Isles of Despair

Idriess points out in his author's note that this fictionalisation is based on facts, and on his detailed knowledge of the Torres Strait Island people and culture. The things he describes are all possible or likely occurrences based on the fairly minimal facts known about Barbara Thompson.
In 1844 or thereabouts, Barbara Thompson, a young Scottish woman who had emigrated to Sydney with her parents was on the cutter America with her husband and a small crew of 5 when they struck a reef in the Torres Strait and were wrecked on Murralug (Prince of Wales Island). Other than her husband and the mate, the men were lost overboard. These two perished trying to swim ashore, Barbara was left alone in the wreckage of the ship on the reef.

The following morning natives in canoes boarded the ship, stripped it of any worth and took her ashore. Instead of her death, she was ‘recognised' by the chief as his daughter who had drowned several years before, as a spirit returned to live with them. A ‘lamar' is the term they used for all white visitors from the spirit world, and during their time there they lose their memories of people, places and all they have learned of their way of life.

Thompson spent over five years with the Torres Strait Islanders, as daughter of the main chief of the island group, married to a minor chief on an adjacent island. In 1850 she made herself known to the HMS Rattlesnake, one of four ships active in and around Cape York and the Torres Strait carrying our survey work and awaiting contact from the ill-fated Kennedy Expedition. Having been fully embedded in native life, it took he several days to recover sufficient language to fully communicate her situation, during which time the tribe regularly visited pleading with her to return to live with them.

Idriess has taken the sparse facts above and woven in Thompson's learning how life in the Torres Strait Islands differs from European life. A culture with witch doctors, ancestor spirits, astronomical guidance, a brutal and physical way of life, headhunting, taboos and totems, clans and a complex relationship where trade or war are the options between different clans.

Featuring only fairly briefly, crossing paths with Barbara Thompson is Wongai, an infamous lamar who has become chief of the island of Badu. Wongai is a European who was shipwrecked, or jumped ship and through his own brutality and clever ruthlessness became first a local chief then chief of the whole island and is attempting to establish a reign across the Torres Straits Islands in their entirely. Idriess mentions that he plans a further book on this story (which he does - The Wild White Man of Badu.

Like most of Idriess' books, this was an easy, quick and entertaining read. He draws the reader into the story, in this case showing ultimate sympathy for Barbara Thomson and the situation she is in. He emphasises how lucky she was to have survived - it took a major chief to adopt her as a daughter and another chief to take her as wife in order to protect her from other tribe members; it look her to learn the language and a great deal of information to stay alive in what is a dangerous place to live.

I find Idriess' books on the Aboriginals, Torres Strait Islanders and the Papuans of New Guinea fascinating, and there is no doubt he is very knowledgable about their culture and lore.

4 stars