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‘But who asked the headhunters?’: Testing the veracity of historical fiction
Conference presentation

‘But who asked the headhunters?’: Testing the veracity of historical fiction

Gary Crew
2011 University Research Conference Program Book, p.13
USC Research Conference, 2011 (Sunshine Coast, Australia, 18-Jul-2011–22-Jul-2011)
University of the Sunshine Coast
2011
url
http://www.usc.edu.au/View
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Abstract

Performing Arts and Creative Writing historical fiction
The wreck of the Charles Eaton on the Barrier Reef in 1834 is one of Australia's greatest maritime disasters. 32 persons lost their lives, but not to the sea: the majority were decapitated by 'headhunters' on Boydong Island off the tip of Cape York (Goodman 2005, p7). Four boys were spared and adopted into Torres Strait Islander families: John Sexton and John Ireland (both cabin boys), and George D'Oyley and William D'Oyley (aged respectively between 7-8, and 2-3 years), the children of the deceased Captain D'Oyley and his wife, Charlotte. Although Sexton and George D'Oyley were later killed, both William D'Oyley and John Ireland survived, Ireland eventually returning to England to tell his tale to The Times (31 August, 1837, 6). In 1940, Ion Idriess published Headhunters of the Coral Sea, his version of the fate of the Charles Eaton castaways, claiming to know what happened 'in its entirety, in detail' (Idriess 1941, vi), the 'greater part coming from the islanders themselves' (Idriess 1941, pvii), and that 'every incident written… is strictly true' (Idriess 1941, p26). Creative Writing methodologies exploring the relationship between fi ctional craft and historical research investigates the limits of such statements. This research concludes that Idriess' work is both inaccurate and racist. Signifi cantly, the ensuing popularity of Idriess' work and his depiction of Indigenous Australians as 'cunning animalistic savages', raises vital issues regarding the need to expose the 'damaging impact of his work' (Shoemaker 1989, p56-57). As 'stories become the method colonized people use to assert their own identity and the existence of their history' (Said 1994, pxiii), this paper investigates the limits of Idriess' 'strictly truthful' account of the wreck of the Charles Eaton.

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