Concluding Thoughts

In conclusion, I would argue that one could not say if Grenville’s novel was helpful or harmful to the narrative of settler colonialism in Australia. On the one hand, it was certainly a relevant political topic at the time and there were lots of people who believed a myth about colonists “taking up the land” as opposed to taking it violently from people it already belonged to. It is very possible that Grenville’s novel did what it was supposed to do and through empathy and storytelling she was able to start dialogues and inspire change on the status quo. However, her novel was presented as a “real story” which poses issues by definition. She makes the book seem like history, but rather it is her imagination of what people could have been like and how they could have interacted then. In this sense it does spread misinformation about the colonization of Australia. Although one might not see this as harmful, she does have racist and dehumanizing depictions of the Aboriginal people, and she never includes an aboriginal voice or perspective which further pushes the myth of the native people being less-than. It would be incredibly difficult to say definitively if this piece of media was helpful or harmful, and it is very likely both. Instead I think that I’ve learned it is important to really analyze stories such as this, understanding their context, author, and purpose in order to understand a more holistic view of the media and its conception and effects.