The Yield

With pen in hand, Albert "Poppy" Gondiwindi writes, aware that his time is running out. He has lived all of his life on Massacre Plains, at Prosperous House, on the banks of the Murrumby River. Albert is committed to preserving both his people's language and all that has ever been recalled. The words seem to him on the wind.

After ten years of living on the other side of the globe, August Gondiwindi finds out of her grandfather's passing. Wracked with grief and burdened by everything she tried to leave behind, she comes home for his burial. Her return home is bittersweet since she must face her family's love and learn that a mining business is about to take back Prosperous. In an effort to atone for her previous transgressions, she sets out to preserve their property, a journey that takes her past, into the voices of her ancestors, and into the mysteries of the river.

The Yield by Tara June Winch is a very moving and masterfully written tale of a people and culture that have been dispossessed. But it is also a potent reclamation of Indigenous language, storytelling, and identity, as well as a celebration of what was and what remains.