Benevolence

by Julie Janson

“How good it is to hear a Darug voice speaking of Darug history.”—Kate Grenville, author of The Secret River , winner of the Commonwealth Prize Blending the mythical power of Téa Obreht and the epic scope of Min Jin Lee, a searing historical novel that tells a story of colonization, survival, and resistance in a way never done before—a beautiful, brilliant, and brutal reimagining of the first contact between Indigenous people and white British settlers and the far-reaching consequences for one Aboriginal girl coming of age in an unsteady and dangerous world. For all known time, Muraging’s people, the Darug, have lived on this land between the river and the sea. But change comes swiftly in the early years of the nineteenth century when White settlers begin to arrive, laying claim to the continent, long inhabited by Aboriginal tribes like Muraging’s, for the British empire.  At ten years old, Muraging is given over to the Parramatta Native School by her father, where the missionaries call her Mary James, force her to abandon her culture and language, and teach her subjects they believe will save her soul: English, Christianity, and housework. Six years later, seeking a brighter future, Muraging flees the school, embarking on a journey of discovery and a search for a safe place in an unfamiliar and unsteady new world—an odyssey far more winding and treacherous than she ever dreamed.  Spanning two decades, from 1816-1835, and set around the Hawkesbury River area, the home of the Darug people in Parramatta and Sydney, Benevolence sheds light on the heartbreaking violence and erasure of colonization, as well as remarkable survival and resistance—a vivid and compelling portrait of the  Aboriginal Australians whose way of life is forever altered.  Award-winning Australian writer Julie Janson’s draws on historical events to recreate this pivotal time—things that may have happened to her own ancestors—giving voice to an Aboriginal experience of early-settlement in Australia.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Australia, Historical, Indigenous, Book Club, Ebooks

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2020

About the author

Julie is a Burruberongal woman of Darug Aboriginal Nation. She is co-recipient of the Oodgeroo Noonuccal Poetry Prize, 2016 and winner of the Judith Wright Poetry Prize, 2019.

Reviews

[Michael Livingston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Benevolence tells the story of Muraging (renamed Mary), a young Burruberongal woman who starts the novel being separated from her family to attend a school for orphans. Set between 1816 and 1842, Benevolence traces the crushing impact of colonisation on Muraging and her people, by settlers who generally see themselves as acting with good intentions (the 'benevolence' of the title). It's uncomfortable, sad reading, although Mary's courage is powerful. I wasn't always entirely drawn in by the writing, but the depth of research is clearly evident throughout.

The book is intended as an Indigenous-perspective counterpart to Grenville's The Secret River and it's an effective, if not always entirely engaging, piece of work.

[Peter · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yet another book about European colonisation of Australia set in historic Parramatta (to the west of Sydney, now a suburb). Written from an indigenous viewpoint but unfortunately storyline, characters, and historical premises are all weak and underdeveloped.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read an account of the Aboriginal experience during British settlement of Australia prior to this unique and moving book, though not completely ignorant of the challenges faced by that population. The author presents a strong female character based on her own great-great-grandmother, a poignant portrait indeed. We follow her through her experiences of being turned over to a British school by her beloved father where she learns to read and write English, play the violin and is well treated...though always longing to reunite with her father.
At times the action is greatly unsettling and difficult to comprehend as the British treatment of the original citizens of Australia was more than brutal. A difficult but elucidating and worthwhile book to read.
I feel quite sad after reading this book and must resort to something trivial and amusing to change my mood.

Library Loan

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a hard one to rate. A very interesting premise, with characters drawn from historical people but they seem a bit two dimensional, like they need a bit more fleshing out. I think that the author has not quite made the transition from playwright to novelist. Which is a shame because she is the perfect person to tell this story. Snippets of the beautiful indigenous language is interspersed in sentences throughout the novel. I have to admit I thought it was more realistically played out and better researched than another novel I tried recently, Elizabeth & Elizabeth, but not as well done as say, The Yield by Tara June Winch, The White Girl by Tony Birch nor The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson by Leah Purcell.
The pace was compelling but relentless, with events that just kept coming at you. Like history played in fast forward. I think it will stay with me but I wanted that little bit more from it so I could sing it's praises more. One to try it and see for yourself.

[Gavan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointingly plain. While I love the idea & the bones of a story are there, I got to the end of the book & didn't feel that I had really connected or understood any of the characters & their motivations. They were all a bit two dimensional, as most of the writing is a quite blandly written outline of events, rather than thoughts & feelings.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somehow, I missed the publication of Julie Janson’s first novel Crocodile Hotel (2015), reviewed here by Alison Broinowski, and I would have missed this second novel too if not for the Facebook group started by Kirsten Krauth. Set up to provide publicity for authors denied the usual launches and tours, the group rejoices in the rather unwieldy name Writers Go Forth. Launch. Promote. Party… but it has alerted me to some books I might otherwise not have heard of, including Benevolence which is a very interesting book indeed.
The ironic title Benevolence signals the truth about paternalistic initiatives set up to ‘benefit’ Indigenous Australians in the colonial era. The novel is a retelling of the early years of European settlement, each chapter beginning with a short paragraph about the ‘progress’ of the colony. But this is no ordinary historical novel: written as a rebuttal of Kate Grenville’s The Secret River (2005), Benevolence is ‘hidden history’ because it reshapes the clichéd narrative by offering the Indigenous perspective on these events. Each chapter continues with episodes in the life of the central character Muraging, born in the early 1800s in the Hawkesbury area. Although she is based on the real-life experiences of Janson’s great-great grandmother, Mary Ann Thomas a symbol of the full impact of colonisation on her people, the Darug.
Muraging is re-named Mary in the Parramatta Native School when her father left her there, believing that she would be ‘better off’. As the novel progresses, we see that this was an act of desperation born of extreme hunger, which was widespread in Indigenous communities as the settlement encroached further and further onto hunting and harvesting grounds. We also see that she is never ‘better off’ because, whether she learns and adapts to European ways or not, there was no way for an Indigenous person to be ‘better off’ because benevolence did not extend to equal rights and opportunities, much less respect for First Nations ownership of the land. At the same time, as Muraging learns to her dismay, her own people often don’t trust her because of her confused loyalties.
Muraging never sees her father again, and all her life, like members of the Stolen Generations today, she feels a sense of loss and abandonment. She doesn’t give up seeking the whereabouts of her family until the bitter end when she learns their fate in the most awful of ways.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2020/07/06/b...

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

In her US debut, the Australian Aboriginal poet, playwright and novelist Julie Janson depicts the British colonization of Australian through a historical novel based on stories passed down from her great great grandmother. 3.5 stars rounding up.

[Kirstin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book and could not put it down - for me it was been one of those books that I’m genuinely sad to see the end of.

Little has been written to capture the First Nations experience of colonisation in Australia in such a powerful way. This book does a wonderful job of weaving historical fact through the lives of complex and realistically flawed characters who reflect their times. In particular it made me really feel the challenge of First Nations people in those early times - not just the direct challenges like loss of land, disease and genocide, but for the survivors of these atrocities: how do you make a choice between starvation and servitude? What do you do when you have no choice but to defend yourself against attack while knowing that it will brand you a felon? How do you protect your child and provide a life rich in culture when you’ve got no choice to beg for survival? How do you keep finding the energy to survive over a lifetime of having unforgivable injustice inflicted upon you and your people?

The acknowledgements section was fascinating as well - Janson has done an immense amount of research, both written and oral, to bring this story to life.

[Natalie Park · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Net Galley and Harper Via for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. At ten years old, Muraging, of the Durag people, indigenous Australians, is left at the Parramatta Native School by her father where she is given the name Mary. It is the early 1800s. She is told to abandon her language, culture and everything she has known and they teach her to be a Christian, learn English and how to clean a house so she can be employed. She has no intention to become a house maid! She is there for several years and endures but escapes into the world to make her own choices. She goes back in forth between the white world and her own people, only due to the fact that her people are trying to survive but are starving as they have been displaced by all the new settlers. We follow her through about 20 years as she makes her way through life - facing violence, mistreatment, racism, abuse - but she survives it all with strength and persistence. Her story illustrates the plight of the indigenous Australians who were killed and the colonization that forever changed their lives in the land that was always there. It parallels that lives of indigenous Americans in the US and Canada.

[Yonit · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an important, devastating historical novel set in the early 1800s in Australia. Muraging is taken to be educated in a white school and becomes Mary thanks to the "benevolence" of the colonisers. Thus begins her struggle to retain her culture, identity and dignity despite everything life throws at her and it throws a lot. It is refreshing to read something about this period from an indigenous perspective and Janson has noted the story is based on the life of her great-great grandmother. Muraging is tempted by some of the white people's ways such as learning to play the violin but is prepared to give it all up to return to her people if only that didn't mean facing smallpox and probable starvation. This book deserves a great deal more recognition than it has received to date.

[Phyllis | Mocha Drop · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title of the book is truly a play on words in that the novel opens with a 10-year old Burruberongal girl, Muraging (renamed Mary James by her benefactors), receiving the gift of “benevolence” from British settlers who operate a school for orphans. They promise her father that she will be educated in the ways of the Whites, surrounded with Christian love and parochial teachings. She wonders why she is to receive this “opportunity” and not her brother who leaves with her father. What ensues is a childhood filled with harsh lessons from a very principled (and racist) school master, a measure of kindness found in the school marm, an endearing friendship with another orphaned peer, Mercy, and a lifelong yearning for her family.

The story is told in chronological sequence over a span of 30 years. A page-turning aspect for me was the author’s choice to begin chapters with historical decrees/laws or pivotal events as recorded by the “establishment,” and weave the ill-fated effects and ramifications of such actions directly or indirectly into the plotlines involving Mary’s life and travels. These historical facts share the political positions and mindset of the colonizing forces – they were overwhelmingly racist, unfair, and shameful.

Mary’s story is seemingly a shared experience of the collective Native population – for those living during this era, it was a life filled with hardship and insurmountable heartache. In these times, the haughtiness of the moral compass encouraged the capture of the young to tame and train for a life of servitude under the guidance of the “superior” races. The cruelty, inhumanity, and injustice of colonization is on display in the book - some parts I found difficult to read. The reader is reminded that the Indigenous Tribes didn’t stand a chance against increasing numbers and advanced military weapons, but they fought bravely and earnestly to preserve their lands and heritage only to lose more often than not to disease, starvation, and genocide. The latter option was justified to create room to accommodate foreign settlers arriving by the shiploads to escape crowded, polluted cities and mounting debt; opportunists looking to exploit the land for all its natural resources on the backs of convict laborers, starving/broken Natives, and indentured servants; and a fair amount of amateur fortune hunters and those seeing a second-, third- and for some the very last-chance at a better life.

Recommended for historical fiction fans interested in a formative era in Australia's evolution.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an opportunity to review.

[Caren · Rating 5 out of 5]

We have heard and read so many accounts, both non-fiction and fiction, about British settlement in New South Wales during the early 1800s. What has been missing, however, is the Indigenous perspective, a view that many Australians (including our government) still find hard to honour or acknowledge. Janson's historical novel, based largely on the experiences of her own great-great grandmother, Mary Ann Thomas, connects readers to this resilient and self-reflective Aboriginal child/young woman as she finds herself stretched between two worlds, each of which forces her to make life-changing decisions for herself and, later, for her children.

The "benevolence" preached to the natives by the "occupiers" (as clearly portrayed by the author) is exploitative, deceitful, abusive and soul=destroying. The duplicity of the whites is as violent as their massacres, both of which result in the deaths of those native men and women who attempt to stand up for themselves and for their country and culture. That the barbaric actions taken were sold as "Christian" is the hardest to digest. Mary James, originally named Muraging, relentlessly fights against the immorality of the soldiers, magistrates, captains, commodores, and men supposedly "of God", as well as against the utter devaluation and decimation of the Indigenous as people of worth. To Janson's credit, she does include small acts of kindness that are offered to Mary as she journeys across the region, either escaping from her captivity or hoping to reunite with her tribe.

Janson beautifully portrays the land itself as a character, thus emphasising the Indigenous connection to/with "country" throughout the novel. Her frequent inclusion of Aboriginal language is most welcomed and reminded me of Tara Jane Winch's dedication to her dialect in "The Yield". It is exciting to connect with the Indigenous voices telling their stories. Janson illuminates the beauty that resides within her ancestors' culture as well as shocking us with a personal account of suffering and savagery perpetrated by the British soldiers and settlers who swore to God and King to "wipe out" the natives at all costs.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a rather curious synchronicity, the last three books I’ve read have all had single word, multiple-meaning, titles, all relating to the colonial settlement of Australia – Gay Lynch’s historical fiction Unsettled (my review), John Kinsella’s memoir Displaced (my review), and now Julie Janson’s historical fiction Benevolence whose title drips with irony.

Recently, I commented that it would be good to see an Indigenous Australian novel responding to Kate Grenville’s The secret river. Well, it appears that Benevolence is that novel. In her Acknowledgements, Janson, of the Darug Nation, writes that Benevolence is “a work of fiction based on historical events of the early years [1816-1842] of the British invasion and settlement around the Hawkesbury River in Western Sydney, New South Wales”. Protagonist Muraging, renamed Mary by the colonisers, is based on the author’s ancestor, Mary Ann Thomas, just as Grenville’s novel, set around the same place and time, was inspired by, though not exactly based on, her ancestor, Solomon Wiseman. There, of course, the similarity ends, because while Grenville’s protagonist becomes a “big” man in colonial Sydney, Muraging’s experience is very different.

For my full review, please check my blog, https://whisperinggums.com/2020/12/04...

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a ton of research in this engaging novel, which traverses the greater Sydney and Hawkesbury region from the perspective of Maruging, a Darug woman born early in the Nineteenth Century. It is a more accurate view of history than the Secret River, and Janson captures very well the world of hypocrites, do-gooders, soldiers and the like which populate the colony's 'benevolent' engagements with the land's owners. The strength of the book, however, lies in the Indigenous people who populate both the land and the book, living between worlds and seeking pathways through colonialism which shrink as the book proceeds. I think the book suffers a little from the amount of history that Janson fits in - I found myself wondering alongside Maruging why she doesn't stay put on several occasions, and there is a tendency to tell rather than show. On the whole, though, this is a book which brought a world to life and I would unhesitatingly recommend it for those who want to feel, not just know, what colonialism might have been like in it's earliest Sydney iteration.

[Kerrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author tells us at the end of the book(in ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS) that this "is a work of fiction based on historical events of the early years of British invasion and settlement around the Hawkesbury River in Western Sydney, New South Wales.

... Muraging is based on my [the author's] great-great-grandmother, Mary Ann Thomas, who was a servant on colonial estates in the Hawkesbury area. The other characters in the novel are inspired by historical figures and [my] imagination, except for the governors who are based on historical documents."

BENEVOLENCE relies heavily on research and the author's family history, and there is no denying the value of the perspective it gives us. The British invasion had a huge impact on the local Aboriginal tribes, not only with the declaration of the policy of "terra nullius" which gave white settlers the right to claim the land, but also with their so-called "benevolent' practices which put aboriginal babies into orphanages where they died, took children away from their families and put them into schools, brought with them diseases like measles, small pox, and the common cold which decimated the populations, and carried out war against those who resisted.

The novel is very graphic in the story that it tells, and will stay with readers well after reading it.

[SS · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
A story of early colonial Australia, around the Sydney area, through the eyes of Muraging (renamed Mary by her white educator in her early life), an Aboriginal Australian.

The story reveals more of an Aboriginal Australian's experience of the struggles they faced in this time, with disease, enslavememt, starvation, loss of family, tribe and Country, all creating the perfect storm for any but the strongest willed to be lined up for failure and in many cases death.

The lead character as an female in this setting showed how the 'system' fails them over and over, even when they tried to live in community by the standards set by the invaders.

The aboherrent behaviour demonstrated by men of law, of the church and proper ladies towards the breadth of Aboriginal people, as well as individuals known to them and their families is not unimagineable from the European colonies foundations and stories we are becoming familiar with but they are still shocking and confronting to read in every account.

If you haven't read much of this genre set in this time period, this is an approachable book with a linear timeline that helps to reveal this part of Australian history that some may be less familiar with. A good starting point in other words.

Listened as an audiobook, good narrator.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Benevolence' is defined as 'the quality of being well meaning; kindness'. In this novel, the concept of benevolence becomes perverted by overlying prejudices. In 1816, Muraging, a young Berruberongal girl, is taken to the Parramatta Native Institution by her father. He believes that she should learn to read and write English so that she can learn the ways of the white settlers and then help her people. He promises he will return for her. She is renamed Mary James.

This did not turn out well as he did not return and she was left between two worlds with an unfulfilled longing to find her father. Her life's journey takes her up and down the Deerubbin, the Hawkesbury River, alternately living with her own people or in servitude to white settlers, some kind to her, others abusive.

This book is well-researched from formal and oral histories. It is confronting in its descriptions of various atrocities perpetrated on Australia's First Peoples by the white invaders of their lands. In turn, the indigenous people were not entirely innocent in this frontier war. It is an interesting, though discomforting, counterpoint to white histories and historical fiction.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book covers a lot of early colonizer history in the story of one woman. It is heartbreaking how the aboriginal people were treated and shocking how the environment was so quickly ruined. I learned a lot. The writer did a good job curating events so that you could see why the aboriginal people might have done some of the things that the colonizers found confusing.

I had a slow start with this book because the writing is a bit flat and unemotional but as I got further along I found this worked for me because otherwise it would have been possibly too hard to read.

[Debbi · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. The brutal colonization of New South Wales in Australia was the subject of this sad tale told through the eyes of a young Aboriginal girl. The author is Darug (native) herself and based the story on her great great grandmother. The British pretty much committed genocide on the Darugs having guns against the native's spears.

[Annelies Allcock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptionally well-researched, sensitively written and the strongest woman character I have read in a long time. This was a slow and almost excruciating read for me, as the hardships experienced by Mary are staggering.

[Stacy Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story of a native Australian woman and the horrific cruelties of British colonialism is hard to take, page after page of violence and injustice. But you keep your heart open, because Muraging’s heart is open, her voice defiant, and her spirit strong.

[Jeff Johnston · Rating 4 out of 5]

My son was awarded this book as a prize at the Deadly Kid Awards 2020. The title was quite intriguing, so I read a few pages. Once started it was a hard book to put down. It is disjointed in a number of ways, however the conceptional idea was sound and our protagonist's life is one you will not forget easily.

This may be a story with fictional characters, but the authors blending of historic events reveals the injustices, the hurts, the degradation of the first nations people.
Read this story and research the facts. You will likely never say 'why can't you just get over it' ever again. A must read for all.

[Mr · Rating 5 out of 5]

epic, outstanding, important -
a global classic on the rise!

Truly a GREAT BOOK!

[Natalie Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really really enjoyed this book! I liked the author's action oriented writing style and she did a very good job of weaving in historical details and maintaining the atmosphere of early 1800s Sydney. The story's protagonist is based on Janson's Darug great great grandmother, and I loved following her journey, I was hanging off every word.

Honestly sometimes plot points didn't quite make sense to me, especially towards the end of the book, and supporting characters could have been more fleshed out (the three main antagonists seemed to swap personalities a few times throughout the book), but the story was so fun/intense and the main character's journey so compelling that it didnt effect my enjoyment of reading it. The myriad settings the main character encounters were very well written though, and provided so much insight into the history and significance of different places of the Darug, Gundungurra, Darkinjung, Guringay and Wonnarua peoples. Was particularly great for me because I grew up in these areas and knew the landscapes (and could compare to what is there now)

I also really appreciated the young adult fiction style where even though awful things happen to Muraging/Mary and others all the time throughout the whole book (as you'd expect on the settler frontier), there are no harrowing, drawn out depictions of abuse that seem to be a stylistic requirement for literary fiction these days.

Thematically, Benevolence depicts the outcomes of settler missionary and imperial ideologies for Aboriginal people, as well as the colonists themselves. The author lets the reader judge and sympathise with the characters and their ideologies at different times rather than locking them into 'good' and 'bad' categories. I found it quite uncomfortable to see Christian 'benevolence' play out in ways it did. It also explored Aboriginal peoples' responses to invasion in a serious way that I've not seen in other fiction. The use of Darug language throughout was really effective.

Anyway, loved it! Going to make all my friends read it. Thanks Julie Janson

[Peter Langston · Rating 2 out of 5]

A moving story of Mary, an aboriginal child given by her father to the Native School so she could learn to read and write and gain. The white man’s advantage. She shows remarkable resilience and survives atrocities in households, battle and in trying to find her people. It’s an interesting weave of real history with invented history. I didn’t particularly like the writing style - lots of short sentences - or the changes in character of some of the leading antagonists. Perhaps the author’s style will develop with further works, this being her first novel.

[Enone · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read for all Australians. Historical facts of the 1800s are interwoven with the lives of complex characters who reflect the time they live in. It is a very powerful retelling from an aboriginal women's perspective and the choices she is forced to make to survive.

[Kylie Purdie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written as a response to The Secret River by Kate Grenville, Benevolence follows the story of Muraging, a Burruberongal girl, from the time she is taken to the Native School by her father and through her life. Given the English name Mary, Muraging lives a life between the English and the Indigenous tribes around Sydney.
Benevolence is not an easy read. Once again it highlights the atrocious treatment of the first nations people and the English invaders blind devotion to "civilising the native" while partaking in the most uncivilised behaviour themselves. In a country where our history has been white washed and denied, this is essential reading. Not only is it essential, it is essential it is read, believed and acknowledged that this happened. To often we want to say "yes, but" however there are no buts. This happened, it was horrific and we should make amends.
This is not the best written book I have ever read. At times I was not fully engaged in the story, but Muraging's story, her struggles, her triumphs and her tragedies are essential reading. As a response to The Secret River, it shows the other side of the story. So often we have been told the story of the struggles white settlers had, rarely have we been told the story from a first nations perspective. This is from that side.

[Kathy Piselli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Janson managed to get a great deal into this ambitious historical novel. Though there are written records for the time period, her heroine is a woman of a tribe nearly exterminated and written history contains her story only tangentially. Janson includes individuals both good and bad among the different people of Sydney in the early 1800s (I thought the scene where Mary and an Irishwoman both can sense a ghost was powerful). Mary tries hard to be independent but it is impossible and she faces repeated return trips to the unpleasant world of the colonial whites. "Darkness rests upon these native peoples and gross darkness envelops hearts" intones the colonial British reverend, to which his wife responds pleasantly "Not the innocent children surely". Later as a storm comes up, he comments on some noise outside "They are chanting that accursed song" and the Aboriginal girl Mary "thinks he is crazy because all she can hear are native songs about rain". His paranoia, born of ignorance, and a reaction we would call PTSD from violence he experienced among native people he fears, is the essence of the horror of the colonial experience, and outweighs any individual good there may be. One people, thinking themselves superior to another, believes themselves to be helping their victims. But their ignorance and arrogance lead only to slaughter. Well told.

[Suzesmum · Rating 4 out of 5]

9🇦🇺📱AUSTRALIA: I wanted to read this book after reading Kate Grenville’s “The Secret River” and listening to an ABC podcast that interviewed both authors. I went into this book thinking it was an Aboriginal response to the very popular Secret River, but it is so much more. The main character, Muraging (Mary James) is based on Janson’s own great-great-grandmother, Mary Ann Thomas. Whilst other central characters have been fictionalised to protect the author from accusations of historical error, the colonial institutions and governors are all real, as are the accounts of the horrific massacres of the Indigenous peoples. This story had it all: love, loss, trauma, joy, despair and hope. The use of Indigenous language and cultural traditions and lore is a real treasure and evidence of Janson’s thorough research and strong connections to her culture. So much better than “The Secret River”. I hope Muraging’s story is made into a TV series too, because it deserves to be told - perhaps more than an English emancipated convict who murdered our Indigenous people.

[Prue Mansfield · Rating 2 out of 5]

I heard the author at the Adelaide Writer's Festival, and was really looking to forward to reading this. Set in the same time period as Kate Grenville's The Secret River, from the perspective of the Indigenous people living in Sydney and on the Hawkesbury. And being 'settled upon' rather than the 'settlers'. I was disappointed, and am still thinking about why. Janson uses Indigenous words frequently throughout the book, sometimes, translated, sometimes not. I caught myself skipping them, pulled myself up as this is surely part of the point. But it did interrupt my flow. A great deal happens, or time covered, in only a paragraph. The speed seems at odds with the significance of the time and the seriousness of the subject matter. But then to the Indigenous people of the time, the world was changing at warp speed.
For every reaction to the book, there is an explanation as to why I 'should'. I am left regretful.