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The Lamb Enters the Dreaming: Nathanael Pepper & the Ruptured World
Written in a distinctively Australian voice, this remarkable account explores the conversion of a Wotjubaluk Aboriginal youth to Christianity in 1860. Through Nathanael Pepper’s conversion, this record conducts a major reappraisal of the nature of Aboriginal and European relations in the first decades of contact in southern Australia. A unique and beautifully written blend of popular history, spirituality, culture, and personal quest, this history examines various aspects of the event, including the ritual slaughter of settlers’ stock, the choice of Pepper’s baptismal name, the settlers’ punitive and murderous raids, and the Moravian Church’s celebration of Pepper’s conversion.
352 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 12, 2012
This is a beautiful book that weaves from the first Aboriginal conversion through the context at the time, to show the disastrous and yet enduring legacy of the missions upon the lives of those who lived there. The uselessness of the European missionaries, and the intelligence of the first nations in understanding the subtext behind their message is astoundingly poignant, and shows the depth of the cultural clash. This also has a lot of largely unshared Australian indigenous history, which is always a good thing. It's probably not a basic text for learning about indigenous history, but it's a real story, and real stories are something that all Australians should at some point engage.
February 19, 2009
Review by Chris Hawkins
READ MORE AT:
http://www.tear.org.au/education/revi...
The baptism of Nathanael Pepper in August 1860 attracted Melbourne's attention. Author Robert Kenny circles the event asking questions of it, looking for answers. He is puzzled by the popular reaction, especially that of the leading Melbourne daily, The Argus, which devoted much space to an account of the baptism.
Nathanael was a Wotjobaluk man, an aboriginal of the Horsham area in which the Moravians had established a mission, and Nathanael was the first fruits of their work. Australia was a disappointing mission field. Converts were likely to be servants of white settlers or orphaned children adopted by them. Nathanael stood out like a beacon of promise on the evangelical horizon.
The uproar over his conversion was not because of concern about the future of his culture, but because it challenged the prevailing belief that aboriginals were dying out, unable to be civilised and doomed to extinction. Here stood Nathanael – literate, living in a permanent hut and evangelising his own.
In the end, Nathanael's faith proved more robust than his health. He died a premature death of TB in Ramahyuck, East Gippsland.
Kenny is not a believer, but is intrigued by "the efficacy of faith" in the history of social movements. He paints in the backdrop to Pepper's extraordinary faith and the reaction it fostered in Victoria. In doing so, he reveals much about the way Christian conversion stands against the tides of history, as much today as it did then. Kenny begins by asking questions of Pepper.In the end, Pepper's conversion asks questions of him.
READ MORE AT:
http://www.tear.org.au/education/revi...
The baptism of Nathanael Pepper in August 1860 attracted Melbourne's attention. Author Robert Kenny circles the event asking questions of it, looking for answers. He is puzzled by the popular reaction, especially that of the leading Melbourne daily, The Argus, which devoted much space to an account of the baptism.
Nathanael was a Wotjobaluk man, an aboriginal of the Horsham area in which the Moravians had established a mission, and Nathanael was the first fruits of their work. Australia was a disappointing mission field. Converts were likely to be servants of white settlers or orphaned children adopted by them. Nathanael stood out like a beacon of promise on the evangelical horizon.
The uproar over his conversion was not because of concern about the future of his culture, but because it challenged the prevailing belief that aboriginals were dying out, unable to be civilised and doomed to extinction. Here stood Nathanael – literate, living in a permanent hut and evangelising his own.
In the end, Nathanael's faith proved more robust than his health. He died a premature death of TB in Ramahyuck, East Gippsland.
Kenny is not a believer, but is intrigued by "the efficacy of faith" in the history of social movements. He paints in the backdrop to Pepper's extraordinary faith and the reaction it fostered in Victoria. In doing so, he reveals much about the way Christian conversion stands against the tides of history, as much today as it did then. Kenny begins by asking questions of Pepper.In the end, Pepper's conversion asks questions of him.
December 24, 2018
Just finished this brilliant book that I was reading any spare chance I got.
It looks at Aboriginal people and Christianity during settlement. Kenny tells two stories: That of the Ebeneza mission in the Wimmera and the first tribal Aboriginal to be baptized in Victoria (Nathaniel Pepper) and the broader interpretation of Christianity within the spiritual beliefs of Dreamtime by Aboriginal people. Where this is particularly fascinating, is Aboriginal people believing in totenism: symbolic spirit animals. When the missionairies preached of the lamb of God and Jesus as the good shepherd, sheep were peceieved then as sacred and symbolic. You can imagine the confusion when they saw settlers slaughtering and eating 'the lamb'. Even more confusing, was the good shepherd who they were told was their saviour: The white bearded pastoralists they saw walking amongst the sheep were often brutally violent and were taking over their land. The spirit animal of the sheep were destructive in compacted the moist soil. In turn, Aboriginals then began attacking the white mans spirit animal: The sheep. The missionairies were opposed to such violence towards Aboriginals, believing all humans to be of 'one blood' under God. An interesting lens on an important aspect of Australian history.
It looks at Aboriginal people and Christianity during settlement. Kenny tells two stories: That of the Ebeneza mission in the Wimmera and the first tribal Aboriginal to be baptized in Victoria (Nathaniel Pepper) and the broader interpretation of Christianity within the spiritual beliefs of Dreamtime by Aboriginal people. Where this is particularly fascinating, is Aboriginal people believing in totenism: symbolic spirit animals. When the missionairies preached of the lamb of God and Jesus as the good shepherd, sheep were peceieved then as sacred and symbolic. You can imagine the confusion when they saw settlers slaughtering and eating 'the lamb'. Even more confusing, was the good shepherd who they were told was their saviour: The white bearded pastoralists they saw walking amongst the sheep were often brutally violent and were taking over their land. The spirit animal of the sheep were destructive in compacted the moist soil. In turn, Aboriginals then began attacking the white mans spirit animal: The sheep. The missionairies were opposed to such violence towards Aboriginals, believing all humans to be of 'one blood' under God. An interesting lens on an important aspect of Australian history.
January 7, 2021
I'm assigning this one for a grad seminar as the "postcolonial" history slot. It's a complicated book and I'm not sure how the students are going to do with it, bur it is an interesting exploration of the encounter among Aboriginal people in the Wimmera, Christian Missionaries, and the author.
October 4, 2020
An unusual work that I was enticed to read by what proved to be the fairly unrepresentative, wonderfully evocative text of the opening pages. Although the authorn does return to this quality of writing where he depicts landscape, much of the book is a fairly dense plod through minutae of theology, religious history, and it's bearing on evangelical attitudes towards Aboriginal peoples. The structure of the work is hard to follow at times. Roughly chronological, it nevertheless winds in and out of Australian history, Anthropological debates and the interface between religion and science.
I have to deduct a mark for a major unwitting or perhaps intentional inaccuracy. The author states early on (p5) that there is only one Nathanael in scripture, and infers from this why Nathanael Pepper chose his name, and how he would inevitably have been regarded as a result. This is easily established as incorrect. There are 11 Nathaniels in scripture. 10 in the Old Testament and one in the New.
I have to deduct a mark for a major unwitting or perhaps intentional inaccuracy. The author states early on (p5) that there is only one Nathanael in scripture, and infers from this why Nathanael Pepper chose his name, and how he would inevitably have been regarded as a result. This is easily established as incorrect. There are 11 Nathaniels in scripture. 10 in the Old Testament and one in the New.
April 18, 2022
Kenny's focus on what actually happened to Nathanael Pepper and in his world is both well-told and a strong defence of the good in history. Kenny made an argument about culture without mentioning it until the end of the book when his point was staring you in the face. Superb book.
June 18, 2021
Outstanding, wonderfully written, engaging, elegant, thorough.
May 7, 2015
an insightful book on the many challenges of intercultural and interreligious dialogue
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews