Teacher’s Guide Tracks by Robyn Davidson
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SYNOPSIS
‘I was exactly the same person that I was when I began.’ (p 127)
‘I did not perceive at that time that I was allowing myself to get more involved with writing about the trip than the trip itself. It did not dawn on me that already I was beginning to see it as a story for other people, with a beginning and an ending.’ (p 136)
Robyn Davidson set out in 1975 for Alice Springs with a dream to traverse the continent with only a few camels for company. At that stage, though, she had never even handled a camel, and so set about finding people to teach her. She also had no money to fund the trip, so had to rely on local casual work to support her training and later purchase of animals.
She initially visited three cameleers in order to find a person willing to train her in camel management: an old Afghan trader named Sallay Mahomet, a tourism operator, and Kurt Posel. She began her apprenticeship with the latter who proved to be both a cruel taskmaster, and an Indian giver, and she eventually found her savior in Sallay, who offered her two months work in return for two camels for her proposed trek. But this was only the beginning of an arduous process of nearly two years tending two animals, one of which eventually had to be put down, and during which she almost gave up the challenge.
Her real savior, though, arrived in the person of National Geographic photographer Rick Smolan who suggested she write to his employer for financial support. Her letter was unexpectedly successful so that she found herself with the wherewithal to embark on the journey, but also vexed by the need to submit to the prying eye of Rick’s camera for some parts of the journey, and eventually to the need to write her story, as well.
In 1977, Robyn Davidson successfully travelled from Alice Springs across 2,700 kilometres (1,700 miles) of Australian deserts to the Indian Ocean with her dog and four camels. Rick Smolan documented her journey. She also became an international phenomenon as the ‘camel lady’. And the rest, as they say, was history.
1 Bloomsbury Publishing Australia www.bloomsbury.com/au Sign up for our enewsletter at www.bloomsbury.com/au/newsletter ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robyn Davidson was born on a cattle property in Queensland. She went to Sydney in the late sixties, then returned to study in Brisbane before going to Alice Springs where the events of this book began. Since then she has travelled extensively and has lived in London, New York and India. In the early 1990s she migrated with and wrote about nomads in north west India. She is now based in Melbourne, but spends several months a year in the Indian Himalayas.
AUTHOR BACKGROUND
Robyn Davidson was born on a cattle property in Queensland. She went to Sydney in the late sixties, then returned to study in Brisbane before going to Alice Springs where the events of this book began. Since then she has travelled extensively, has lived in London, New York and India. In the early 1990's she migrated with and wrote about nomads in north-west India. She is now based in Melbourne, but spends several months a year in the Indian Himalayas.
See also Interviews:
Krien, Anna ‘Robyn Davidson is a Nomad’ Conversations with Extraordinary People’ First Quarter, 2012 http://www.dumbofeather.com/conversation/robyn-davidson-is-a-nomad/
Morris, Linda ‘One hell of a life, born of claypan and coolabah Sydney Morning Herald, September 29, 2012
Thompson, Peter ‘Talking Heads Interview with Robyn Davidson by Peter Thompson’ Screened ABC1 1/09/2008
Verghis, Sharyn ‘Angel and Beast’ The Australian January 12, 2013
Other:
Davidson, Robyn No Fixed Address: Nomads and the Fate of the Planet. Quarterly Essay No 24, December 2006. (Black Inc.)
Davidson, Robyn and Rick Smolan From Alice to Ocean: Alone Across the Outback Addison Wesley, 1993.
Maloney, Shane and Chris Grosz ‘Robyn Davidson and Bruce Chatwin’ The Monthly No. 20, February, 2007
‘Robyn Davidson’
2 Bloomsbury Publishing Australia www.bloomsbury.com/au Sign up for our enewsletter at www.bloomsbury.com/au/newsletter THEMES
SCIENCE
Camels Discussion Point: Robyn Davidson begins her training knowing nothing about camels, but learns during her training from Kurt Posel a great deal about them: ‘I will now, once and for all, destroy some myths concerning these animals … I was hooked.’ (pp 13-4) Research the species and the qualities which make camels such excellent pack animals and why they have adapted to Australia’s climate so well.
Activity: ‘When this book was written in 1980 there were ‘approximately ten thousand camels’ (p 4) roaming the outback. ‘As of 2009, the feral population numbered about one million, with a doubling time of about nine years.’ (
See also Janeen Brian’s Hoosh! Camels in Australia (ABC Books, 2005) for more details. Read about The Australian Feral Camel Management Project (http://www.feralcamels.com.au/) which is designed to reduce these numbers. Research and discuss the growth of this feral population.
Activity: Research the fascinating story of Afghan cameleers in Australia (
Activity: Research the trade in camel products at Camels Australia Export (
Discussion Point: Davidson is appalled by the brutal treatment of his camels by Kurt (p 25), but later she bemoans some of the treatments she sees administered such as castration without anaesthetic (p 83). Are cameleers unnecessarily cruel to their animals in your opinion?
Australian Flora and Fauna Activity: The book mentions many forms of plants and animals which live in the deserts. Choose any one of them and research it further.
Discussion Point: What effect has the large camel population had on the flora and fauna of this country? HISTORY
Alice Springs Discussion Point: ‘It is a frontier town, characterized by an aggressive masculine ethic and severe racial tensions.’ (p 8) Research the history and cultural make-up of Alice Springs and discuss the origins of this statement.
3 Bloomsbury Publishing Australia www.bloomsbury.com/au Sign up for our enewsletter at www.bloomsbury.com/au/newsletter Discussion Point: ‘It is said that anyone who sees the Todd River flow three times falls in love with the Alice.’ (p 7) What makes the Alice so appealing to both visitors and inhabitants?
Explorers in the Interior of Australia Activity: Research the history of key events in cross-country exploration in Australia. Davidson passes several landmarks which refer to this history.
Activity: Research the history of any other towns she mentions on the journey.
GEOGRAPHY
Activity: Study the map at the front of the book and trace the journey which Davidson made through this country.
BUSINESS / ECONOMICS
Activity: Your students might wish to investigate the growing business of extreme travel or tourism since the time in which Davidson’s journey took place. Without sponsorship or personal wealth such a journey was then impossible. Her aim was not so much to invite danger but to experience complete freedom and to test herself in that environment. These days, people pay to be taken on such adventures to places such as the Antarctic. See for example, ‘World’s Most Extreme Adventures’ by Christine Pfeiffer February 15, 2013
The ‘ultimate’ will be the tickets to the moon which are said to be planned by Sir Richard Branson. Research the business of ‘Extreme Tourism’.
CIVICS AND CITIZENSHIP
Australian Culture, Misogyny and Feminism Discussion Point: ‘One does not have to delve too deeply to discover why some of the world’s angriest feminists breathed crisp blue Australian air during their formative years, before packing their kangaroo-skin bags … I mean.’ (p 18) Is Australia still like this or has feminism successfully challenged stereotypical macho Australian culture?
Discussion Point: Davidson traces the ‘Australian cult of misogyny’ (pp 18-9) back to convict times. Research and discuss this history further.
Discussion Point: Davidson maintains that her fame grew from an out of date concept of what a woman is capable of. Her description as the ‘camel lady’ became a burden to her.
4 Bloomsbury Publishing Australia www.bloomsbury.com/au Sign up for our enewsletter at www.bloomsbury.com/au/newsletter Read about the mythologising of her role in this journey (pp 236-7). Discuss what this reveals about attitudes to women.
Aboriginal People, Culture and Conditions Discussion Point: Is the description of conditions in Aboriginal camps (pp 44-8) any better today?
Discussion Point: Robyn gives a brief history of the re-settlement of Aboriginal people and the growing threat of multinationals (p 118). She was not to know then that later multinationals would be required to pay for use of land under legislation introduced in the 1990s.
Discussion Point: The concept of land being sacred is discussed in relation to Uluru (p 131) and the tourism trade which challenges Aboriginal rights to claim it as a sacred site. How much has it been protected since by legislation?
Discussion Point: White workers in Aboriginal communities face the challenges outlined in Glendle’s situation (pp 163-4). Research further and discuss.
Discussion Point: Aboriginal connection to the land is essential to their cultural beliefs (pp 165-7). Have an Aboriginal elder come to your school to speak to students about this aspect of culture.
Discussion Point: Another Aboriginal cultural belief is in the magic treatment of the Nankari (pp 171-2) which seemingly cures Mr. Eddie. Research this further.
Discussion Point: Davidson writes of the powerful role of women in Aboriginal culture (pp 169-70). Research this further, and discuss.
Discussion Point: The prevalence of blindness (pp 120-1) and the work of Professor Fred Hollows is mentioned along with other chronic illnesses amongst Aboriginal people. Research Aboriginal health today.
Nomads and Nomadic Cultures Activity: Robyn learned about the wild foods or ‘Bush tucker’ (pp 111-2) from Aboriginal people and an ethnobotanist in Alice Springs. She describes the abundance of such foods, once you know how to recognise them and points out that Aboriginal people were once very healthy but that an introduced diet has depleted general health markedly. Research nomadic cultures further. Read Davidson’s essay listed under Tourism Discussion Point: Davidson describes tourists in very unflattering terms (p 126). Is she right about this? And what would she make of the sophisticated equipment that people take with them these days?
5 Bloomsbury Publishing Australia www.bloomsbury.com/au Sign up for our enewsletter at www.bloomsbury.com/au/newsletter LANGUAGES
Discussion Point: Davidson refers to learning words of Pitjanjara language. Read about the many Aboriginal languages and how they have evolved. Visit sites such as ‘Aboriginal Languages and Research and Resource Centre’
HEALTH AND PE
Survival Discussion Point: What are the necessary qualities for survival? Read the following two quotes and then discuss this question. ‘There is nothing so real as having to think about survival. Believing in omens is all right as long as you know exactly what you are doing.’ (p 123) and ‘And my fear had a different quality now too. It was direct and useful. It did not incapacitate me or interfere with my competence. It was the natural healthy fear one needs for survival.’ (pp 193-4)
Discussion Point: ‘The trip was easy. It was no more dangerous than crossing the street, or driving to the beach, or eating peanuts … the most difficult part of any endeavour is taking the first step, making the first decision.’ (p 254) Is survival as much about the power of the mind as it is the body?
Discussion Point: Davidson obviously tested her own health in this journey. Despite her claim that she became extremely fit and healthy, what permanent damage might she have done to herself?
DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY
Activity: Using a simple design program, design a cover for this book, based on your reading of it.
Activity: Conduct an online search to locate information about some of the areas over which she travelled.
MATHS
Activity: There are numerous examples of mathematical applications in this book relating to distance, time, costs etc. Choose one example which you find in the text and conduct an activity based on it. (www.australiancurriculum.edu.au)
6 Bloomsbury Publishing Australia www.bloomsbury.com/au Sign up for our enewsletter at www.bloomsbury.com/au/newsletter WRITING STYLE
Structure Discussion Point: The story begins with a quotation, a contents page, and a map, and is told in four parts with a postscript written thirty years later. Discuss the relationship between these various parts. What other additional information might have been included? Journal Writing Discussion Point: This is a journal of her trip, and as such is written in first person, past tense, although much of it was written two years after she completed the journey. How much do we remember of past events and how much is imagined? Try to write your own journal of an event which happened some time ago and see what details might be hard to recall. Authenticity Discussion Point: Some non-fiction memoir writers have been challenged about the veracity of their achievements. In the time of this story, media coverage (apart from photos) was rare in the remote areas in which she travelled. Encourage your students to discuss the issue of personal ownership of a story. How might Rick’s version of these events have differed from Robyn’s, for example? Discussion Point: People in society, Davidson suggests, play roles to hide their uncertainties. ‘Back there, there was no nakedness, no one could afford it. Everyone had their social personae well-fortified …’ (p 197) Doe we all pretend to be something we’re not? Travel Writing
Activity: Doris Lessing is quoted on the cover: ‘This will rank among the best of the books of exploration and travel’. What makes a good travel writer? Visit ‘Travel Writing Tips’ on the Australian Society of Travel Writers’ website
Activity: Conduct a unit on writing travel literature. Visit other websites such as: Australian Festival of Travel Writing
Discussion Point: Meeting Rick Smolan, the National Geographic photographer (p 81), was a turning point for Robyn, in that for the first time she began to think of writing about the journey, and this would change her life. She might simply have gone on the journey without the backing of NG, or not gone at all. Either way, her life as a bestselling author was about to begin. What might her travels have been like without this support?
7 Bloomsbury Publishing Australia www.bloomsbury.com/au Sign up for our enewsletter at www.bloomsbury.com/au/newsletter Photo-Journalism Discussion Point: The ethics of photo journalism is a topic she returns to constantly. She resents being made to look beautiful in Rick’s early photos and claims that the camera lies (p 133). Later (p 141), when he takes picture of Aboriginal people, she is even more uncomfortable with the invasion of their privacy. Is a camera a threat to veracity or truth? Setting Discussion Point: Robyn Davidson describes the setting in evocative language: ‘To enter that country is to be choked with dust, … moonlight.’ (pp 22-3) and ‘It was one of those brittle bright days … Australian afternoons.’(p 39) Analyse these two passages, or any other striking passage in terms of her use of language in description of landscape.
TEACHER ACTIVITIES/NOTES
1. The overt racism described (pp 5-6) is quite shocking. Would this sort of commentary be tolerated today? Is such racism still prevalent in some areas in Australia? Discuss racism and how it manifests itself both overtly and covertly in our society.
2. How might Alice Springs residents have read the following descriptions of their town? Would it offend them? ‘My first impression as we strolled down the deserted street was of the architectural ugliness of the place, a discomforting contrast to the magnificence of the country which surrounded it.’ (p 5) or ‘The place seemed soulless, rootless, but perhaps it was that which encouraged, in certain circumstances, the extraordinary.’ (p 7) Read more about Alice Springs to see what it is like today.
3. ‘It was the inauspicious beginning of the ‘camel lady’ image which I should have nipped in the bud right there.’ (p 29) What does Robyn Davidson mean by this passage? What was wrong with being known as the ‘camel lady’?
4. When Robyn visits her friend Nancy she reflects on the reasons for her journey (pp 236-37). Discuss these two pages in relation to the journey which she undertakes. ‘One really could act to change and control one’s life; and the procedure, the process, was its own reward.’(p 37) She begins the book with a quote from Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook which relates to this theme as well. Does she find what she is seeking?
5. In a moment of insight, Robyn Davidson reflects on her deliberate choice to live her life alone: ‘For the first time it flashed on me that the way I had conducted my life was always to allow myself that remoteness, always protect that high, clear place that could not be shared without risking its destruction.’ (p 40) Is it difficult to be a traveler unless you are alone? And, given that Davidson has obviously made many friends in many places, has she really been alone?
6. Communications in the late 1970s were very different to today. For example when the camel baby Goliath is born, Robyn is sent a telegram (p 83) to let her know the news. She has no contact with the outside world except via an unreliable radio. How different would her trip be today with mobile phones, email and other forms of communication so readily available? She bemoans the photos of her trip, but today it would have been under far more constant scrutiny. She admits as much in her Postscript (pp 255-261). Discuss.
8 Bloomsbury Publishing Australia www.bloomsbury.com/au Sign up for our enewsletter at www.bloomsbury.com/au/newsletter 7. The young politico at Utopia falls into the same trap that many idealists do; he fails to see ‘what was actually happening there, and what the people themselves wanted and needed.’ (p 89) because of his own preconceived ideas. Discuss social services and how they operate in such communities.
8. ‘I had sold a great swatch of my freedom and most of the trip’s integrity for four thousand dollars.’ (p 91) Was she too hard on herself, or was this the truth?
9. Robyn’s struggles with Rick’s presence on her trip, and their relationship becomes complicated by a brief love affair (pp 138-9) after which a firm friendship develops between them. Is such an extreme journey likely to lead to friendships or enmity?
10. Mr. Eddie teaches her to ‘enjoy the present’ (p 173), a lesson which we might all take heed to. Does our society place too much importance on aiming for the future rather than being contented with the here and now?
11. ‘The good Lord in his infinite wisdom gave us three things to make life bearable – hope, jokes and dogs, but the greatest of these was dogs.’ (p 207) Davidson is half-joking here, but there is truth in this statement. Are pets more faithful than human beings in your opinion? Discuss.
12. Davidson’s fury about the media coverage of her arrival in Wiluna was a rather naïve reaction wasn’t it? She had sold her story to the National Geographic and must have expected some sort of response?
13. Do we all need to ‘rattle the foundations of habit’ (p 220) from time to time?
14. Her postscript describes the social background to her decision to undertake the journey. How has society changed since then? Discuss women’s attitudes in the 1970s, compared to those of today’s young women, with your students?
15. Watch the recent film of ‘Tracks’ Film (2013) Director: John Curran. Discuss with your students how well the film interprets the book?
There are also numerous study guides and reading group notes available online to supplement these notes.
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