The Slow Natives (1965) is a Miles Franklin Award-winning novel by Australian author Thea Astley.

Set in sub-tropical Queensland, the novel examines the relationships between suburban Brisbanites including a priest, nuns and a couple and their teenage son.

Almost all the characters suffer from some form of spiritual aridity; in Astley's vision, there often seems nothing between repression, and empty or even corrupt sexuality".

"[4] Ruth Lesley, in The Canberra Times noted: "She works on two levels, that of the everyday world of meals, work, parties and squabbles, which she describes with wit and penetration, and that of the lonely inner world of each of her characters.

There is very little action as such, but her analysis of the characters and the subtleties of their relationships makes very interesting reading.