Next session: Tuesday 31 October from 17:30. “August in Kabul: America’s Last Days in Afghanistan” by Andrew Quilty.
The last Book Club iteration however was a topical book for truth-telling and the upcoming referendum. “The Settlement” by Josh Serong recounts the confronting events leading up to the settlement of the remaining indigenous clans.
The last iteration however was a topical book for truth-telling and the upcoming referendum. “The Settlement” by Josh Serong recounts the confronting events leading up to the settlement of the remaining indigenous clans of Tasmania to Flinders Island, and the bleak life – and death of most – at the Wybalenna settlement. Although the book professes to be historical fiction, it is based on the detailed journals of George Augustus Robinson in the 1830’s, historical archival evidence and on First Nation’s cultural knowledge.
Book Club members agreed that the graphic and extraordinarily-detailed telling of the story through the eyes of the characters – their thoughts, their doubts, their aspirations – successfully relayed how the promise of the “Friendly Mission” was broken and eventually collapsed into genocide. Comments like: “I felt like I was there…”; “Graphically painted and gripping…”; “An indictment on colonial history….” and “I was never taught this at school….” convey the breadth of discussion.
We scored the book 7.5 out of 10.
The three-word summaries: Deception Kills Aboriginals; Confronting Our History; Black Lives Matter; Absolutely Vote Yes; Indictment, Subjugate, Shameful; Tasman Tragedy Retold.
