prejudice and Discrimination Theme Icon
Heritage and Land Theme Icon
Justice and Restitution Theme Icon
Violence and Integrity Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Crow Country, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Justice and Restitution Theme Icon

In Crow Country, the heroine, Sadie Hazzard, learns important lessons about justice and injustice. When she is drawn into solving an old mystery by the speaking crows of the town of Boort, she becomes aware of terrible injustices that transpired in the past involving three families in the town, including her own. It is only by facing these old crimes that Sadie manages to achieve some kind of restitution for past wrongs and help the community to begin to heal. As such, the book suggests that any possibility for forward progress depends on confronting and taking responsibility for injustice.

Through her time travel to the year 1933, Sadie learns about the grave injustices that were perpetrated both by the Mortlocks and by members of her own family against the town resident Jimmy Raven, an Aboriginal man. Through inhabiting her great-aunt Sarah Louise’s body in the year 1933, Sadie learns that Gerald Mortlock murdered Jimmy Raven when the two got into a conflict over the flooding of a sacred Aboriginal site on Mortlock’s land. Jimmy had tried to stop Mortlock from flooding the sacred site, but Mortlock had refused. To her further dismay, Sadie learns that her own great-grandfather, Clarry Hazzard, helped cover up the crime by hiding Jimmy Raven’s body after the murder. Because Clarry Hazzard owed Gerald Mortlock a large amount of money, capital that he borrowed to start the business from which the family makes a living, he feels obligated to help him. Clarry’s financial debt to Gerald therefore clouds his moral judgement. Furthermore, he involves Sadie (in the body of her great-aunt) herself by having her help him hide traces of Mortlock’s crime. As such, by time traveling to the past, Sadie comes to realize that both Gerald Mortlock and her own great-grandfather acted with great dishonor. In overcoming her own ignorance about past crimes, and confronting the role that her family played in those crimes, Sadie takes the first step towards achieving justice.

Sadie attempts to redress the injustice done both by her great-grandfather and Gerald Mortlock to Jimmy Raven. She restores Jimmy’s “special things”—a series of sacred objects that Jimmy had left to Clarry for safe-keeping—to Auntie Lily, Walter’s old relative, and Jimmy Raven’s niece. In doing so, Sadie also attempts to repair the “Law” that has been broken. In speaking to her, the crows often emphasize that the “Law” was broken when Jimmy was murdered, especially as his sacred objects have remained lost—in the wrong hands—for decades. As such, Sadie’s act of restoring the objects to their rightful owners also represents an act of restitution of sorts. Finally, Sadie informs Lachie Mortlock, Gerald Mortlock’s great-grandson, about the murder his great-grandfather committed. In this way, she challenges Lachie Mortlock to take responsibility for his ancestor’s crimes, just as she takes responsibility for the misdeeds her own great-grandfather committed. Sadie’s actions, therefore, emphasize the necessity of acknowledging wrongs done, even if those wrongs were committed by one’s ancestors.

By revealing the truth about Jimmy’s murder, as well as restoring Jimmy’s sacred things to their rightful owners, Sadie confronts and takes responsibility for an injustice committed in the past, and thereby helps to bring about a semblance of justice and resolution to the story of Jimmy’s tragic murder. Auntie Lily thanks Sadie for finding Jimmy’s sacred things. This brings to an end a long search for the special objects which Jimmy had guarded and which were lost with his murder. Furthermore, Walter and Sadie’s act of restoring Jimmy’s grave in the dry lakebed, near the stone circle, represents a recognition and acknowledgment of the injustice done to Jimmy. The grave restoration itself therefore represents a kind of restitution, given that Jimmy’s grave was never marked, as a means of concealing his murder. The marking of the grave again reflects that justice is dependant on genuine acknowledgement of and responsibility for past wrongdoing. That Lachie Mortlock—descendant of Gerald Mortlock, Jimmy’s murderer—offers to help Sadie and Walter find war records of Jimmy also suggests that some of the Mortlocks acknowledge that perhaps a wrong has been done in their name. The image of the three teenagers—one related to Jimmy Raven, one to Gerald Mortlock, and one to Clarry Hazzard—working together to clean up the old graveyard suggests the possibility of reconciliation and forward progress together between the branches of the three families involved in the old crime.

In squarely facing the injustices her ancestors committed and attempting to uncover and make amends for these crimes, Sadie lays the foundation for justice and restitution in the present and future. Though Jimmy Raven’s murder can never be undone, Sadie’s courageous actions lead to an acknowledgement of the crime committed against him, and a return of his most cherished possessions to their rightful owners. In this way, the novel suggests that only by taking full stock of the darkness of past can some semblance of justice and resolution be achieved in the present.

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Justice and Restitution Quotes in Crow Country

Below you will find the important quotes in Crow Country related to the theme of Justice and Restitution.
Chapter 8 Quotes

[…] Dad had fought the whole town council, when the war memorial was built, to have Jimmy’s name put on it, too. They said it couldn’t be done, because Jimmy hadn’t enlisted in Boort; he’d joined up down in Melbourne. But Dad said he belonged in Boort as much as anyone, and deserved to have his name up there with the rest. After all, Bert Murchison had joined up in Melbourne, too, and no one said he should be left off.

Related Characters: Sadie Hazzard, Jimmy Raven, Clarry Hazzard, Sarah Louise “Sadie” Hazzard
Related Symbols: Boort
Page Number: 54
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

Wah!” The crow reared up angrily, wings outstretched, and Sadie shrank back. “Do you have no Law? When a man is killed, the death must be punished. When precious things are stolen they must be returned. Are you an infant? Do you know nothing? Tell the story; tell Crow what you see!”

Related Characters: The Crows (speaker), Sadie Hazzard, Jimmy Raven
Related Symbols: The Stone Circle
Page Number: 107
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

“For our people, the land was created long ago, in the time of the Dreaming, when the ancestral spirits moved across the country. They made the hills and the rivers, the swamps and the waterholes. That’s why our spirit ancestors are so important. They make the land, and the land belongs to them, and they make us, too […] round this country, everything belongs to Bunjil the Eaglehawk, or Waa the Crow.”

Related Characters: Walter (speaker), Sadie Hazzard, Ellie Hazzard, David, The Crows
Related Symbols: The Stone Circle, Boort
Page Number: 116
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

Mr Mortlock’s hand shot out and twisted into Dad’s shirt. “I’ve killed the bugger, Clarry. I’ve gone and killed him.”

Related Characters: Gerald Mortlock (speaker), Sadie Hazzard, Jimmy Raven, Clarry Hazzard, Sarah Louise “Sadie” Hazzard
Related Symbols: The Stone Circle, Boort
Page Number: 129
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18 Quotes

“Why are you doing this, Dad? Why?” And then Sadie’s voice had risen to a scream, and Dad grabbed her arm and shook her.

“Be quiet, Sadie, for God’s sake!”

“It’s not right, Dad, you know it!”

“I have to help Gerald; I promised I’d look out for him.”

“And what about Jimmy? Didn’t you promise him, too?” Her voice rose, shrill, hysterical. “Jimmy was murdered! Gerald Mortlock should hang for this!”

Dad slapped her face.

Related Characters: Clarry Hazzard (speaker), Sarah Louise “Sadie” Hazzard (speaker), Sadie Hazzard, Jimmy Raven, Gerald Mortlock
Related Symbols: The Stone Circle, Boort
Page Number: 135
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20 Quotes

“You should be pleased! Look at all these people, experiencing a bit of Aboriginal culture!” He waved his arm at the men sprawled against the rocks, their boots resting on the carvings, their cans tossed into the centre of the circle.

Related Characters: Craig Mortlock (speaker), Sadie Hazzard, Walter, Lachie Mortlock
Related Symbols: The Stone Circle
Page Number: 157
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 21 Quotes

“The story goes on, as it always goes on. The Law is broken and there is punishment. The dead cannot live again, but what was taken from the clever man must be returned. When the Law is broken the world is broken. The circle must be joined again.”

Related Characters: The Crows (speaker), Sadie Hazzard, Walter, Craig Mortlock, Lachie Mortlock, Jimmy Raven
Related Symbols: The Stone Circle
Page Number: 165
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24 Quotes

“We can’t leave him here!” Sadie was weeping. “If we leave him here, he will die!” She tried to lift Lachie’s head. He moaned, his face drained of colour.

The story tells itself again...

The three of them were in the grip of Crow’s story, just as Gerald and Clarry and Jimmy had been. But Crow couldn’t see, Crow couldn’t help them. Sadie was the only one who knew; it was all up to her.

Related Characters: Sadie Hazzard (speaker), Walter, Lachie Mortlock, Jimmy Raven, Gerald Mortlock, Clarry Hazzard
Related Symbols: The Stone Circle, Boort
Page Number: 199
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 27 Quotes

Sadie edged closer to the bed. She pulled out the battered cigarette tin - heavy, so much heavier than it should be - and held it out. “I found it. His special things, the secret things. They’re in there.”

[…]

“Good girl.” [Auntie Lily] let out a deep sigh. “Go on, you go. I look after this now.”

Related Characters: Sadie Hazzard (speaker), Auntie Lily (speaker), Jimmy Raven
Related Symbols: The Stone Circle, Boort
Page Number: 223
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 28 Quotes

“Bethany reckons he killed himself. Our great-grandpa,” said Lachie. “Because of the war. Posttraumatic stress or whatever. It was years after he came back. The family made out it was an accident. But Bethany thinks it was because of what he’d seen. What he’d been through.”

What he’d done, thought Sadie.

Related Characters: Lachie Mortlock (speaker), Sadie Hazzard, Jimmy Raven, Gerald Mortlock, Bethany Mortlock
Related Symbols: The Stone Circle, Boort
Page Number: 231
Explanation and Analysis:

Together they planted [Jimmy Raven’s] marker in the ground at the place the crow had shown them.

“I should have brought some flowers or something,” said Sadie.

“Next time,” Walter said.

“Give us a hand?” Lachie called.

The three of them moved around the tiny graveyard, straightening the fallen crosses, digging them more firmly into the ground.

“That’s better,” said Lachie at last, and wiped his forehead on his sleeve. “Maybe we should build a fence round it or something.”

“We’d help you,” said Sadie.

“Make a real headstone for Jimmy, too,” said Walter.

“Yeah,” said Lachie.

Related Characters: Sadie Hazzard (speaker), Walter (speaker), Lachie Mortlock (speaker), Jimmy Raven, Gerald Mortlock, Clarry Hazzard
Related Symbols: The Stone Circle, Boort
Page Number: 232-233
Explanation and Analysis: