This paper offers a linguistic approach to the structure and interpretation of a crucial historical narrative in Umpithamu (a Pama-Nyungan language of Cape York Peninsula, Australia), focusing on the role of participant tracking devices in the macro-structure and the role of case marking in narrative motive construction. It is demonstrated how a rare case marking system is employed by the narrator on a micro-structural level, in order to construe white–Aboriginal interactions as events of great lack of control for Aboriginal participants.