The novel 'Wild Cat Falling' deals with journey because throughout the novel the first person or narrator experiences and deals many issues in his life, which is the journey. Some of the issues are, assimilation, the law, institutionalisation, relationships and religion.
In towns, aboriginals tried desperately to assimilate or to "live white" like the mother in "Wild Cat Falling", in the hope that their children would not be taken away. But inevitably, by one means or another, children were pounced on and used little reasons to remove the children from their mothers; emotionally we can only guess the damages. The way one child was influenced by these white policies is one of the major themes of the novel. At the end of the novel, the narrator hears that his mother has gone back to die with the Noongar people because she has no one else. This is a clear indication of her utter failure to assimilate, and the rift this caused between her and her children.
One issue that clearly stands out from this novel is that the laws for aborigines are different from the laws for white Australians.
The scene in the pub near the university is another example of difference in the law. A lot of young university students are drinking there, almost certainly under age, but the narrator knows that if he is caught it will mean a prison sentence because he is also under age but he is an aboriginal.
Another major theme of this novel is the effect of institutionalisation on individuals, especially on aboriginal people. Any institution (school, orphanage, prison, mental hospital) involves rules that are made for, but not by, people who are in the institution. These rules are more likely to be experienced as foreign and difficult to understand by someone coming from a different background or cultural tradition, than for someone who is apart of the dominant culture by whom the rules are made for. Obviously aboriginals fell very confined and restricted in these institutions, compared with white Australians.
