A Bird in the Bush: From Fledgling to Flight
by Marnie Anstis
This appears to be a coming of age story, as suggested by the title, but not so much about birds taking off. A better analogy would be of someone who was firmly grounded on the land, even if the farmland in question reverted back to bush. Marnie Fabish, as she was then, revisits her late teenage diaries, and memories of a farm that her family owned in the Pakihi Valley, in the Bay of Plenty, in the early 1970s. It is really a story of ‘Girls can do anything’, and incredibly ‘hard yakka’ for her.
Marnie’s family were already established farmers in the Waikato, but her father fancied an extra property to develop, and later sell for a profit. That mostly relied on Marnie, and her older brother Len, doing an awful lot of unpaid labour during the periods in which they stayed on the farm in less than comfortable living. Marnie was a somewhat awkward, short-sighted, schoolgirl, who could not wait to leave after she achieved her School Cert pass. And so for the next 8 years she became a farmhand, a musterer, a ‘fleeco’ during the shearing, and many other things along the way.
But as she sees it in hindsight: “I had the opportunity to live an alternate lifestyle in a beautiful environment under the conservative umbrella of farming, without compromising my conventional beliefs.” It may be true that she had an alternate occupation, certainly compared to her former schoolmates in the towns, but such hard, unpaid work, doesn’t really seem like any kind of lifestyle. However, it is the charm of the book, and its matter-of-fact recollection, that makes it so compelling. Like many young women of her time she got to wear a bikini and bask in the sun in the Bay of Plenty; except that she did this on top of her favourite horse while getting her dogs to bring the sheep in.
Of course, those from a conservative farming background might say that this sort of work is a fairly standard expectation of those working in a family farm. But being so near the bush brings a few other challenges, from flooding to wrestling with wild pigs, confronting hunters who also might be poachers, and confronting local poachers who also turn out to be arsonists. Marnie finds one of the poachers to be a regular nuisance, and it becomes a criminal matter, with her being required to give evidence in a court case. And then their woolshed burns down and her horse goes missing.
It’s not only a hard life for her mother and sister, as they commute between farms, but there is also a toll taken on her father. She is quite open about the fact that her father spent a bit of money on tobacco and booze, and that its consumption changed his mood in a bad way. Like many farming fathers he would not live a long life. But she got through by getting attached to her farming friend, Peter, and their decision to get married in their early twenties proved to be wise. As she said to him, it was her main objective to have four children and more grandchildren, and she succeeded in this.
by Marnie Anstis
This appears to be a coming of age story, as suggested by the title, but not so much about birds taking off. A better analogy would be of someone who was firmly grounded on the land, even if the farmland in question reverted back to bush. Marnie Fabish, as she was then, revisits her late teenage diaries, and memories of a farm that her family owned in the Pakihi Valley, in the Bay of Plenty, in the early 1970s. It is really a story of ‘Girls can do anything’, and incredibly ‘hard yakka’ for her.
Marnie’s family were already established farmers in the Waikato, but her father fancied an extra property to develop, and later sell for a profit. That mostly relied on Marnie, and her older brother Len, doing an awful lot of unpaid labour during the periods in which they stayed on the farm in less than comfortable living. Marnie was a somewhat awkward, short-sighted, schoolgirl, who could not wait to leave after she achieved her School Cert pass. And so for the next 8 years she became a farmhand, a musterer, a ‘fleeco’ during the shearing, and many other things along the way.
But as she sees it in hindsight: “I had the opportunity to live an alternate lifestyle in a beautiful environment under the conservative umbrella of farming, without compromising my conventional beliefs.” It may be true that she had an alternate occupation, certainly compared to her former schoolmates in the towns, but such hard, unpaid work, doesn’t really seem like any kind of lifestyle. However, it is the charm of the book, and its matter-of-fact recollection, that makes it so compelling. Like many young women of her time she got to wear a bikini and bask in the sun in the Bay of Plenty; except that she did this on top of her favourite horse while getting her dogs to bring the sheep in.
Of course, those from a conservative farming background might say that this sort of work is a fairly standard expectation of those working in a family farm. But being so near the bush brings a few other challenges, from flooding to wrestling with wild pigs, confronting hunters who also might be poachers, and confronting local poachers who also turn out to be arsonists. Marnie finds one of the poachers to be a regular nuisance, and it becomes a criminal matter, with her being required to give evidence in a court case. And then their woolshed burns down and her horse goes missing.
It’s not only a hard life for her mother and sister, as they commute between farms, but there is also a toll taken on her father. She is quite open about the fact that her father spent a bit of money on tobacco and booze, and that its consumption changed his mood in a bad way. Like many farming fathers he would not live a long life. But she got through by getting attached to her farming friend, Peter, and their decision to get married in their early twenties proved to be wise. As she said to him, it was her main objective to have four children and more grandchildren, and she succeeded in this.
Review by S A Boyce
Title: A Bird in the Bush: From Fledgling to Flight
Author: Marnie Anstis
Publisher: Boots Books
ISBN: 9780473712884
RRP: $45
Available: bootsbooks.com
Author: Marnie Anstis
Publisher: Boots Books
ISBN: 9780473712884
RRP: $45
Available: bootsbooks.com
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