This book re-turns to the colonisation of New South Wales through
the lives of the author's ancestors. By looking hard and listening
carefully, by being prepared not to look away, and at the same
time, by delving with love into the specificity of those ancestral
lives, this research entangles the author, and the reader, in the
acts of colonisation that are taken for granted in their present
day lives. Through letters, journals, photos, portraits, newspaper
clippings and official records, the author re-turns to the
spacetimemattering of colonial lives. She finds the means to
re-think the scarifications of the present, of people and
landscapes. Bringing concepts from Deleuze and Barad, among others,
she re-thinks the way history might be done. "New Lives in an Old
Land is an extraordinary book of narrative scholarship in relation
to the great global colonisation of the world in the eighteenth
century. It traces the origins of the settler colonial
establishment of Australia through the major historic events of the
time, such as the Irish uprising, the American revolution and the
fierce wars for land and culture in Scotland, that led to extreme
poverty and displacement of large numbers of people. Through a
delicately narrated family history Bronwyn Davies teases out the
threads of complex networks of entanglement that produced the
numerous lives through which she interprets the coming of settlers
to the Australian colony. Not shying away from the horrendous
impact on the Aboriginal custodians who had cared for the land for
tens of thousands of years, or the brutal treatment of convicts on
whose labour the settlement was built, the book looks unstintingly
at the complex characters involved in this entanglement. In its
forward-looking possibilities, it is essential reading for all
Australians who struggle to comprehend the ethical, social and
environmental challenges of this land". Margaret Somerville,
Professor, Western Sydney University. "Bronwyn Davies' New Lives in
an Old Land has ambitious, glorious, scope. The book spans
centuries; it traces and re-traces its protagonists' arduous,
sometimes violent, journeys across the oceans; and it addresses the
micro- and macro-politics that infuse, shape, and are shaped by,
actions and actors. The book, however, is also a work of profound
intimacy, in which the author takes the reader into hers and her
ancestors' worlds, "re-imagin[ing] the vital specificity of their
lives". Compelling, provocative, and scholarly, Davies' book is
joyously impossible to categorise, a historico-literary-theoretical
portrayal of family, social and political life". Jonathan Wyatt,
Professor, University of Edinburgh. "New Lives in an Old Land is a
deep journey into the colonisation of New South Wales through the
lives of Bronwyn Davies' ancestors. Davies re-turns to historical
events that most Australians would be familiar with, events that
are re-animated in surprising ways in this book. Drawing on family
lore, personal documents, photographs and following every possible
trail of evidence, Davies moves beyond the silences and myths that
are passed down, to confront the realities of colonisation and the
part her forebears played in it. This book reveals the webs of
connection across generations, unexpected continuities across time,
even where people made strenuous efforts to make breaks. The people
in this book come to life in ways that evoke compassion and
empathy, refusing the judgement that slips so easily into
historical work. Recognising the threads that bind past and
present, Davies shows how we risk becoming ignorant of ourselves,
and of what is to come when we forget our ancestors, the lives they
lived and the passions that drove them. This book weaves a gripping
and deeply moving account of migration, generation, of love and
power, of aspiration and struggle, of 'what it was to be' her
ancestors, each in the context of their time and place as they
built new lives in this old land". Johanna Wyn, Redmond Barry
Distinguished Emeritus Professor, The University of Melbourne. "New
Lives in an Old Land is a gift to readers. There are astonishing
insights about ancestors whose lives are intertwined with people
today. But, more than this, Bronwyn Davies has used the much-lauded
writing skills she has developed over a lifetime to create a
ground-breaking shift in the way history can be written. These
subtle and audacious moves offer new ways to grapple with old
contradictions within Australian history. While writing this book,
Bronwyn discovered that her family emerged from a tangled romantic
conjunction of convicts exiled to 'terra nullius' and affluent
entrepreneurs from England, Wales, Denmark and beyond. These people
of different social origins, who might never have met in their
countries of origin, were thrown together in this land that claimed
to be 'new' while failing to acknowledge the ubiquitous presence of
the indigenous peoples already in place. The book brings these
ancestors to life with their own words (evidence that writing
talent goes back a long way in this family) supplemented by a
haunting archive of photographs. These diverse stories give the
reader poignant insights into the doubts and angst early colonists
experienced as they carried out sometimes horrendous acts of
appropriation and even murder, acts that had direct resonance with
earlier experiences in countries such as Ireland. This alternative
history rattles the comfort of long-held cliches about the founding
and flowering of European life in this 'great southern land'. These
ancestors often knew what they were doing and, as we come to grips
with this insight, we have to wonder how our descendants will view
us". Lise Claiborne, Professor at Waikato University, New Zealand.
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