Award winning australian novelist and playwright thomas keneallys novel the chant of jimmie blacksmith was inspired by a fragment of australian history describing a mixed race indigenous man who went on a murder spree in australia in 1900. The chant of jimmie blacksmith by thomas keneally tells the story of jimmie blacksmith a man of mixed race who goes on a killing spree in australia in 1900 keneally traces jimmies life showing how he faced discrimination and oppression based solely on his race and how this eventually boiled over into an uncontrollable wrath. Although the novel is ostensibly about the chant of jimmie blacksmith that chant is both ironic and symbolic since jimmie consciously rejects his tribal roots and never chants as his half. The chant of jimmie blacksmith by thomas keneally tells the story of jimmie blacksmith a man of mixed race who goes on a killing spree in australia in 1900 keneally traces jimmies life showing how he faced discrimination and oppression based solely on his race and how this eventually boiled over into an uncontrollable wrath