“The Union Buries Its Dead” is a story written by Australian author and poet Henry Lawson. The story was written in 1893, but wasn't published until 1896 in the collection While the Billy Boils. The story is one of Lawson's most anthologized short stories.
The text takes place in the Australian Outback and centers around the funeral of a young man. The man is a stranger to the town, but is given a funeral due to the fact that he is a union laborer. The text is realist fiction and depicts the funeral service while satirizing Australian bush life and unionism. In the narration, Lawson utilizes both dry, sardonic humor and "bush" archetypes, such as the drunk, the shearer, the drover, and...
