The Exiles

Didn’t these colonists know that time doesn’t move in a line from past to present but instead is continuous? That spirits and humans, animals and plants, are connected by the land, which binds ancestors to descendants in an eternal moment?

“You carry the people and places you cherish with you. Remember that and you will never be lonely, child.”

“Every person you’ve ever cared about, and every place you’ve ever loved, is one of these shells. You’re the thread that ties them together

Men don’t have to live with the consequences of their actions. You do

a woman’s greatest possession was her chastity

here’s no man you can count on. No woman neither. The sooner you understand that, the better off you’ll be.

This is a bit different. The Aborigines are human, after all. Our theory is that by changing externals you can change personalities. We are teaching them to eat our food and learn our language. We feed their souls with Christianity. They’ve surrendered to clothes, as you can see. We’ve cut the hair of the men and impressed modesty on the women. We’ve given them Christian names to aid the process.

Let no one say the past is dead.
The past is all about us and within