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VCE English Unit 3
Holiday Homework DLA
Outcome 2: Creating & Presenting
Context of Identity & Belonging
The Mind of a Thief
This is your holiday homework. Please ensure you finish your first reading of the text and
these questions before we get back from the holidays. Due in first lesson back.
You do not need to re-write the questions, but please number your responses carefully and
write in complete, grammatically correct English, ie full sentences.
The Mind of a Thief Questions
Chapter 1: Blackfellas
Whilst at the Wiradjuri women elders’ meeting in Wellington, New South Wales, Miller is confronted
with the direct question ‘D’ya have any blackfella in ya?’. This key question sets Miller’s mind racing
as she considers her long past in the area. Wellington is a country town on the central western plains
of New South Wales and this is where the author grew up. Feeling like a ‘ring-in’ from the city, Miller
listens to the tales of woe from the women gathered at the Aboriginal Health Centre as they discuss
family members and their issues – drug addiction; alcoholism; violence; sexual abuse and heart
disease. After listening to the women, she offered to help them write their stories. Although Miller
tentatively replies that she is not aware of having Aboriginal background, the women clearly think
otherwise. ‘The whitefellas and the blackfellas have two different stories about who’s related to who
in this town,’ says Joyce.
This sets Miller thinking about those in her family who had married and/or had children with
Aborigines. It also set her thinking about her own self and background, not wanting to be one of
those annoying ‘Whites claiming dubious Aboriginal ancestry’. She wonders if the discovery of being
part Aboriginal would change her sense of identity.
Questions:
1. Describe the way the Aboriginal women interact with each other and with the author.
2. Why is it important for Miller to pursue her family history?
Chapter 2: Wiradjuri Land
The author speaks of her childhood experience growing up on Marylands, which has now reverted
back to its Aboriginal name Wiradjuri Land. Like many people of her generation and those before,
Aboriginal terms and history was never taught at school. White people lived separately from them,
as though they did not exist. However, due to her farm upbringing, Miller did have contact with
Aboriginal children and after remembering some of the things she said and did with them, she
begins to see her past in a new light.
Questions:
1. Describe the contact Miller had with Aboriginals as she grew up.
2. Why do you think was there no Aboriginal information in the curriculum?
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Chapter 3: Identity Terror
Upon sharing this new found information with her mother, we realise that her father had always
known this, but his comments were dismissed as everyone thought he was joking. Of course, some
members of the family and relatives would not have wanted any association with Aborigines, so it
was not spoken about. As Miller shares the memories of her dad’s stories with her family, she begins
to wonder about the implications and what her ancestry and history had contributed to her sense of
identity today. After her mother had moved into a retirement unit due to ill health, Miller claims she
had ‘begun to lose my way…’ as she experienced an identity crisis and a severe level of depression or
similar problem. It seemed to Miller that ‘nothing had meaning anymore.’
Questions
1. Describe the crisis that Miller faced. Was it any way related to meeting the Aboriginal women?
2. Why was Miller so exhausted?
Chapter 4: Dreaming
Now living in King’s Cross, Sydney, Miller wakes up after having a dream about Wellington. When
she wakes up she realises that just months after the Mabo decision has been passed, allowing
Aboriginal groups rights to land ownership, the first application was pending – and it was from
Wellington. This sparks something passionate from within and Miller contacts the women from
Wellington again, wanting more information. Her journey is about to start.
Questions
1. What is the significance of the dream?
2. Why is Miller eager to return to Wellington?
Chapter 5: Heading Home and Leaving
Setting off to discover more information, Rose Chown is reluctant to speak to Miller because she is
not Aboriginal even though she is from Wiradjuri. Miller remembers her past and how easily she
lived in Paris and forgot about her roots.
Questions
1. Describe Wellington.
2. What else has Miller explored or felt she belonged to in the past?
Skip Chapter 6
Chapter 7: Memory and Place
Passages to re-read:
a) Miller discusses her memory of landscape of her childhood. p.47
b) Explanation of native tiles and Land Rights. Bottom of p.48 to half way down p.49
c) “I remember…” to “…banal pop song’, pp 50 - 51
Questions
1. Write a shot paragraph about what the author saying about the importance of land to
identity.
Chapter 8: The Common and Nanima Reserve
Passages to re-read:
a) “It sounds so…” p.56, to end of chapter
Questions
1. How does this contrast with the author’s childhood as depicted in the previous chapter?
2. What implications would applying for a ‘Certificate of Exemption’ have?
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Chapter 9: In Search of an Inland Sea
Passages to re-read:
a) “I nodded…” to “...in all its glory”. p.6
Questions
1. What sense does Miller get from reading?
2. What does she long for?
3. Do you think she is regretting the loss of her stories?
Skip Chapter 10
Chapter 11: The Mind of a Thief
Passages to re-read:
a) “In one record…” to “Wirraidyuri” p.73
a) “Henderson wrote too…” to “…they would show me” pp.77 - 78
b) “Henderson asserts…” to “…eluded me completely.” p.81
c) “The missionaries…” to “…maps, records and stories.” p.85
d) “But now I think…” to “…the mind of a thief.” p.86
Questions
1. There are so many different spelling of ‘Wirdajuri’; what might this say about white settler’s
histories in contrast to Wiradjuri histories?
2. Who was Baiame, and what is he credited with doing?
3. What issue about the telling of stories does Miller raise in this part of the text?
4. What are ‘paintings and stories’?
5. Miller wishes she could have seen the bora trees even though women were not allowed to
see them. What makes her realise that she has the ‘mind of a thief’?
Chapter 12: The Missionaries’ Diaries
Passages to re-read:
a) “From the diary of Brother Johann…” to “…had no children.” p.103
Questions
1. What do the ‘black women’ understand from Handt, and why do they respond as they do?
Chapter 13: More inclined to read than work
Passages to re-read:
a) “Apart from…” to “…we are all bereft.” p.109
Questions
1. In what way are the Wiradjuri stories ‘lost or hidden in museums’, do you think?
Skip Chapter 14
Chapter 15: Thieving ancestors
Passages to re-read:
a) “Perhaps that’s why…” to “…blood and country.” p.128
Questions
1. Why does Miller wish it is true that she has Wiradjuri blood in her?
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Chapter 16: Whose Native Title?
Passages to re-read:
a) “Rose’s parents were…” to “I needed it written down.” p.132
b) “Remembering the Aborigines…” to …like somewhere to stand.”
Questions
1. Why does Miller blush?
2. How do you think Joyce can remember all this family history? Why can’t Miller keep it in her
head?
3. What is belonging about? How is this different to owning?
Chapter 17: A Wild Irishman
Passages to re-read:
a) “I had inherited…” to “…ill at ease” pp.144 - 145
Questions
1. How does Miller feel about her ancestral homeland?
Skip chapter 18
Chapter 19: Native Title Fight
Passages to re-read:
a) “After we watched the video…” to “…speak for country.” pp.154 - 156
Questions
1. How is someone Wiradjuri?
2. Who can speak for Wiradjuri?
Skip chapters 20, 21,22
Chapter 23: Elders usurped
Passages to re-read:
a) “I suddenly felt…” to “…had been usurped.” p.186
Questions
1. What is the loss the author talks about?
Chapter 24: The Niece of Jimmy Governor
Passages to re-read:
a) “We had to sit…” to “…in the main story.” p.195
b) “Was Nanima better…” to “way things are.” pp.203 - 205
Questions
1. What causes ‘that hurting’ feeling? What is it, exactly?
2. What was the name given to segregation in South Africa?
3. What shape does the author use to describe Evelyn’s story? What do you make of this?
Chapter 25: Elders usurped
Passages to re-read:
a) “I suddenly felt…” to “…had been usurped.” p.186
Questions
1. What is the loss the author talks about?
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Chapter 26: Searching for the Bora
Passages to re-read:
a) “Pete has found…” to “…we drove away.” pp. 214 - 215
Questions
1. What does the author say about not seeing the bora that day?
2. Do you think she is right? Should she try to see the bora again one day?
Chapter 27: Not taking nonsense
Passages to re-read:
a) “Wayne continued…” to “…everything he did.” p.224
b) “The conversation had…” to “…was part of.”
Questions
1. What does Wayne mean?
2. Why does the author think her identity might not be about ‘who she was, but what she was
a part of’?
Chapter 28: A Wiradjuri Man
Passages to re-read:
a) Re-read the whole chapter (it’s not long)
Questions
1. What factors have contributed to Wayne’s challenging life?
2. In what ways has he tried to turn his life around?
3. What does he say about identity? p.227
4. What does the author say about words? p.229
Chapter 29: Identity
Passages to re-read:
a) “So what keeps…” to “…to live for.” p.237
b) “The Wellington…” to “…let it go.”p.238
c) “I lay in the…” to “…of the threads.”
Questions
1. What gives Wayne endurance?
2. Why does the telling of stories matter so much?
3. Why does Wayne repeatedly state that he ‘won’t let [the valley] go’?
Chapter 30: Who Belongs?
Passages to re-read:
a) start of chapter to “Our Wiradjuri religion.” p.243
Questions
1. What is the argument about?
2. Who do you agree with? Why?
Chapter 31: Australia Day
Re-read all of this chapter
Questions
1. Why is Rose so elusive?
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Chapter 32: Sacred Sites
Passages to re-read:
a) “Corroborees were held…” to “…a vast universe.” pp.258 - 262
Questions
1. How does Miller handle the fact that she is not permitted to view the photographs?
2. How is this different to when she tried to see the bora?
3. How does Wayne react when she shares her insights into the female sacred site?
Skip chapter 33
Chapter 34 : Country Rose
Passages to re-read:
a) “So what started…” to “…under each day.”pp. 276 - 279
Questions
1. Why did Rose leave the Common?
2. What impact has the struggle had on Rose?
3. What does the author wish for? Do you think this likely? p.290
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