#BookReview ‘Paris Savages’ by Katherine Johnson

About the book….

Fraser Island, 1882. The population of the Badtjala people is in sharp decline following a run of brutal massacres. When German scientist Louis Muller offers to sail three Badtjala people – Bonny, Jurano and Dorondera – to Europe to perform to huge crowds, the proud and headstrong Bonny agrees, hoping to bring his people’s plight to the Queen of England. Accompanied by Muller’s bright, grieving daughter, Hilda, the group begins their journey to belle-epoque Europe to perform in Hamburg, Berlin, Paris and eventually London. While crowds in Europe are enthusiastic to see the unique dances, singing, fights and pole climbing from the oldest culture in the world, the attention is relentless, and the fascination of scientists intrusive. When disaster strikes, Bonny must find a way to return home.

My grateful thanks to the awesome team at Allison and Busby for sending me this beautiful review copy of ‘Paris Savages‘, a imagined tale based on real people who were, with the best of intentions, taken from their homeland to a ‘civilized’ ,nineteenth century Europe.

Framed against a historical, well researched background, Katherine brings to vivid life the contrast between the so-called uneducated, heathen Badjtala people and the ‘enlightened’ West. Told through the eyes of Hilda and Louis, this avoids approximating the own voices of Bonny, Dorondera and Jurano. It amplifies their plight by making the narrators listeners and witnesses to the journey, rather than diminishing them as walk on parts of their life stories.

The second narrator, is more a spirit in the form of a ghost who centres Bonny’s story, thereby not robbing him of his tale but accentuating it against the beliefs of the Badjtala’s whose gods and ghosts are talked about from the very beginning.

It also serves to act as a device to distance Bonny from his suffering in a way that affords him a dignity that those wishing to examine him and his companions as exhibits in a human zoo, would rob him of. The 3 Austrelnegers aim to travel across Europe, aiming to meet the Queen in London and subsequently implore her to stop the dwindling Badjtala population, decimated, as it was , by governement inteference in the form of poisoned flour and ‘dispersal’ bullets.

In order to gain passage to London, they have to parade their ethnicity at human zoos and exhibitions. This leads to heart rending scenes where their ‘savage’ natures are played to the audience and they have to compromise their nature in order to make money.

As the troop hit Germany, they are immediately wrong footed. The ‘anthropzoologist’ who paid their passge has them change out of modern clothing and back into native gear for authenticity’s sake.

And with regards to authenticity, they are made to be exhibited in front of scientists who insist on measuring their entire bodiees in front of an audience.

Hilda’s horror is ours, at their first show she ends up seperated from her friends and ends up in the audience, hearing comments from the crowd about Bonny, Dondodera and Jurano that make her, and us , well up with tears.

Indignity follows indignity, and horror after horror as the travellers find out the fates of other native people such as Eskimos and Nubian travellers whose fates were decided the minute they left their home lands. Bonny brings his world with him, to keep him protected and strong, he sees himself as an ambassador of his laws and gods, driven by his purpose to bring hope to his people.

And in return they discover that even their bodies are not theirs-as Hilda explores museums and sideshows which display casts and bones of people who were not consented to leave their remains. And here in lies the soul destroying truth that they will never go back to their homelands,in any form. Their heritage is dissected as their bodies are, and despite the absolute outrage that the modern reader would feel, there is the rising swell of acknowledgement that religion, society and science saw anyone non white and non seular as on  the same level as animals.

In their insatiable curiousity to remind themselves that they are higher up the food chain, they take these people away, they sell and exploit them for personal and academic gain. And instead of listening and learning, they are reduced to parts of lists, suffer humiliating indignities, and as you read, there is wave after wave of sorrow, anger and defeat at all these missed opportunities for education.

Failing as an engineer after the bridge he made collapsed, Louis is attempting to build another bridge between cultures. But as he does so, despite having great motives, it cannot be said to be truly altruistic in intent. The death of his wife from illness has left him fearful for the future of his daughter, she is becoming too close to the Badjtala people and taken on so many of their habits in the 6 years they have been on Fraser’s Island. His return to Hamburg would re-establish his reputation, support Bonny’s attempts to get recognition of hus people’s plight as well as getting Hilda to be a more acceptable member of society.

Thoroughly recommended, I would encourage anyone thinking of buying this to also check out the incredible, ‘The Imaginary Lives Of James Poneke’  by Tina Makereti which is available now from Eye and Lightning Books

About the author…

Katherine Johnson is the author of three novels: Pescador’s Wake (Fourth Estate 2009), The Better Son (Ventura Press 2016), and Matryoshka (Ventura Press 2018). Her fourth novel, Paris Savages (Ventura Press 2019), was shortlisted in the ABIA Awards 2020 and will be published in the UK by Allison and Busby (July 2020). Katherine, born in Brisbane, Queensland, now lives in Tasmania where she has worked as a science journalist and lives on a clifftop at the edge of the bush with her husband and two children. Her non-fiction articles have been published internationally.

‘Pescador’s Wake’ won a HarperCollins Varuna Award for Manuscript Development in 2007.

‘The Better Son’ tells the story of a family yearning for love but layered with secrets, and the price of a lie. Set in northern Tasmania’s cave country, The Better Son has been described by readers described as ‘unputdownable’. It won the University of Tasmania Prize in 2013 (Tasmanian Literary Awards), the People’s Choice Award (Tasmanian Literary Awards 2013), as well as a HarperCollins Varuna Award for Manuscript Development in 2013. The Better Son was Longlisted for the Australian Indie Book Awards and The Tasmania Book Prize (Premier’s Literary Awards).

‘Matryoshka’ is set against the beautiful backdrop of Tasmania and tells the story of secrets, refuge, and loves lost and found.

Katherine Johnson has a Bachelor of Arts (Journalism), an honours degree in marine science and recently completed a PhD in creative writing at the University of Tasmania.

Links-https://www.katherinejohnsonauthor.com/