A Post about Ethel Turner!
Jun. 9th, 2012 07:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
emma_in_dreamI have just been reading Clare Bradford's *Reading Race: Aboriginality in Australian Children's Literature* (2001) and I have got a whole lot of helpful recommendations for future reading.
I have also learned some new things about Ethel Turner and Mary Grant Bruce, including... the fact that there are parts of *Seven Little Australians* (1894) which I have apparently never read.
In the 1894 version, as they went out on their picnic Mr Gillett retells a story told to him by Tettawonga, the Aboriginal retainer. The story is excised from 1900 - I have never read it! Possibly it was removed to make space for the additional pages of advertising included in later versions or perhaps the tale was not in line with Turner’s argument that Australian children are living in a land without a history.
Here is how it started:
‘Once upon a time’ (Judy sniffed at the old-fashioned beginning), ‘once upon a time,’ said Mr Gillet, ‘when this young land was still younger, and incomparably more beautiful, when Tettawonga’s ancestors were brave and strong and happy as careless children, when their worst nightmare had never shown them so evil a time as the white man would bring their race, when -’
‘Oh, get on,’ muttered Pip impatiently.
‘Well,’ said Mr Gillet, ‘when, in short, an early Golden Age wrapped the land in its sunshine, a young kukuburra and its mate spread their wings and set off towards the purple mountains beyond the gum trees....’
Now I totally want a copy of the 1894 edition!
I have also learned some new things about Ethel Turner and Mary Grant Bruce, including... the fact that there are parts of *Seven Little Australians* (1894) which I have apparently never read.
In the 1894 version, as they went out on their picnic Mr Gillett retells a story told to him by Tettawonga, the Aboriginal retainer. The story is excised from 1900 - I have never read it! Possibly it was removed to make space for the additional pages of advertising included in later versions or perhaps the tale was not in line with Turner’s argument that Australian children are living in a land without a history.
Here is how it started:
‘Once upon a time’ (Judy sniffed at the old-fashioned beginning), ‘once upon a time,’ said Mr Gillet, ‘when this young land was still younger, and incomparably more beautiful, when Tettawonga’s ancestors were brave and strong and happy as careless children, when their worst nightmare had never shown them so evil a time as the white man would bring their race, when -’
‘Oh, get on,’ muttered Pip impatiently.
‘Well,’ said Mr Gillet, ‘when, in short, an early Golden Age wrapped the land in its sunshine, a young kukuburra and its mate spread their wings and set off towards the purple mountains beyond the gum trees....’
Now I totally want a copy of the 1894 edition!
