Wisdom and Woe

On January 9, 1826, an American brig was boarded by a canoe at Poverty Bay. Upon seeing an incongruous figure step out (heavily tattooed, dressed in cloak and feathers, and armed with a battle-axe) the captain exclaimed, "Here is a white New Zealander!" The figure (John Rutherford) corrected him: "I am not a New Zealander. I am an Englishman." Rutherford then proceeded to unfold the astonishing adventures which had befallen him.

Rutherford had arrived in New Zealand some ten years previously aboard the American brig Agnes. After an initial show of friendliness, the natives attacked the ship, slayed the captain and two of the crew, and took the others hostage. On being brought ashore, six of the captives fell immediately to the Māori ovens, while Rutherford and five others remained prisoners.

But as Rutherford's precarious situation evolved, he was able to befriend and eventually earn the respect and trust of his captors. Living among them, he adapted Māori customs and lifestyle, including having himself tattooed, and was even elevated to the rank of Chief, until his eventual escape a decade later.

On his return home, Rutherford produced quite a sensation. At a time when most Europeans knew nothing of New Zealand and had never even seen tattoos, he went on a touring exhibition--wowing crowds with his exotic body art and the wild story of his capture by "savage cannibals."

Just as Melville's excursion to the Marquesas earned him the moniker, "the man who lived among the cannibals," Rutherford became renown as "the white New Zealander." The stories of both men were met with skepticism. But Rutherford (unlike Melville) had allowed his face to be tattooed in the native fashion, and moreover he was illiterate. So the account of his experience--supplemented with "entertaining knowledge" about geography and anthropology--was preserved in writing by George Lillie Craik.

John Rutherford, The White Chief (1908) is an abridged version of The New Zealanders, primarily focusing on Rutherford's biography.

John Rutherford, The White Chief:

Patrick White is Australia's only recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. His literary style is characterized by a "complex spiritual, psychological and emotional experience" that gives "the continent of Australia an authentic voice that carries across the world."

In A Fringe of Leaves (1976), White presents the story of Ellen Roxburgh (née Gluyas), a poor 19th century Cornish girl who marries into wealth. The first half of the novel is a detailed recollection of her history: a rustic childhood, her transition to upper-class life, adjustment to marriage, and a journey with her husband to the Australian penal colonies.

But on the return trip, the ship wrecks off of the coast of (modern-day) Queensland: death and destruction reigns, and Ellen's meticulously constituted world is dashed upon the shores. Ellen is one of only two survivors: captured and abused by the Aboriginal natives, she is reduced to wearing a fringe of leaves which conceals her only remaining possession--her wedding ring.

The novel is based on the real-life Eliza Fraser (1798-1858), the bearer of a precarious legacy in Australian history. Fraser's allegations of abuse by the natives was disputed in her lifetime. Nevertheless, her story was used to justify the massacre and dispossession of the Aborigines and, since 1836, has been perpetrated in the island's given namesake (Fraser Island) until 2023 when it officially reverted to its traditional name (K'gari).

A Fringe of Leaves is a vision of the terrible ordeals of one woman, beset through almost every stratum of society, in her desperate reach for freedom and personal identity. But it is also a vision of the continent itself--the colonials, Aborigines, and convicts residing there--clashing over self-determination to shape a national identity, and the "fringe of leaves" that may be worn to protect it.

A Fringe of Leaves:

Patrick White is Australia's only recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. His literary style is characterized by a "complex spiritual, psychological and emotional experience" that gives "the continent of Australia an authentic voice that carries across the world."

In A Fringe of Leaves (1976), White presents the story of Ellen Roxburgh (née Gluyas), a poor 19th century Cornish girl who marries into wealth. The first half of the novel is a detailed recollection of her history: a rustic childhood, her transition to upper-class life, adjustment to marriage, and a journey with her husband to the Australian penal colonies.

But on the return trip, the ship wrecks off of the coast of (modern-day) Queensland: death and destruction reigns, and Ellen's meticulously constituted world is dashed upon the shores. Ellen is one of only two survivors: captured and abused by the Aboriginal natives, she is reduced to wearing a fringe of leaves which conceals her only remaining possession--her wedding ring.

The novel is based on the real-life Eliza Fraser (1798-1858), the bearer of a precarious legacy in Australian history. Fraser's allegations of abuse by the natives was disputed in her lifetime. Nevertheless, her story was used to justify the massacre and dispossession of the Aborigines and, since 1836, has been perpetrated in the island's given namesake (Fraser Island) until 2023 when it officially reverted to its traditional name (K'gari).

A Fringe of Leaves is a vision of the terrible ordeals of one woman, beset through almost every stratum of society, in her desperate reach for freedom and personal identity. But it is also a vision of the continent itself--the colonials, Aborigines, and convicts residing there--clashing over self-determination to shape a national identity, and the "fringe of leaves" that may be worn to protect it.

A Fringe of Leaves:

Patrick White is Australia's only recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. His literary style is characterized by a "complex spiritual, psychological and emotional experience" that gives "the continent of Australia an authentic voice that carries across the world."

In A Fringe of Leaves (1976), White presents the story of Ellen Roxburgh (née Gluyas), a poor 19th century Cornish girl who marries into wealth. The first half of the novel is a detailed recollection of her history: a rustic childhood, her transition to upper-class life, adjustment to marriage, and a journey with her husband to the Australian penal colonies.

But on the return trip, the ship wrecks off of the coast of (modern-day) Queensland: death and destruction reigns, and Ellen's meticulously constituted world is dashed upon the shores. Ellen is one of only two survivors: captured and abused by the Aboriginal natives, she is reduced to wearing a fringe of leaves which conceals her only remaining possession--her wedding ring.

The novel is based on the real-life Eliza Fraser (1798-1858), the bearer of a precarious legacy in Australian history. Fraser's allegations of abuse by the natives was disputed in her lifetime. Nevertheless, her story was used to justify the massacre and dispossession of the Aborigines and, since 1836, has been perpetrated in the island's given namesake (Fraser Island) until 2023 when it officially reverted to its traditional name (K'gari).

A Fringe of Leaves is a vision of the terrible ordeals of one woman, beset through almost every stratum of society, in her desperate reach for freedom and personal identity. But it is also a vision of the continent itself--the colonials, Aborigines, and convicts residing there--clashing over self-determination to shape a national identity, and the "fringe of leaves" that may be worn to protect it.

A Fringe of Leaves: