Tracker

by Alexis Wright

New book by celebrated Aboriginal author Alexis Wright, author of Carpentaria and The Swan Book.

A collective memoir of one of Aboriginal Australia’s most charismatic leaders and an epic portrait of a period in the life of a country, reminiscent in its scale and intimacy of the work of Nobel Prize-winning Russian author Svetlana Alexievich.

Miles Franklin Award-winning novelist Alexis Wright returns to non-fiction in her new book, Tracker, a collective memoir of the charismatic Aboriginal leader, political thinker, and entrepreneur who died in Darwin in 2015. Taken from his family as a child and brought up in a mission on Croker Island, Tracker Tilmouth returned home to transform the world of Aboriginal politics. He worked tirelessly for Aboriginal self-determination, creating opportunities for land use and economic development in his many roles, including Director of the Central Land Council. He was a visionary and a projector of ideas, renowned for his irreverent humour and his anecdotes. His memoir has been composed by Wright from interviews with Tilmouth himself, as well as with his family, friends, and colleagues, weaving his and their stories together into a book that is as much a tribute to the role played by storytelling in contemporary Aboriginal life as it is to the legacy of a remarkable man.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Australia, Biography Memoir, History, Memoir, Indigenous

778 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 30, 2017

About the author

Alexis Wright is from the Waanji people from the highlands of the southern Gulf of Carpentaria. Her acclaimed first novel Plains of Promise was published in 1997 by University of Queensland Press and was shortlisted in the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, The Age Book of the Year, and the NSW Premier's Awards. The novel has been translated into French.

Alexis has published award-winning short stories and her other books are the anthology Take Power (Jukurrpa Books, l998), celebrating 20 years of land rights in Central Australia; and Grog War (Magabala,1997), an examination of the alcohol restrictions in Tennant Creek.

Her latest novel, Carpentaria was published by Giramondo in 2006. An epic set in the Gulf country of north-western Queensland, from where her people come, the novel tells of life in the precariously settled coastal town of Desperance. In 2007 Carpentaria won the Miles Franklin Literary Award, the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal, Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, the Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction, Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, Best Fiction Book, and the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA), Australian Literary Fiction Book of the Year.

Biographical information from the Australia Council website.

Reviews

[Michael Livingston · Rating 5 out of 5]

This mammoth tribute to Tracker Tilmouth weaves together stories from dozens of people who knew and worked with him during his lifelong work to improve the lives of Aboriginal Australians. The stories paint a complex portrait of a fascinating man. They also brought home how little actual detail I knew about issues of land rights and community development in remote Australia - Tilmouth's philosophical arguments about the ways forward are compelling. I missed some sort of more personal perspective - his wife and children don't contribute stories - but this is an astonishing piece of work, and hopefully one that is widely read.

[Sheree | Keeping Up With The Penguins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've posted my full review of Tracker on Keeping Up With The Penguins.

How do you go about writing the autobiography of a man who was larger than life? The short answer is, you don’t. Tracker is not neat, linear life story told in a single voice. Rather, it is a “collective memoir”, drawing upon the ancient traditions of oral histories, whereby one man’s incredible life is related through the stories of dozens of people. Alexis Wright is not a narrator, but a collaborator, bringing together friends, family members, colleagues, politicians, and countless others to paint a portrait – detailed, contradictory, and powerful – of one of Australia’s most beloved Aboriginal leaders.

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘A Western-style biography would never do for Tracker.’

‘Tracker’ is a biography of Tracker Tilmouth (1954-2015). It’s no standard, linear biography. Instead Alexis Wright has composed a collective memoir, drawing on interviews with Tracker as well as with family, friends and colleagues. It’s a life recounted in a series of stories, of reminiscences. I started reading the book knowing a little about Tracker Tilmouth, I finished the book wanting to know more.

Tracker Tilmouth was born in central Australia in 1954. He was taken from his family as a child and, with two of his brothers, was brought up in a mission on Croker Island. When he returned home, he set about transforming the world of Aboriginal politics. This book contains some of what he set out to achieve, the why and the how of it, from a number of different perspectives. It’s the telling of Tracker’s story that held my attention: the different memories people had, the recounting of anecdotes, Tracker’s drive, Tracker’s vision. His ability to make connections and communicate.

‘How do you tell an impossible story, one that is almost too big to contain in a single book?’

Ms Wright has grouped the stories into five sections:
Trying to Get the Story Straight
Becoming Dangerous
The Inspirational Thinker
The Vision Splendid
The Unreliable Witness.
In addition, the book also includes a list of People, Places and Organisations, Contributor Biographies, as well as Acknowledgements.

I found myself reading a contribution, and then (if I didn’t know who the contributor was) looking for more information about that contributor. Sometimes that gave me context, sometimes it didn’t. But the more I read, the less I cared about trying to fit all the components into some logical whole. It didn’t matter, the words seemed to be telling me, just accept. Just listen. And as I read, I learned more about some of the negotiations, understood better Tracker’s vision of economic independence, appreciated more of the cultural aspects, heard more of the voices involved.

‘Wrighty, I just want to bookend this. Let others tell the story. Let them say what they want.’

This is not an easy book to read, especially for those of us used to conventional Western biographies. Some of the contributors found him difficult to work with, some found him annoying. Many found him inspiring. I found myself reading parts aloud, imagining a conversation. I wondered about the reliability of memory, cringed occasionally at some of the anecdotes but finished with a deep respect for Tracker Tilmouth and what he tried to achieve.

This book has recently been awarded the 2018 Stella Prize. The Stella Prize is a major literary award celebrating Australian women’s writing.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Tundra · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF ( I read about half). I really wanted to like this book and for the first quarter I did. The anecdotes, conversational style and different narrators complemented the rugged, gregarious, passionate character I was beginning to admire.
Unfortunately the book lost me from this point. It began to get very repetitive and bogged down in all of the issues that surround the indigenous movement. I wanted the stories about Tracker (the biography) not a blow by blow account of every event that occurred during the 80’s and 90’s that involved indigenous people. I accept that Tracker wars front and centre to many of these issues but many of the narrators did not have anything new to contribute to the story. It just felt like they were included to lend more weight to the number of people who admired or were influenced by him.
I’m pleased I read what I did because I think he was an admirable individual with a great love for life and his country.

[Anna Baillie-Karas · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collective biography of Tracker Tilmouth, who was a prominent Aboriginal leader and larger-than-life character. I was keen to read Alexis Wright, but her skill here is collating the stories, not her own writing. Factual & disorientating to read, stories repeat & circle around issues - a different way of getting to the heart of the matter, true to the story-tellers’ culture & I respect her approach, but I struggled with it. Fascinating but tough.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

tl;dr The "impossible story" of legendary activist Tracker Tilmouth is carefully and lovingly arranged in a polyphony of Aboriginal voices across over 600 pages; a fittingly large living document for a larger-than-life figure

At the end of the day you can say, Righto! We just paid five million dollars for a cattle station that my family owned for forty thousand years. We had to pay five million to get it back. We did not get it back because the government still owns it, still runs it, and if it comes across [as land returned to the traditional landowners] it would be run by the Land Council anyway, which is the government. I do not want to enter into a false pretence of land ownership. So do not invite me. I said the insult to injury is the five million dollars that we had to pay because someone stole it off us in the first place.” (165)

Alexis Wright begins the introduction to this sizable tome: "How does one tell an impossible story, one that is almost too big to contain in a single book?" The answer appears to be: let the folks concerned tell it themselves. Tracker is a polyphonic blend of memoir and biography, various voices cutting in, from Tracker Tilmouth himself, to his family members, the people that raised him, the people that he worked with closely, and folks who only met him briefly.

Tracker Tilmouth was a visionary leader who worked tirelessly for the sovereignty of Aboriginal people across Australia across different tribes. His pace of ideation was relentless, he moved between projects in an almost erratic fashion, and despite this, never seemed to tire. However, he kept things light, he tried to find the "fun" in it (even as his sense of humor rubbed people the wrong way), and folks from all walks of life, of various statures (he notably held no reverence for politicians), and places of origin were utterly charmed by the way he led.

The first chapter of Tracker concerns his childhood and upbringing and the direct effects of him being a member of the Stolen Generation (downright evil white supremacist legislation that stole away Aboriginal children of a certain caste); the unique structure of this biography/memoir becomes immediately apparent. Tracker traces his political origins back to a nun that worked at a mission named Lois Bertram, and then the next voice on the next page belongs to Bertram herself. We also hear from some of Tracker's siblings in the next few pages, and the resulting picture is fascinating: Tracker as an excellent student, an occasional shit-stirrer, an actor in a commercial, as someone with an utterly magnetic presence. The different voices of Tracker coalesce into a holistic picture assembled through discrete POVs; a detail that one speaker will mention will be confirmed or corroborated by another in passing. In her intro, Wright asserts that a countryman can't truly know what's in the heart of another's, and so the trading voices adhere to that sentiment: painting a portrait of Tracker while also affirming their own perspectives.

William: So this is it. The whole problem with assimilation is there is no smooth path back home and you end up asking, Who am I, who the fuck am I? Where do I fit in this world? Who am I? Where do I belong? These questions are continuously [being asked], and even to this day we feel we do not belong. (p 82)

These voices trade off in a carefully curated fashion. It's not A Brief History of Seven Killings style chaos, it instead feels more like the transcripts to a docuseries devoted to Tracker and his mob. The stories are, for the most part, vibrant enough to stand on their own. Tracker is being his somewhat ridiculous self; someone is talking about how they came across Tracker while he was riding a camel; someone is talking about how Tracker maybe accidentally pissed someone off with this "antics". The reverence for Tracker extends to his own irreverence, which was a part of how he connected other Aboriginal people, connected with the land and the language, and perhaps, failed to connect with others:

“And that is the trouble with a lot of the leadership in the land councils. Hardly any of them have ever lived on a community for any length of time, or lived out bush. I think I was the only director of the Central Land Council that was a community advisor, and probably the only director that spoke the language, or can speak language. You have to have that relationship. If you do not have that then it is very difficult to understand if this is a real communication, or it’s Tracker you’re fucking humbugging me, piss off.” (508)

Much of Tracker's struggles involve the empty acknowledgement of land. The recognition of "Native Title" amounted to zilch in Tracker's estimation. Much of the time, it was land that belonged to Aboriginals on paper, but realistically, for reason or other, they couldn't do anything with it. Enter Tracker.

Do precious metals exist underground? Well, if someone wants to build a mine atop it, the "righteous" owners of the land should have at least some say in how that mine gets built and where, especially with concern to sacred sites. Tracker Tilmouth's strategy during a key meeting was to fake a screaming match with one of his colleagues, which effectively made one of the key politicians "[shit] himself", and allowed Tracker to successfully negotiate in favor of Aboriginal concerns.

I do appreciate and admire Wright's desire to let the voices speak for themselves, but I would have loved for her to step in on occasiaon, just to give context to a couple of the issues and the key players/entities in each section. There are several anecdotes that go into deep, deep specifics about infrastructure, meetings, and Australian geopolitics. I do think that Tracker presupposes some knowledge of Australia's politics and geography. I did my best to follow along with Alexis Wright's footnotes, and did some lookups of my own (I couldn't fathom the distance of Croker Island to Nullawil until I looked it up; it's a trip that is casually mentioned in the first chapter). I trust that the folks more familiar with the inner workings of Aussie geopolitics will have more to latch onto here.

However, the final part, "The Unreliable Witness", is much more straightforward, even universal. It's a series of folks' reflections on Tracker's storytelling, and how his political and interpersonal efficacy hinged on his storytelling ability. The speakers also speak about Tracker in somber past tense, these dialogues serving as remembrance. It's a powerful consideration of both his legacy and the legacy of storytelling itself in Aboriginal existence:

Yes, well, telling stories, that is who we are as people basically. We can tell a story from some people say thirty, some people say forty, some people say sixty, some people say eighty, some people say two hundred thousand years. This is what makes us, it is our nature, telling stories. Some of us have got a lot of stories to tell and some of us have a little bit of stories to tell. (519)

From the beginning, I was struck by how many thematic parallels were shared between Tracker and Wright's critical/awards darling Praiseworthy, whose dizzying prose style was as invigorating as it was disorienting. Tracker was a man whose own real life ambition was Aboriginal sovereignty for his countrymen, and to fight off the monster of assimilation that had taken countless others. In Praiseworthy, the central figure Cause Man Steel, similarly "inventive" but lacking forethought nor community support, is ridiculed for his donkey conquest -- 'donkey,' in Tracker terms, refers unsatisfactory concessions made to Aboriginal communities; that is, white-people back-patting type-legislation.

“His way of explaining that was to relate it in a very direct way and say to people at the meeting, Well! We’re talking about the Native Title Act, is it a stallion or is it a donkey? Immediately the discussion and debate hit home. People could see that they were being asked to look at something carefully, that it might look like something else but be of much lesser value. So he was always good at translating things in those sorts of terms.” (189)

Through storytelling, through connection, and with his natural brightness, Tracker Tilmouth led his people towards a path of hope. Wright captures this hope, and the hopes of their people, by recording the otherwise oral tradition of Aboriginal cultures. What does someone like myself, not anywhere close to Australian culturally nor geographically, possibly have to gain from such a lengthy book about Tracker Tilmouth? It's a worthy, heavy document that reminds that the struggle against colonialism is one that is shared among us all.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fascinating read into a larger than life man who devoted his life to the cause of his people. I learnt so much about Aboriginal land rights vs. native title and the perspectives of a wide range of people involved in Aboriginal affairs across the decades really painted a thorough picture of what has been happening. There were also a lot of amusing stories of how Tracker did business whilst delivering some home truths about the ways Aboriginal Australians have been treated since colonization.

Whilst Wright let the people involved tell the story, it did result in a lot of repetition and whilst sometimes that drove home a point, a lot of other times it turned in to an uninteresting slog to read. That was the only downside to this style of book. I skimmed through those parts and cherished the nuggets of wisdom hidden throughout the chapters.

[Jillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had trouble finishing this book, not because i wasn’t enjoying it, but because it was demanded a lot of thinking - and I had borrowed it on Overdrive. I had to return it before I’d finished and then wait for it to become available again.

Reading it was a new experience - absorbing a narrative as it emerged from a variety of telling and perspectives. Every chapter, every event is built up in the reader’s mind like an oral virtual reality experience. It is, or course, written, but so much of it is in the words of those experiencing the events that it created voices in my head.

It was an immersive experience for me, rather than a read.

Had I been able to read it uninterrupted it may well have had 5 stars. I am reacting to my reading experience rather than the book. It rocks the foundations of my literary training and assumptions. A game-changer.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

An epic, fun, interesting read. While it is a story of Tracker Tilmouth's life, and all that influences him, the nature of the story tellers mean it is mostly a story of Tracker's work, and Australian politics, Aboriginal issues, and Native Title more broadly. Loads of material in here relevant to my research, and lots of quotes making their way into my next few lectures too... this link in to my own work meant I couldn't really lose myself in the story but it was such a good book anyways!

[Geoff Wooldridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Tracker', compiled by renowned Australian indigenous author, Alexis Wright, won the Stella Prize in 2018.

It is a record, warts and all, of the life of Tracker Tilmouth, a larger than life, influential, much revered man with a larrikin streak, a massive wit, a sense of humour that was universally acknowledged but not always politically correct, who achieved an enormous amount in his lifetime to progress the status,wealth, dignity and quality of life of Australia's first peoples.

From the outset, Wright recognized that a traditional Western style biography - birth, childhood, adolescence, working career, dotage and death - would not serve Tracker's legacy adequately.

As such, this quite lengthy record (more than 770 pages) is a series of transcripts of conversations with the man himself and the people who knew him best.

The diversity of the contributions, from family members, other Aboriginal people that Tracker grew up with and worked with on the various Councils, Committees and projects he was involved with, to politicians, including senior Ministers and other prominent white people in the Australian business and legal community, is testament to the breadth of Tracker's influence and popularity.

Tracker was part of the Stolen Generation. He was taken, with his brothers, from his family and relocated to Croker Island, where he was raised and educated on a Mission, like so many other Aboriginal children.

But this never held Tracker back. With his natural charisma, his charm, his networking skills, his ability to think big and prolifically, with countless ideas, not all practical or achievable, meant that he became an Aboriginal leader, thinker and passionate advocate for concepts of Aboriginal self-determination, wealth creation, employment and the preservation of cultural identity.

Because the contributions to Tracker's story are written as they were spoken by such a diverse range of people, some of the stories are a bit fruity and told in a language that is hardly polite, and some of Tracker's own contributions could be considered forthright and crude, but his barbs were usually delivered in such a humorous and cheeky context that he got away with it, and was almost universally loved and admired.

For me, this was not just revelatory about the man, Bruce 'Tracker' Tilmouth, who passed away in 2025, but also enlightening with regard to the ongoing struggles of Aboriginal people for recognition and status within Australia since colonization in 1788.

Wright has, I believe, taken the appropriate, if unconventional, approach in telling the story of this remarkable man.

4.5 stars.

[Ally Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really disliked this book until about 350 pages in, and then really liked it. Tracker was obviously a controversial and divisive character and I was not convinced by him until I’d spent 350 pages reading his arguments. Ended the book agreeing on the necessity of economic independence to self determination for Aboriginal people in the NT. Would recommend to most people living in the NT but especially those working at NLC/CLC!

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every so often a book comes along which makes me wish I had more stars than five: the kind of reading experience that leaves you different. The frustrating thing is, I'm not sure how to articulate what it is about Tracker that is so good. I want to describe it as intensely intellectual: but that risks giving the impression that the sentences are hard to understand, when the opposite is true. Wright's narrators speak in the various patterns of Australia, mixing bombast and laconic humour. At times it is urgent, sometimes wry, often you can hear the gales of laughter that are not on the page.
I had gone into this with some trepidation after someone described it as challenging. Wright's Carpentaria rates as my go-to pick for best Australian fiction when asked that silly question, but the Swan Book was more than I could grasp. I now assume the person who said this was challenging hadn't read either of those because it is certainly far more accessible. But as the book goes on, it pulls you into a world which asks you to concentrate, to think about parts of Australia usually treated as marginalia, to recenter a worldview quite different to the narrative of Native Title that occurs in the metropolitan newspapers. I found that an immensely rich experience, but it requires you create space for it, not a common requirement from biographies. The knack is to let yourself go where Wright wants to take you, and let her have the headspace to get there.
There is, to state the obvious, nothing conventional about this biography. Not only because it is told by a multitude, but because it ignores the things most people want to know about other people: Tracker's family remain hidden in shadow, and the book is scarce on anecdotes about recreation or hobbies. This is a book about a leader, someone who wanted to change things, and before you've realised it, it has become a book about the country he wanted to change.
Wright does expect the audience to engage. Proper nouns are only occasionally explained in simply footnotes, scattered sparsely so as not to break the direct connection between reader and narrator. Events are cast and recast, looked at through different prisms, not only of opinion, but context and emphasis. Wright arranges sometimes for flow, sometimes to challenge. A sequence towards the end of the book of varying views of Tracker's dis/alignment with Noel Pearson is hilarious in its diversity; appropriately finishing with a dramatic mic drop. But the aim is never to imply that there aren't things to understand, the aim is to bring some kind of understanding. As we loop up and around Tracker's life work: the economic planning; the struggle for land rights and sustainable communities; the dizzying range of relationships and schemes, the breadth of this one man's work becomes clear, as does the communities he was located within. Laced through the whole is Tracker's relationship to country, culture and family, and the impact of his forced removal as a child on who he becomes.
Some of the book was personally hard to read. The clash between Aboriginal landowners and the Green movement, crystallized around the uneasy coalition to combat the Jabiluka mine, threw a different light on my own activity in the 90s. Seeing this with different eyes, eyes that revealed rather more racist stupidity or stupid racism than it is comfortable to acknowledge, left me arguing with myself in the shower for days. The book doesn't preach, or tell you what to think: the variety of perspectives makes sure of that, but it suggests hard questions, to which none single answer will stand alone. It is a book of truths, and almost certainly a few lies, and suggests understanding comes from total embrace, rather than a careful sift.
It is, however, a ferocious argument for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sovereignty processes, and an end to patronising policies issued - by all political parties - about Indigenous people without respecting the already existing articulated policies from the Kalkringai declaration, and now the Uluru Statement from the Heart. I defy anyone to read this and remain dismissive of leadership of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, as opposed to a lack of trust and control from non-Indigenous institutions of power. For a funny, celebratory, full of love tribute, this packs a punch in showing a life held far too hostage for the resources owed to and needed by large swathes of our country, which would undoubtedly be in safe(r) hands.

[Mentai · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tracker is a multivocal biography edited by Alexis Wright, most known for her fiction. A larger than life character, political force, Wright captures Tracker 's spirit, voice, and achievements through a polyphony of voices, each of which have their own background, place and story. A mosaic or woven image slowly emerges of the Aboriginal leader. He worked with spirited enthusiasm for self determination at all levels: behind the scenes for remote communities, as a generator of ideas for real Aboriginal economic community development and agriculture use, as an early UN ambassador for Indigenous people, to his negotiations with politicians in advocating for land justice (beyond native title).

Wright's massive work documents an Aboriginal leader and supreme negotiator, someone determined to transform his early childhood trauma (as a person of the stolen generation) in order to benefit diverse Aboriginal groups across Australia, as fraught as that could be. This volume has the stature of a political biography done differently. As Tracker never wrote anything down and used his photographic memory, Wrights' oral history, polyphonic method is both necessary as well as echoing Aboriginal modes of storytelling. The style and performative nature of the text disrupts the white authority and authorship of the genre. As Jacqui Katona (member of the Djok clan within Kakadu National Park) says,

“Tracker was always telling stories. It is hard to separate it as a technique, or to say this set of storytelling achieved these things …
“...he always took everybody's input very seriously, and he always called for people's input. He would not let people stand to one side and be passive, he wanted everybody to be active in the process. That was gutsy for someone who had been an organisational leader because you can tend to rely on advisors, and seek some safety in a well-crafted, sophisticated statement, but he was not about that, he was about enlivening people whose lives were directly impacted by that sort of change” (pp. 525-526)

Tracker Tilmouth was inspirational. He was memorable for the Aboriginal people and white people, including CEOs and the Canberra class, who he worked with or were close to him. He was comfortable with elders (and spoke two central desert languages), NGO bureaucracies, cleaners and politicians. When there were obstacles he found a way through, often using using his humour and charm.

We rarely hear Alexis Wright's questions that prompt Tracker and other participants. Perhaps she wanted to let the other voices emerge as the fabric grew. Perhaps the book was already too long. As the book went on, there was a little repetition, which is to be expected, with people commenting on Tracker's brilliance for 'cutting through the bureaucracy', his insight, or analysis. We hear many anecdotes and when Tracker outlines the particular details, it is a real reward.

This style of biography does not interpret Tracker's flaws. We see that Tracker makes some questionable comments about women and other ethnicities, and has been called misogynist by female Aboriginal leaders. We also see that professionally, Tracker had ver few women around him. He was not loved universally by all Aboriginal people; Wright leaves it up to the reader to interpret these facets.

In the end, these elements are like dissonance in a musical piece, essential to the harmony that moves around resolves but never rests. Tracker is an essential contribution to Australian political writing. Four and a half stars.

2.5.2022
I'm revising stars to 5 as this work has lingered. I was reading a copy from the library and I wished I had bought it so I could look in again.

[James Whitmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this a powerful and challenging book. Tracker is a biography of Tracker Tilmouth, who was born in central Australia in 1954, and died in 2015. His family was split when he was about 4 years old, and him and two of his brothers were taken to an island mission north of Darwin. He later returned to central Australia, as an agricultural economist, working with various Aboriginal institutions. He was never a politician, and often worked behind the scenes wheeling and dealing. But this book demonstrates his astonishing legacy and his role in all the major moments in Aboriginal rights and politics since the 1970s. In essence, it all comes down to his vision and the way he communicated, often with an anarchic sense of humour.

Tracker was involved in all sorts of negotiations around land, working between traditional owners, government bodies such as the land councils, and mining companies. While the detail was necessarily beyond me, the book does vividly convey a person trying to cut through white bureaucracy to achieve his vision: economic independence and flourishing culture. In a blazing section on negotiating with mining companies, Gulf of Carpentaria leader Murrandoo Yanner summarises Tracker’s attitude. He recalls Tracker saying to him: ‘What are you waiting for?... some whitefella to tap you on the shoulder and say, arise Ye aboriginal, I recognise thee'. ‘If you think you’ve got sovereignty,’ Tracker says, ‘then don’t talk about it, act like it’.

Wright in the intro says Tracker is an attempt to tell an ‘impossible story’, to contain an Aboriginal man larger than life in something as quotidian as a Western-style biography. Wright’s solution, agreed with her subject, is to tell Tracker’s story from many perspectives, family, friends and colleagues. This concept raises interesting questions about biography and ownership - who can and who should tell someone’s story - the unreliability of our memories, and how we edit them (Tracker's attitude to women comes up many times as a character flaw, but is not addressed head on). It lays bare biographical processes that are otherwise hidden.

The book is broken into sections that loosely focus on themes of Tracker's life - his upbringing, his almost-foray into politics, the way he used storytelling to communicate. A long chapter, with major contributions from Tracker himself, delves into his vision for what he calls 'enjoying' land rights. The writing consists of first-person narrative, transcribed from in-person interviews, from many voices who knew Tracker. These are presented edited, without the interview questions, and with little contextual detail (where and when the interviews took place). This format also poses a number of (mainly) stylistic challenges for a reader. Given that we see the same events, and same people, from different perspectives, it is often repetitive. There are also many bureaucratic acronyms and details that are assumed knowledge, although Wright provides footnotes and glossaries for some of them. So while I couldn't possibly understand all the political and philosophical debates about land rights - and the book is not designed necessarily to explain - I certainly got a sense of their complexity. For instance, it obliterated my naive notion that native title was simply a win for Aboriginal people. This book made me think.

[Sarah]

DNF.

I have to return this book to the library and my tendency is to finish the book in the first or first few sittings of reading it and I haven't been able to manage that with 'Tracker.'

"Too much about this country is never resolved, and this is also what has shaped us. And we learn to guard what we know too much" (1).

My inability to finish it comes due to its length, and the writing style. Similar to my latest read, this one is divided into personal accounts of events that have occurred, which I had similar issues with in 'Homegoing.' It was just on a larger scale here which was difficult for me to focus on.

That does not however detract from the importance of this piece of non-fiction that tells what Alex Wright indicates, is the impossible story of Tracker Tilmouth. Non-fiction reads can be difficult to get into but I think there's a level of importance required in still looking into the people(s) and history discussed in them.

This is one that I may give another go in years to come, but for now will research Tracker, outside of the physical published format.

[Sharkell]

up to page 106 (return to library)

[Janine Gertz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this book if you’re interested in Aboriginal Economic Development and Self-Determination.

[Fiona Saunders · Rating 5 out of 5]

I DID IT!!!

I have finished this epic insightful look at who this awsome aboriginal person a saw on TV s few times was. I did find the book hard going in the density, issues and the real insight going on with Native Title and the raw deal that our first Australians have been dealt and in large part have accepted. That made me feel guilty amd ashamed. I found it sad that the ideas Tracker had most never saw the light, if they did the world would be changed for the better. It took abit to get into it due to the different cultural way of telling the story but found it more fulfilling than the standard western linear way of telling someone story. This was more raw, beautiful, funny and eye opening this way.

Well worth the read.

[Belinda Badman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have to admit defeat. It’s taken me 10 months to read 300 pages and I’m not even halfway! As others have already mentioned, the style of having multiple people telling the story of Tracker results in a lot of repetition which I just don’t have time or interest for. Also I haven’t found anything in the description of Tracker himself which makes me want to read more about him. So far my impression of him is of a misogynistic bully. I gave this a really good go but just cannot continue.

[Meg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some entertaining anecdotes, interesting information, and thought provoking insights. But overall, I found this book mostly boring and too long. Disappointing because I had expected to like this.

[Stella Hansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An essential history of the great Tracker Tilmouth and of the fight for Aboriginal Self Determination in the 70s onwards. I often find Western style biographies too clinical and I preferred and enjoyed this style greatly.

[Michaela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tracker by Alexis Wright is this year's Stella Prize winner. A collective memoir of the legendary Tracker Tilmouth, this epic read tells of everything from Tracker's childhood removed from his family and brought up on a mission to the charismatic Aboriginal leader running around federal parliament winding up all the politicians. A forward thinking advocate for the self-determination of Aboriginal people Tracker was controversial and explosive. Wright has used interviews from Tracker and his family members to politicians and numerous government employees to bring the notorious Tracker to life within the pages.

I'm not going to lie, I had many complicated thoughts about Tracker. I absolutely loved some aspects of this epic time but also struggled with other aspects of it. Overall, I loved the idea behind the writing of this one. Communal storytelling is an important aspect of Aboriginal culture, with all their histories and legends passed down orally and I think it is perfectly representative of this fascinating man for his life to be told in such a complex piece of work pulled together by Wright. Tracker was an amazing and intelligent leader worthy of all six hundred pages of this tome.

On the other hand it is an extremely long read to be taken as a marathon and not a sprint, there is simply too much to be taken it to race through this one. If it were fiction I would say it needed some heavy editing, however, how can you cull a person's life story? With Tracker you simply can't. I will note that the colloquial language that is used, while honest and representative, can get confusing and a little exhausting over time. Reading Tracker will also be made easier by having an understanding of Australian politics of the time and notable players in the landscape of the time.

In all honesty, if this book hadn't have won I likely would have given up and not finished it. I am glad that I persevered though despite the tedium as I feel there was much to be learned and gained from this reading experience. Tracker is most definitely worth a read but it possibly helps to go in prepared for what it is and plan to read it at a slower pace to allow yourself to soak up all the information without it becoming overwhelming

[Alexandra Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the few memoirs/biographies/autobiographies I’ve read where I have desperately wished I had gotten to meet the subject thereof. I’ve never read anything like this before, and I believe it’s highly necessary reading for anyone wanting to live purposefully within the still tumultuous space of Australia.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A big read told as stories by Tracker (Leigh 'Bruce' Tilmouth) and by the many who knew him. Wright has woven the transcribed conversations to give a chronological account of Tracker's life. This method of delivering a biography is unique and effective. Tracker's bigger than life quality comes through and can overwhelm at times, and the book is a large read at over 600 pages, so is best read slowly. There is much to absorb about Tracker's life that aids understanding of many issues. These issues include Aboriginal politics, especially but not solely in the Northern Territory from 1980s onwards, and the experience of people who were from the Stolen Generation. But the true reward from reading Tracker's biography is getting a feel for a unique man via this multi-faceted view of him. Wright has truly honoured her friend. Tracker died much too soon in 2015 at the age of 62 after an initial diagnosis of cancer in 2008.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

To read my review of this book up to about page 250, please see https://anzlitlovers.com/2018/04/10/t...
(I finished reading it a few days after the book won the Stella Prize. I think now that I'd read the best of it at the time I wrote the review, reading the ins and outs of Aboriginal politics is rather draining and at times I nearly decided not to finish it.)

[Rosalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every Australian should read this book.
I have had to buy my own copy as I am half way through and have to return this copy to the public library.
This is a powerful book about a man who died too early but who achieved so much. Alexis Wright has revealed the man through his own words and through the eyes and words of those who knew him well.

[Corri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating insight into a charismatic and magnetic character. Could almost be a business or political strategy book in a way. The huge number of people telling their stories from their perspectives gave a 360 view of Tracker the person, the strategist and the political, economic, social and environmental context that he worked in. Authentic and genuine, cunning and searingly clever.

[Missyd · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the first quarter describing Tracker’s childhood and adolescence. The rest got very repetitive, especially all the people giving a slightly different perspective on the same events. Having said that I think it’s an important and worthwhile read.

[victoria marie]

Longlisted for the 2025 Women’s Prize, Nonfiction

[queued; the And Other Stories edition is in our library, but might wait to read until prior to reading more Wright! or someday rereading Praiseworthy!]

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

#aww2018
Narrative sounds like the flow of casual talk
campfire yarns…and in my opinion no great craft.

Review