Cover -- Author biography -- Also by Larissa Behrendt -- Title page -- Dedication -- Epigraph -- Contents -- 1 Once Upon a Time -- 2 The White Woman Captured by Cannibals -- 3 Methods and Motives -- 4 The Other Side of the Story -- 5 Fictionalising Aboriginal Women -- 6 Cannibalism: Dark Acts on the Frontier -- 7 Imagining Noble Savages -- 8 Telling Stories about Colonisation -- 9 Happily Ever After -- Acknowledgements -- References -- Imprint page
Summary
"Aboriginal lawyer, writer and filmmaker Larissa Behrendt has long been fascinated by the story of Eliza Fraser, who was purportedly captured by the local Butchulla people after she was shipwrecked on their island off the Queensland coast in 1836. In this deeply personal book, Behrendt uses Eliza's tale as a starting point to interrogate how Aboriginal people -- and indigenous people of other countries -- have been portrayed in their colonisers' stories. Exploring works as diverse as Robinson Crusoe and Coonardoo, Behrendt looks at the ideas embedded in these accounts, including the assumption of cannibalism and the myth of the noble savage. Ultimately, Finding Eliza shows how these stories not only reflect the values of their storytellers but also reinforce those values -- and how, in Australia, this has contributed to a complex racial divide."--Back cover
Analysis
Australian
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 204-211)
