The Blue-eyed Aborigine

Rosemary Hayes (author)

Frances Lincoln Children's Books, UK: 2010

ISBN: 9781847800787

Genres: adventure, historical fiction

Issues: crime, ethics, cultural differences

Jan is a cabin boy, only 18 years old, who had hopes that a life at sea would take him away from the poverty of his Dutch home. Instead he finds himself caught between the demands and threats of powerful men. Caught up by the charisma and conviction of a strong leader who seems a better option than the heavy-drinking, immoral captain, Jan is too easily led and soon finds himself involved in things that sicken his soul. Can he ever recover his innocence? Can he ever repay those he has harmed?

In 1629, the Dutch ship Batavia  was on her way to trade precious items for the highly-valued spices of Java. Hints of mutiny were already in the air when the ship hit a reef off the South Land, stranding the crew and passengers on three very bleak small islands. Rosemary Hayes has recreated the central characters and events that followed in The Blue-eyed Aborigine. Two of the mutineers were marooned on the South Land - a reprieve from hanging - and the majority of the novel focuses on how they might have survived. There is only a brief historical record of this period - the remains of a journal - but Hayes joins the dots between that and the fact that anthropologists have discovered evidence that some WA aboriginal tribes carry West European blood.

Readers should be aware that there are distressing episodes of brutal violence including murder and implied rape. These are not gratuitous but rather an expression of the events that occurred. The Blue-Eyed Aborigine would be an interesting text to integrate with Australian history studies with older readers. Hayes' novel reminds us that while our ‘official' history began in 1770, our country was occupied for centuries before then and other white men had visited much earlier. A thought-provoking read.

Warning: some scenes will disturb sensitive readers