In the opening pages of Kate Grenville’s Unsettled, the author offers a complex disclaimer. She muses on a list of reasons why the book shouldn’t exist. As an artist and citizen, she has been turning over the colonial beginnings of our country since her explosive novel The Secret River, was published 20 years ago. A non-fiction book grappling with these same wounds post-apology, post-Voice referendum by a privileged white Australian is complicated.
“What do we do with the fact that we’re the beneficiaries of a violent past?” she asks. “Should we feel guilty, or was it all too far in the past?” Plus, she’s quick to add, these questions aren’t especially important as they put non-Indigenous Australians at the centre. “We might wring our hands and wonder what to do, but how can that matter in comparison with two centuries of suffering by First Nations people?”
But the rejection of the Voice triggered something fresh in Grenville, who committed to exploring her family’s relationship with Australian colonialism. She owns her privilege explicitly and her feeling of overwhelm at trying to be part of the nation’s most difficult conversation. “There are no answers,” her introductory statement concludes, “just one person’s attempt to look with new eyes.”
Unsettled: A journey through time and place results from Grenville’s wanderings through her family history. It is a beautifully written exploration of geography, spirituality and settlement. Those who come to Unsettled looking for the sparks of beautiful characterisation that make history visceral in her fiction, however, may be disappointed. In her attempt to grapple with history, Grenville prioritises a careful examination of the past that is often more concerned with systems of power and linguistic history. This makes Unsettled more of a thought piece than an intimate journey, as Grenville trips across New South Wales and records her observations and research.
Grenville’s craft is undeniable and she summons up landscapes with ease. The book is ultimately unsatisfying, but Grenville isn’t to blame. As she says in her opening pages: there are no answers. It makes the book an uncomfortable reading experience, like a stone permanently caught in the shoe – but, of course, this is the experience for anyone brave enough to sit with the full brutality of Australia’s past. It is a massive wound the country refuses to look at holistically. Grenville holds that tension always, sitting with the violence and degradation set against Indigenous Australians while simultaneously holding respect for her Anglo family ‘settling’ the land.
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Almost every anecdote, every beat of Unsettled, ends without a conclusion. It is a state that befits the title itself – Grenville deliberately unsettles the reader and herself. Grenville is to be celebrated for vulnerably setting forth into our darkest corners, unsettling us all.
Unsettled: A journey through time and place, Kate Grenville
Publisher: Black Inc
ISBN: 9781760645649
Format: Paperback
Pages: 288pp
Release date: 1 April2025
RRP: $36.99
