Tracks: A Woman's Solo Trek Across 1700 Miles of Australian Outback

Davidson’s Tracks is a memoir that blends elements of various genres. Written in 1980 and detailing Davidson’s adventures through the Australian outback in the late 1970s, the text straddles the genre divides between memoir, feminist literature, and nature writing. Davidson uses her personal experience in the desert to promote female empowerment, explore how travel can change the individual, and comment on the transformative power of communing with the natural world. The malleability of Davidson’s text is in part what has made Tracks such a timeless work of nonfiction and a notable piece of social activism.

The text satisfies the traditional parameters of the memoir genre, in that it details a discrete era of Davidson’s life. Unlike autobiography (which traces the entire scope of the author’s life), memoirs seek “to recreate [an event or series of events] through storytelling.” Memoirs also don’t hold the author to factual constraints the way autobiographies do. Instead, memoir writing gives the author “more flexibility [to tell] a story as she remembers it, not as others can prove or disprove it” (Dukes, Jessica. “What Is a Memoir?” Celadon Books). These aspects of the genre are reflected in Tracks. Two years after completing her desert adventure, Davidson wrote the story of her adventure from memory. She did her best to capture the tenor of the trip and to convey all that she experienced and learned. At the same time, she repeatedly admits that her memory is inexact, and that time, space, and circumstance have inevitability turned some aspects of her experience into more dreamy, nostalgic fictions. These are not deficits of Davidson’s memory or writing, but rather natural aspects of memoir-writing and the memoir form. As is true of Tracks, memoirs invite the reader to reenter the past with the author; in turn, the reader is compelled to embrace the uncertainty, questioning, and reflection that comes along with recollection.

Tracks also falls under the subgenre of the travel memoir. As Jessica Dukes goes on to say in her Celadon Books essay on the genre, travel memoirs “let us escape with the author and learn about a time and place through their experiences” (Dukes, Jessica. “What Is a Memoir?” Celadon Books). In Tracks, Davidson invites the reader to relive her desert journey with her. As the author, she becomes the proverbial guide leading the reader through her past experiences in Alice Springs and the Australian outback. True to the travel memoir subgenre, Tracks also conveys how venturing out into an unfamiliar space can facilitate personal growth and revelation. In these ways, Tracks is in conversation with other travel memoirs like Cheryl Strayed’s Wild (which details Strayed’s Pacific Crest Trail walk) and Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love (which details Gilbert’s travels through Italy, Indonesia, and India).

Tracks also functions as a work of feminist literature. Throughout the text, Davidson underscores her desperation to break free of the patriarchal trappings that limited her freedom. She describes her ongoing work to speak up for herself, develop a belief system, explore the world beyond her home, choose her relationships, take risks, and live outside of gender expectations. These aspects of the text deliver messages of empowerment to a female readership—both amid the second-wave feminist movement and into the present day. Further, Tracks acts as a piece of travel writing that advocates for the preservation of the natural world. Davidson uses detailed, lyrical language to convey the beauty of nature throughout the memoir. Such passages both evoke Davidson’s appreciation and respect for the environment and promote environmental awareness and care.