The Tao of Shepherding

Explores the experiences of two Chinese bonded labourers in Australia prior to the Gold Rush Years of the 1850s. Shiu Pi, eldest son of a provincial Chinese official is kidnapped and shipped to Sydney together with Angee, an illiterate labourer with a gambling problem. As this unlikely pair are indentured to a squatter in the Riverina, they grapple with cultural dislocation between the British and the Aborigines in a new country. Their beliefs and spiritual philosophy of Taoism are questioned and reinforced.