
‘Split’ selected for 2024 VCE English curriculum
I’m so pleased that my short story ‘Split’, a creative impression of Perth in deep time, has been selected as a key text for high school students studying VCE English in the state of Victoria, Australia. Here is information from the State Library of Victoria website:
“A Western Australian author and descendent of the Noongar people, Cassie Lynch explores the divide between traditional indigenous connection to Country and the modern, post-colonial treatment of the land through the recurrent motif of the ancient river that runs through – and divides – Perth.
The narrator follows Perth from its creation by the serpent Wagyl to the hustle and bustle of its central business district; people using the land without acknowledging it. The story asserts that while settlers developed and changed the land through the process of colonising it, they have never been fully conscious of its history or importance, damaging it in equal measure.
Lynch extends this idea of ‘split’ country, the duality between the old and the new Swan River, and the gap between First Nations and Settler peoples themselves through her illustrative use of language. A blend of magical realism and traditional storytelling techniques and vibrant descriptions of nature clash with cold, contemporary practices, though with some hope that a balance and compromise between the two disparate landscapes can be achieved. This contrast highlights the importance of knowing the history of one’s country, while encouraging a spiritual connection to it.”
‘Split’ can be found in the anthology ‘Flock: First Nations Stories Then and Now’ edited by Ellen Van Neerven and published by UQP. The anthology was reviewed by Tristan Harwood in The Saturday Paper on 29 May 2021, here is an excerpt:
“Cassie Lynch’s “Split”, another west coast story, uses speculative fiction to imagine, and so enliven, the river and the ecological world that is obscured physically and symbolically by Perth city. Lynch pushes the form of the short story towards fictocriticism. She vacillates between historical and architectural observations of the city, Swan River, and verdant visions of birds, fish, a snake, kangaroos, all spilling forth from bitumen, in places they should be but are not. She’s concerned with patterns across deep time, Noongar Country, which precedes and exceeds the temporality of the settler city.”
UQP’s ‘Teacher’s Notes’ for the anthology can be found here.