My Father’s Islands
An interesting story told by Abel Tasman’s daughter.
$15.00 plus postage
It is the 1640s and Claesgen lives in Batavia with her stepmother, Jannetje, waiting weeks, and sometimes months, for her father, Abel Tasman, to come back from his sea voyages. When he returns, Tasman delights his young daughter with tales of treacherous oceans and relentless wild weather, hazards of unseen coral reefs and endless days of empty ocean, encounters both friendly and hostile with indigenous peoples, murder and theft, and the threat of smugglers and pirates. Inspired by a 1637 painting of the Tasman family by Jacob Cuyp and meticulously researched, My Fathers Islands is a fictional story told through the voice of Claesgen. Tasman’s young daughters’ curiosity about her fathers life takes the reader on his voyage on the uncharted seas of the Pacific Ocean, in the search for unknown lands and new sources of riches for the powerful trading company, the Dutch East India Company.
My Father’s Islands opens up to children of all ages a significant, but little known, part of Australia’s history the European discovery of parts of the Unknown South Land by the heroic explorer and navigator, Abel Janszoon Tasman.
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Letters from Tasmania
Told by the daughter of a Dutch immigrant from letters written in the 1950’s.
NO LONGER IN PRINT – ALL SOLD OUT
After World War II, the Netherlands needed all hands on deck for its reconstruction. Shortages of food, housing, and everything else were such that the country had no option but to let its people go to the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.
Nine resistance fighters from Groningen agreed with their wives to migrate. Letters from Tasmania describes their fight for freedom, including the last days of war and follows the pioneers into their new country. The story tells of their heroism, their search for freedom, and their settlement in the southern hemisphere. In post-war Holland, immigrants could export few assets, but nothing stopped the group from bringing with them their cultural heritage, which has since become a recognisable part of Australia.
As a record of migration, the book provides a rare insight in what drove the settlers in their new world. The hero of the story is Eric van der Laan, a wartime leader and afterwards the leader of a group migration. The records he kept provide the core material for the book, which is supported by extensive research. The letters that Eric wrote from Tasmania to the members of the group who were still in Holland are witty and amusing and provide a fascinating window on post-war Australia.
The story, running between the cultural banks of history and memories, is a personal tale of immigrants and a well researched case study that provides an in-depth insight into immigration and integration, as well as some of the continuing secrets of WWII.
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