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Chapter 6
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Yield, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Colonialism and Exploitation
The Power of Language and Cultural History
Family, Identity, and Belonging
Collective Trauma, Memory, and Guilt
Human Spirituality and the Natural World
Summary
Analysis
Albert’s dictionary defines W words, beginning with “war”—nadhadirrambanhi. He describes a hundred-year war between the Aboriginal Australians and settlers who were destroying the land. The Aboriginal Australians hunted the settlers’ cows and the intruders retaliated violently, earning Massacre Plains its name. Albert goes on to name the Aboriginal words for water, waterhole, and wattle flower. Each entry emphasizes the felt connection between humanity and the natural world. Albert describes August as ngarran (“weak, hungry, depressed”) when she came to live with him and Elsie. He tried to teach her to quell this feeling, though it’s impossible to get rid of completely. He hopes to make maranirra and right his past wrongs now.
Like his granddaughter, Albert is preoccupied with past events. For Albert, the word for “war” inevitably brings up his Aboriginal Australian ancestors’ struggle against English colonizers. Albert describes how Native Australians felt communally connected to the land and retaliated when they witnessed European settlers harming it. His description of August as “hungry” shows that he understood her insatiable yearning and tried to help her manage such overwhelming feelings. Something about writing the dictionary also feels confessional for Albert, as when he alludes to “past wrongs” that need righting.
Active
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Albert translates yura as “wheat.” At the Boys’ Home, he consumed plenty of dense bread and his Aboriginal Australian ancestors worked in the wheat fields. His next entry translates dhaganhu ngurambang as “where is your country?” To Albert, this question is less about location and more about relationships between people. He believes there are some “places you can only reach by time travel.” He describes acquiring a guluman (“bark container”) used by his ancestors. In the entry for bangal-ngaara-ngaara (“world”), Albert tells the story of being visited by an ancestor who told him no one ever dies completely, they just go somewhere else. Albert has realized the ancestors’ knowledge is all necessary and timeless.
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