The White Girl Quotes

“It never failed to surprise Odette how white people were always going on about uplifting Aboriginal people, yet they would demand information about the old ways when it suited them.”
― Tony Birch, The White Girl

“Odette never forgot her father’s words: Them whitefellas, they can never touch the stars, no matter how clever they think they are.”
― Tony Birch, The White Girl

“You’re right. I don’t need them in front of me, Sis. But, as each tree is different, so is each branch and leaf and flower. What I’m painting this afternoon can’t be painted again. They’re all different. Once this flower dies there won’t be another quite the same.”
― Tony Birch, The White Girl

“Ghosts are what white people put in storybooks and picture shows. They do it to scare people about the dead. The church does the same. It’s about making people afraid. I’m sure they know nothing about the good of a person’s spirit and how it comes forward after death.”
― Tony Birch, The White Girl

“He was well aware that Ruben was earning good money, a white man’s wage, at the mine. It was a widely known fact that upset some folk in town.”
― Tony Birch, The White Girl

“Fair enough. We all have our own place. Or should do.”
― Tony Birch, The White Girl

“I’m coming,’ Henry called. He soon appeared from behind the Dodge, walking a bicycle. The frame was painted red and the wheels, which didn’t quite match in size, had been scrubbed and oiled. The handlebar grips, made out of strips of leather from an old car seat, had been crafted by Henry himself. The basket on the handlebars barely resembled the wicker cray pot it had originally been; an item that had somehow travelled far from the sea to the junkyard. Henry brought the bicycle to a halt in front of Sissy.”
― Tony Birch, The White Girl

“She was about to touch one of the large wooden wheels of the coach when a more sinister image flashed before her – a coach full of children being driven away from the mission, crying for their mothers. Odette turned her back on the carriage.”
― Tony Birch, The White Girl

“Without citizenship, Odette could not open an independent bank account. As a consequence, she cashed the money orders and kept her savings in old jam tins stored at the back of the pantry.”
― Tony Birch, The White Girl

“What I need from you,’ the woman added, ‘is your tribal name.’ Odette was puzzled. ‘My tribal name?’ ‘Yes. The tribe of your ancestors, where your people originated from. Whenever I sell native artwork I provide written provenance with the greeting cards, naming the tribe that the artist originates from. It adds to the value of the work, you see?’ She looked at the frowning Odette, sympathetically. ‘Oh, I’m sorry. Perhaps you have lost all contact with …’ The woman blushed with embarrassment.”
― Tony Birch, The White Girl

“Anything that takes your heart, Darling,’ the woman smiled, patting Odette on the shoulder as if she was a child.”
― Tony Birch, The White Girl

“Jed Lamb might have been a junkman, but he was also a true white man.”
― Tony Birch, The White Girl

“The station records revealed that in the decades following the town’s foundation, the blacks had been kept on a tight rein. The log book for the police cells indicated that a week rarely passed without an inmate from the nearby mission being locked up, from a period of twelve hours to several weeks, and for matters including trespassing, drunkenness, absconding and co-habitation with those of a superior caste.”
― Tony Birch, The White Girl

“That wouldn’t include my people. They don’t count us, Henry.”
― Tony Birch, The White Girl

“Henry was in tears. One of the older boys had painted his face black while others held him to the ground. ‘You wanna hang round with the boongs,’ one of them screamed, ‘you’re gonna have to be one.”
― Tony Birch, The White Girl

“For years the Aboriginal people living on the mission were barred from entering town, except on Saturday mornings between eight and noon when they were permitted to shop at the company store in the main street. While crossing the Line remained an offence, technically at least, the law was generally ignored.”
― Tony Birch, The White Girl

“The Line had been drawn a century earlier to separate the Aboriginal people incarcerated on the nearby mission from the good white settlers of Deane.”
― Tony Birch, The White Girl

“Deane carried the blood of so many Aboriginal people on his hands it could never be scrubbed away, not from the man himself or the town that carried his name.”
― Tony Birch, The White Girl

“We can't put our faith in anyone but our own people.”
― Tony Birch, The White Girl

“White people aren't ready for trust. But some days we have no choice but to take a chance with them.”
― Tony Birch, The White Girl

“believe you are an acquaintance of Odette Brown?’ ‘She’s no acquaintance of mine. Odette Brown is my closest friend.”
― Tony Birch, The White Girl