By Jock Serong
Published by Text Publishing.
RRP $32.99
I recently wrote a review of Black Lives, White Law in which criminal lawyer Russell Marks exposes the scandalous way that Australia’s legal system unjustly deals with our Aboriginal communities in the present day, and the dishonest colonial origins of that injustice. I wrote:
Marks takes us on a journey through the brutality of colonisation and demonstrates how, the so called fair and impartial British justice system was anything but fair and impartial when it came to the treatment of our First Nations people. Many were slaughtered by white settlers with no action generally being taken against the offenders.
This disturbing, sometimes dark work is a perfect follow up read in which Serong reimagines the way in which the Tasmanian First Nations peoples were cruelly dealt with by the invading European settlers. It is particularly inspired by the ill-conceived and failed activities of George Augustus Robinson who led the forced displacement of Tasmanian Aboriginal people to Pea Jacket Point on Flinders Island.
Like Marks, Serong has a background in the law, although his main passion is clearly writing, having authored several novels, the most recent, apart from The Settlement, being Preservation (2018) and The Burning Island (2020).
This is his most ambitious project to date and Serong is clearly conscious of the potential pitfalls of a non-indigenous writer wading amongst the issues raised in the book because the narrative is preceded by a Statement Regarding First Nations Cultural knowledge where it is explained that ‘multiple First Nations organisations and individuals have been contacted for consultation.’
In 1831 the invading Europeans were being impeded in their efforts take over Van Diemen’s land (Tasmania) previously occupied by the Aboriginal population who refused to go quietly. Most of the invaders had no qualms about using brute force and unrestrained violence to steal the land. However, one person, initially known as ‘The Man’, tries to save them by gathering them together and peacefully removing them to an island settlement. To convince them to accompany them The Man enlists the assistance of Aboriginal ‘Chief’ Mannalarenna but can only convince him to help through a series of false promises, lies and deceit. Significantly once The Settlement is established The Man becomes the Commandant.
As the book progresses the reader realises that The Man’s motivation is not just, or even primarily, providing physical protection, but includes the Christian version of spiritual salvation. It was to be the Man’s job to ‘Christianise and civilise’ them. Later it becomes clear that he also has another motive, being the obtaining of gruesome so-called scientific evidence in the form of the body parts of dead Aboriginal people, although his true motivation is not so much advancement of science as the obtaining of personal recognition.
As the narrative moves to a lonely windswept island on which The Man has gathered the Aboriginal people who have managed to survive the violence of the rampaging pastoralists, we meet a number of flawed non-indigenous individuals such as the Catechist, Storekeeper, the Surgeon and the Coxswain who have various attributes ranging from pure evil to simple cowardice. They are contrasted with the two young Aboriginal orphans, Whelk and Pipi, struggling to survive the evil arrayed against them.
The windswept island settlement ultimately does nothing to preserve and protect the lives and culture of the Aboriginal people who have been removed to the island, and although they might have been saved from death at the hands of the pastoralists, disease, ignorance, abuse and loss of Country and culture leads to the same tragic outcome.
I fully agree with the book cover comments of Paul Daley from the Guardian where he says:
A shocking but perversely beautiful evocation of the endurance and dignity of Aboriginal resistance to the sadism of the colony’s God and guns. Its gripping plot, extraordinary Black and white characters, and elegant prose will haunt you long after the last page.
Highly recommended.
John Watts
Retired Barrister, Gloucester resident, and author of ‘Nine Lives for Our Planet. Personal stories of nine inspiring women who cherish Earth.’ and ‘The Town That Said NO to AGL. How Gloucester Was Saved from Coal Seam Gas’. John is also the president of the Gloucester Environment Group.