The New Boy

In the Australian outback in the mid-1940s Australia, a nameless nine-year-old orphan boy, Aboriginal except that he has some fair hair, strangles a white horseman. Another horseman fells the boy with a boomerang; then the boy is taken in at a remote monastery for raising Aboriginal boys. The monastery is seemingly run by a male priest, who has actually been dead for a year without anyone appearing to know the cause. The lead nun, Sister Eileen, claims to outsiders that the priest is still alive, and forges letters to create this impression. Eileen is supported in her work and her deception by a fellow nun who goes by the nickname "Sister Mum" and a man named George, both of whom are Aboriginal and assimilated to Christian beliefs. Though times are difficult, the nuns care for the boys and desire to protect them through Christian teachings and shared manual work. The boys are not provided with any knowledge of Aboriginal values, language or practices. Their fate is to be forced to leave very early and be employed as farm hands. Sister Mum is implied to have converted to Christianity due to the loss of her two children, while George lives a secure life at the monastery.