Week 9 Term 3 - New text review: Black Milk (September 20 - 24)

Finding a text that is appropriate, suitable, relevant and something that will connect with students is always a task. I say task because a task is defined as a 'piece of work to be done' and it definitely feels like when you are on the search for that 'piece of work'. I have written reflections on finding the right text and as an English literature teacher, it is part of the package in that we are always on the look out for just good texts. I have come across a text titled Black Milk written by Tina Makereti. Tina Makereti's Black Milk was awarded with the Pacific Regional Winner at the 2016 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. "Chair of the judging panel, South African novelist and playwright Gillian Slovo, commented: 'Tina Makereti's "Black Milk"...impressed with a lyricism that takes the reader into another world while keeping us always on earth..." It was the winning entry from the Pacific. I have had to read through this story more than once and every time I have read it, I see it and understand it in a different light. 

Tina Makereti's Black Milk. Click on the image to access the text. 

The story is centered around the protagonist, Birdwoman. The first part of the text details the movement of the Birdwoman and her coming into a new community. The reasons and specifics of why she has moved are beautifully crafted in way that is not telling but gives the reader the space to come to their own conclusions. 

"It was her old people who sent her, the ones who hadn’t chosen to make the transition, who stayed in their feathered forms, beaks sharp enough to make any girl do what her elders told her" (Tina Makereti)

How she felt and her experiences on being a part (or disconnected) from this new community is expressed throughout the first part of the short text. She does not feel settled, she feels that the people and in particular the women are judging her, this makes her feel uncomfortable. She chooses to get involved in the community. Even then, she is starting to see that there is reason why she was chosen to leave her home and to transition into this new world. I get the sense that her home and where she was brought up, born into, is quite primitive and she has come into a westernized community. The community at first are not welcoming at all, Birdwoman feels as though she is being scrutinized and judged for where she is from and how she looks. 

"They saw and took note in silence, sometimes lifted their chins in acknowledgement." (Black Milk; Tina Makereti)  

Makereti paints a vivid picture of the Birdwoman's movements and describes her in way that makes her to be somewhat of a native creature trying to make it's way through a foreign space. 

"So she came into the world when no one was watching, only just grown enough to be a birdwoman rather than a birdgirl. Then she moved through the forest to where the people lived." (Black Milk; Tina Makereti)  

As she settles into her new home, her new life, she discovers that there is a difference between her home town and the new community that she is in. Makereti delicately shines a light on the differences and it is telling for the reader in that we get an understanding on the nature of the new community and how they see (or in this case interact) with Birdwoman's community. 

"The people called their greetings and gave their thanks, but they hunted. It was an old deal made right at the beginning: her line would be sacrificed to theirs." (Black Milk; Tina Makereti)  

The second part of the text sheds light on how Birdwoman has assimilated into her new life and we are introduced to her husband and learn of the children they share. This section of the text reveals the trauma that Birdwoman faced in leaving her home and living in a community that was not only unwelcoming but also mistreated her home community. I understand her as a woman who did what she had to do and in turn lost herself. It is through her children, her youngest child specifically, that she starts to regain her sense of identity as a woman and not just as a wife or mother. She shielded her children from the truth of her own up-bringing as she believed that they would not understand. Her youngest child challenged and questioned her about her home and her people. She felt that she could not express the fact that she missed her home because she did not want to impose this on her husband or children. Even her husband felt a distance from her and wanted to know if she was alright. 

"They worked hard together to grow the children. It was easier for her to forget the guilt-ache and shame of where she had come from, how she had let it get so bad, how she didn’t help her people. Better to let her children grow up in her husband’s world, without the burden of her knowledge. She settled on this as the right path, though her husband would sometimes look sidelong at her, as if considering some puzzle he couldn’t figure." (Black Milk; Tina Makereti)  

There are so many layers, characters, imagery, community dynamics, contrast between the native and western worlds, contrast between the human and native life to explore. It is a brilliant read and one that I am going to recommend to the English Department to read, share and use (if they want) as a text to share with their students. I would personally use this as a Level 2 text.