RED DIRT BLUE LIGHTS (AndAlso Books 2025) is a slim novel by ex-policewoman Tess Merlin that provides an important insight into life in the community of Cherbourg in the 1970’s.
The novella is prefaced by a Foreword from Uncle Eric Law AM and informed by Merlin’s past experience as a Queensland police officer, and her knowledge-gathering visit to the Ration Shed Museum at Cherbourg (which sounds fascinating). As Uncle Eric says, to learn about the history of Cherbourg is ‘to change trauma into wisdom’.
The story is told from three perspectives: Merinda (a First Nations’ Elder living in Cherbourg under the restrictions of the time), Jemma (her granddaughter, an Indigenous woman keen to follow her dreams despite the regulations governing her people), and Tess (a young police graduate deployed to Murgon near Kingaroy). Tess knows nothing of Aboriginal people or their culture or history when she is thrust into the very heart of First Nations’ country, Cherbourg being a mission or camp created by the government to ‘contain’ First Nations’ people, and to keep control over their activities, their work, their travel and their personal lives through a series of racist ‘laws’ and segregation rules.
Part of the plot is Tess’ investigation into two women missing from Cherbourg but the more commanding theme is the daily life of Indigenous people at that location at that time, and the dream of Jemma to make a home and a life with her beloved, despite the restrictions that seem to make it impossible.
With themes of aging, passion, longing, Home, Country, conflict, intergenerational trauma and familial responsibility, this book explores the tragic history of this country’s treatment of our First Nations’ people, the terrible conditions and racism that existed in the 1970’s (a precursor to what continues today in many places), and the remarkable connection the characters have to their land, their ancestors, and their history.
While the book traverses uncomfortable and complex themes (even in such a short novella), it also offers understanding and a story of hope and optimism, demonstrating that even in the most difficult circumstances, the human spirit can overcome momentous hurdles, and to show the courage and unrelenting commitment to self-determination of First Nations’ people.