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Summary
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Terra Nullius, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Human Nature
Colonial Violence
Freedom and Bondage
Homeland
Hope
Summary
Analysis
An Indigenous man named Jacky is running for his life through the Australian bush. He doesn’t yet know where he’s going, he just knows he needs to keep running.
The book begins with Jacky running away from something so terrible he knows he can’t go back (enslavement and colonial violence). He’s running home, a place that calls to him even though he can barely remember it.
Active
Themes
Not far from Jacky, Sister Bagra paces the halls of her mission school after dark. Although she won’t admit it aloud, she hates everything here: the oppressive heat, the terrible food, and most of all the Indigenous children in her care, whom she considers ungrateful, untamable “savages.” Suddenly, Sister Bagra’s ears perk up—she hears whispering. In one of the dormitory rooms, she discovers two children kneeling beside their beds praying in their native language. Sister Bagra pounces, dragging the children out of the dormitory building and across the yard, where she throws each into a solitary confinement kennel. She berates them in her own language, not caring whether they understand her words or not. Her anger is clear.
As a Settler, Sister Bagra is in a better position socially than the children in her care. But her relative power doesn’t necessarily make her free. She’s trapped by her religious calling—and the orders of the superiors who sent her to educate these Indigenous children—and by her hatred of the land and the people she’s helping to colonize. This doesn’t excuse her violence and abuse, but it does pointedly remind readers that freedom doesn’t just mean not being enslaved: true freedom also means having a mind unshackled by hatred, prejudice, and misery.
Active
Themes
In the morning, Sister Bagra reminds the other nuns of their duty to save the Indigenous children’s souls. A recently arrived nun, Sister Mel, wonders if they have souls to save. Sister Bagra replies that they have both souls and intelligence, although she holds neither of these in high regard.
In the bush, Jacky hurriedly eats the apples and raw eggs that he stole early in his flight. Swallowing raw eggs is disgusting, but Jacky is too hungry to be picky and too afraid of capture to light a fire. He is a small, wiry man whose body bears the signs of chronic malnutrition and overwork. Jacky is surprised to find himself here; he ran away on reflex rather than conscious decision. Now he understands that he’s trying to go home. But he was taken from his family and sent to the mission school so early in life, he has no real memories of home. Mulling over his lost past, Jacky beds down for the night, careful to cover his tracks from anyone who might be chasing him.
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Jacky is right to be careful: within hours of his escape from the station where he performed forced labor, the authorities are after him. The younger servants whisper among themselves about Jacky’s audacity. The older servants shush them. They too once dreamed of freedom, but they’ve been enslaved for so long that they’ve forgotten what it feels like. All they know is the fear of the Settlers’ wrath and punishment.
Active
Themes
