MCMLS Mitchell Fiction Book Club discussion
The Exiles
>
Mathinna
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Retta
(new)
Jul 02, 2021 12:48PM
Trevor I was compelled by the first chapter of The Exiles to separate the fictional history vs. non fiction historical information about Mathinna, her parents: Towterer /Dad, Wanganip/Mom and stepfather, Palle, had been displaced to Flinders Island. The part that truly was the deception of what the British had promised the remaining Palawa aboriginal families that they were remain together and have their freedom on Flinders Island was quite accurate by written in The Exiles. Cristina Kline known for her indepth research on Mathinna and Lady Franklin and Sir John Franklin in which she created a strong visual and graphic portrayal fused with the emotional dialogue Mathinna was subjected too. Mathinna was their human experiment of cultural and cognitive enhancements of an aboriginal girl who was a discarded object of interest when she danced to her own spiritual music at the ball. The real story of Mathinna is quite sad since she had been groomed into a cultural misfit and rejected by her Palawa people and the Europeans throughout her life. Thomas Bock the painter captured Mathinna expression of distant melancholy in the painting.
reply
|
flag
Mathinna's story was sad. She must have had a big hole in her heart. Her's was definitely not a Cinderella story.
Trev, thank you for sending the link. I wanted Mathinna to go with Hazel and Ruby to live with Dr. Dunne and was almost angry that she didn’t. I so wanted her to be okay. After reading about her online and finding she was a real person and died at age 17 ( I may be a little off on the age), I felt so, so sad for her and what she went through. The book may have been a little slow in parts for some, but when it gets me so emotionally involved, to me that is very good writing.
Thank you for the link. I'm glad the author didn't continue down the true story path. Like Lorraine, I wanted Mathinna to learn from Dr. Dunne and become an accomplished professional one day. She was certainly smart enough to do that.
As I said elsewhere, this was the most heartbreaking for me, that Mathinna wound up between worlds, the old one having having been decimated and the new one unaccepting, thus belonging nowhere, with no place to inhabit.
The links were a great addition to reading The Exiles, thank you Trev. Seeing the portrait of Matthina in the red dress was distressingly sad. I felt the handling of Matthina's story was an excellent way of reminding us that while this is fiction, it is based on extraordinarily tragic realities in history.
Somehow I missed the links. Are they on the Goodreads page? Emily
Go to the top of this stream, Emily. The link is at the end of Trev’s initial posting.
Thank you MIchelle! Glad to see you are still on top of things!
