The Cry for the Dead

by Judith A. Wright

332 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1982

About the author

Judith Wright was probably Australia's greatest poet; she was also an ardent conservationist and activist. She died in 2000, at the age of 85.

Over a long and distinguished literary career, she published poetry, children's books, literary essays, biographies, histories and other works of non-fiction.

Her commitment to the Great Barrier Reef began in 1962, when she helped found the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland. She went on to become a member of the Committee of Enquiry into the National Estate and life member of the Australian Conservation Foundation.

Judith Wright worked tirelessly to promote land rights for Aboriginal people and to raise awareness among non-Aboriginal Australians of their plight arising from the legacy of European settlement. She has written The Cry for the Dead (1981), We Call for a Treaty (1985) and Born of the Conquerors (1991).

Judith Wright was awarded many honours for her writing, including the Grace Leven Award (twice), the New South Wales Premier's Prize, the Encyclopedia Britannica Prize for Literature, and the ASAN World Prize for Poetry. She has received honorary degrees (D.Litt.) from the Universities of New England, Sydney Monash, Melbourne, Griffith and New South Wales and the Australian National University. In 1994 she received the Human Rights Commission Award for Collected Poems.

Reviews

[Anne Fenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this following an analysis of it in Tom Griffith's 'The Art of Time Travel'. A Cry for the Dead is a history of the Queensland pastoral industry, from early times. It begins strongly with a focus on the Indigenous inhabitants, and how they responded to white settlement. ' Dispersal' of indigenous people goes on and on, horrifying and hidden. While the history never loses this angle, the latter half brings out the trials of those trying to establish their sheep and cattle runs. It's based heavily on the diaries of Judith Wright's ancestor. The destruction of the environment of vast swathes of Queensland, the terrible ongoing struggle with big river floods, then drought and the effect on settlers lives, makes harrowing, if repetitive reading. The accompanying destruction of indigenous society and culture emerges as the bigger tragedy of course.

[Lorraine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Based on her Grandfather's detailed diary, Judith Wright's account of the push of pastoralists north through Queensland towards the Gulf or Carpentaria takes the reader through the mechanism for subordinating the land and its people to the economics of profit from meat and wool without any regard to the cost. It is a harrowing story of greed and tragedy.

[Peter S · Rating 4 out of 5]

It tells of the devastation the early white settlers had on the original inhabitants in the middle to late 1800s as well as the devastation they had on the land with the introduction of sheep and cattle, similar to the early settlement of Northern W.A. Wright follows the diary of an early relative in the latter part of the book, and the resilience needed to survive as a pioneer.

[Nicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t manage to read it all through but the parts I dipped into were a depressing account of the difficulties faced by early settlers, ravaged by drought, flood and economic depression colliding with inhumane policies and actions against the native people.