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COWRIE
RIDES AGAIN
Song of the Selkies. By Cathie Dunsford. Melbourne:
Spinifex Press, 2001.
Reviewed by Meriel Watts
In this fourth novel in the Cowrie series, our hero Cowrie
takes us on a journey through the ancient mysteries of the
Orkney Islands. Song of the Selkies provides a diversion
from the political activism that is central to the previous
books in the series. Here, the underlying traditional storytelling
theme of the previous books finds prominence and Cowrie as
warrior woman takes a back row seat. The talkstory tradition
of the indigenous people of Aotearoa, Hawaii and North America
emerges as a binding element between the various characters,
most of whom have met through their performances at the Edinburgh
Festival. Add to the chemistry an Inuit woman and a conservative
Brit and you have an unusual mix of lesbian and heterosexual
women that takes some time to gel as they learn each other's
ways.
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After the festival the group journeys together to the Orkney
Islands to stay with Ellen, one of their number. But when
Ellen becomes Morrigan on her return home, Cowrie begins slowly
to unravel the ancient mythology of the Selkies. Is it possible
that Selkies really exist, living sometimes as seals and sometimes
as humans? Why does fisherwoman Morrigan disappear for long
stretches at nights? The superb descriptions of swimming through
the sea, twisting and turning and dodging each other through
the water, hiding in the seaweed to avoid the great predatory
sharks, and of seal bodies slipping sensuously about each
other leave the reader longing to share this watery world
with the Selkies. Whilst in previous novels we have feasted
upon by Dunsford's superlative descriptions of food, this
time we are treated to equally wonderful imagery of the sea,
biting winds, soaring and swooping birds, barren landscape,
and all that is the natural beauty of these wild and magical
islands far away in the cold North Sea. As we imbibe the magic
of nature, so too we take in the magic of the standing stones
and the long ago women's community at Skara Brae. Our band
of modern day storytellers involves many of the locals in
a talkstory session beside this ancient monument to a long
forgotten culture, and gradually the mythology of these lands
emerges, including that of the Selkies.
Song of the Selkies is set entirely in the harsh climate
of these northern islands, and the reader might miss the warmth
of the Pacific and the camaraderie of Cowrie's marae in Aotearoa.
But while we must wait for the next book for a return to her
home, this one provides us with a delightful and different
experience - yet one with dreams that feed the soul and imagery
that nourishes the senses just as much as the previous books
in the Cowrie series. Even the reader who has never been to
the Orkney Islands will come to feel she knows this wild and
enchanting place.
Meriel Watts is author of several books including Poisons
in Paradise, director of S&H: Organic New Zealand and
is an activist leader in the fight to keep New Zealand GE
Free: www.organicnz.pl.net
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