Family and ancestry
Sadie's story begins when she moves to her family's homeland. There, the very nature of the land itself reaches out to teach her about her own self and her family. The crows educate her about a terrible scandal that involves her family and then they teleport her into the past to discover it for herself. Although the thematic commentary is obviously symbolic, the book still offers a full theory about ancestry and the relationship a person has to their forefathers.
Time and human experience
One can see this novel from several points of view. Without a doubt, there is a contrast between the progress of man, symbolized by an elder patriarch who builds businesses, and the timeless quality of the earth. From there, a person can take away a variety of thematic ideas. For instance, the reader could very easily discover a feminist reading of the text using Sadie's point of view as a witness of patriarchy. Patriarchy built Australia, but is also responsible for many of the unhealthy and heinous aspects of Australian history. That analysis actually applies worldwide.
Death and scandal
The book orbits one particular scandal that the crows have sent Sadie back in time to learn about. The scandal occurs when an Aboriginal man defends the land from Sadie's grandfather's development plans. The clash is a poignant one, and it makes the men passionate. The Aboriginal man, Jimmy, is killed in the conflict and Sadie's grandfather covers up the murder, literally, burying Jimmy and then flooding the valley anyway for his own business purposes.
