Welcome to The Red Earth diaries

I won‘t bore you with the details, but this paragraph will lead to the first encounter by a white person with the whole Djarni tribe. I have many purposes for this, but one of them will be to describe how European diseases decimated Indigenous populations.

An example of ‘pantsing‘ the story, is that my first intention was to have one of the monks carry, unbeknownst, smallpox into the camp. A little research revealed that this would be a medical impossibility. Tuberculous could, however, have found it’s way there. One in four Indigenous people died of TB. It’s another sad chapter in the history of European expansionism in Australia. 

In a story that deals with European colonialism and its impact on Indigenous Australians, I have to address racism (quite a bit). And I don’t give the Church a free pass. Christian attitudes (the good, bad and the ugly) are expressed through the words and actions of Brisbane’s Bishop and the small company of Benedictine Monks who venture out into the central desert. In one chapter, I introduce the original name of Queensland’s capital (Meanjin) and break down the etymology of it’s new name (‘Brisbane’; as in Sir Thomas Brisbane).  ‘Bris’ has Scottish Gaelic origins and means ’to break or smash’. ‘Ban’ is the Old English word for ’bone’. Ironically, the capital’s name is Bone-Breaker, and, tragically, many of its original inhabitants and cultures were smashed by the white colonisers. 

Matthias is the founding Abbot of a Benedictine monastery in central Australia. I’ve chosen the location because it’s not sheep grazing country. Indigenous tribes faired a little better where there wasn’t pastureland involved. The image is in a nook on my writing table and the monk-figure reminds me of Matthias; a gentle soul who finds himself in a brutal scenario. The framed quote is from an old John Bunyan book. (The Holy War, I think it was called.) It’s a pretty cool description of the creative writing process.  

It’s a long story. Literally. But we pick up the tale in the working draft of Book 2. 

The language is intended to convey the formal speech of the 1800s (as least in educated circles). I’ll need to write a catchier opening, but that’ll probably come as the story develops. 

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There will be monks, too. Benedictine ones. I’ve been fascinated by Christian monasticism since the year 2000, when I visited Egypt and stopped by Coptic churches and monasteries. Monks are strange and wonderful people. They often work and pray in silence (or Silencio). Writers do much the same. But I’m more of an unofficial writer really. A hack. But I do have a story to tell…

But I’ll have a crack at it, anyway :) The Red Earth Trilogy is an ancient-future Series. In the first book, which is now in the editing phase, there are scenes from the 1880s and the 2060s. I got this idea from a book called The Eight, by Katherine Neville. It remains a favourite.