Bibliograph

The lives of stories, three Aboriginal-settler friendships, Emma Dortins

Type

Label

The lives of stories, three Aboriginal-settler friendships, Emma Dortins

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 233-263)

resource.biographical

collective biography

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

no index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

The lives of stories

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

1066258764

Responsibility statement

Emma Dortins

Review

The Lives of Stories traces three stories of Aboriginal?settler friendships that intersect with the ways in which Australians remember founding national stories, build narratives for cultural revival, and work on reconciliation and self-determination. These three stories, which are still being told with creativity and commitment by storytellers today, are the story of James Morrill?s adoption by Birri-Gubba people and re-adoption 17 years later into the new colony of Queensland, the story of Bennelong and his relationship with Governor Phillip and the Sydney colonists, and the story of friendship between Wiradjuri leader Windradyne and the Suttor family. Each is an intimate story about people involved in relationships of goodwill, care, adoptive kinship and mutual learning across cultures, and the strains of maintaining or relinquishing these bonds as they took part in the larger events that signified the colonisation of Aboriginal lands by the British. Each is a story in which cross-cultural understanding and misunderstanding are deeply embedded, and in which the act of storytelling itself has always been an engagement in cross-cultural relations. The Lives of Stories reflects on the nature of story as part of our cultural inheritance, and seeks to engage the reader in becoming more conscious of our own effect as history-makers as we retell old stories with new meanings in the present, and pass them on to new generations

Series statement

Aboriginal history monograph series

Sub title

three Aboriginal-settler friendships

Table Of Contents

Part 1: The Life and Adventures of James Morrill. Crossing there and back, living to tell a tale -- Becoming first white resident -- Ways of knowing the Burdekin -- Part 2: The Many Truths of Bennelong?s Tragedy. Bennelong?s rise and fall -- History, tragedy and truth in Bennelong?s story -- Ambassador between the present and the past -- Part 3: Friendship Beyond the Grave. A family heirloom -- At the confluence of two stories -- Friendship and the grave -- Conclusion: Living Histories, Living Stories

Target audience

general

Classification