The LC Salon and State Library NSW

Presents

Pelletier: The Forgotten Castaway of Cape York

Stephanie Anderson in Conversation with Caroline Baum

Date: Wednesday 15 September 2010  time: 7pm -9 pm

State Library NSW – the Dixson Room, Mitchell Building

Main entrance corner Macquarie Street and Hospital Road Sydney

Stephanie Anderson’s recent book, Pelletier: The Forgotten Castaway of Cape York tells the story of French cabin boy, Narcisse Pelletier and his life with the Uutaalnganu Aboriginal people of north east Cape York from 1858 to 1875.  Abandoned after his ship was wrecked, Narcisse was rescued by an Aboriginal family and remained with them as a member of their clan for 17 years until he was repatriated to France against his will.

Stephanie Anderson came across this story by chance in an old anthropological journal. She found that Pelletier had left an account of his story, first published in France in 1876 but never translated. Now for the first time this remarkable story is available in English.

Stephanie Anderson speaks with Caroline Baum in what promises to be a fabulous evening exploring a tale of human survival and an enthralling ethnographic record of a colonial French and First Australian encounter.

Out of the Vaults :  Curator of the NSW State Library’s French collection, Margot Riley will also present exclusively for this Salon original materials from the library’s vault showing the unique interactions between early French explorers and Australian Aborigines.

Our Speakers

Stephanie Anderson: is an author and researcher with an academic background in anthropology and French. She completed her BA, and MA in French on the author Marguerite Duras and undertook her PhD on the author Michel Leiris, all at the ANU where she also worked as a tutor and lecturer. She discovered the story of Narcisse Pelletier, first through research into the French voyages to Australia as they focused on their encounters with Aboriginal people and then through further research into how such reports became incorporated into the new science of physical anthropology in France in the 19^th century. A report by the French Consul in Sydney in 1875 on Pelletier’s recovery which appeared in 1880 in the Bulletin de la Société d’Anthropologie de Paris first alerted her to this fascinating story. Now as an independent researcher Stephanie continues translating French anthropological materials and exploring French-Australian connections.

Caroline Baum:  is a respected journalist, broadcaster and founding editor of the “Good Reading” magazine. She was educated at the Lycee Charles de Gaulle in London and since coming to Australia has interviewed French artists including Sylvie Guillem, Juliette Binoche, Isabelle Huppert and Ariane Mnouchkine and writers Alain Robbe-Grillet and  Andrei Makine.  Her interest in the way the French  embraced  forgotten Aussie crime writer Arthur Upfield led her to writing and co-producing a documentary on him for SBS.  She is a regular contributor to national magazines and newspapers.

Please book early as numbers strictly limited. Cost of $20 including supper. Reserve your place on boland.k@bigpond.net.au . Limited copies of Stephanie’s book and the original French version are also available for purchase.

   • Download a flyer about Pelletier's story (pdf/bilingual)

   • Download a printable version of this document (pdf/bilingual)

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