In Doctor Wooreddy’s Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World, Colin Johnson presents the invasion of Australia by white men, referred to as ‘nums’ or ‘ghosts’, through the eyes of the Aborigines, ‘humans’. With the central character Wooreddy and his wife Trugernanna, (Truganinni) we witness the annihilation of a race of people, the breakdown of their culture.
Presenting this disturbing period of Australian history imaginatively, and from an Aboriginal viewpoint, Johnson is able to explore, intimately, the complex and varied responses his people displayed towards white man’s oppression. And although we always feel a passionate concern for the Aborigines, Johnson sustains throughout a remarkable detachment, one which creates impact for his tale of horror.
Doctor Wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the End of the World by Colin Johnson
Hyland House, $12.95 pb, 207 pp
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