Living with the Locals

Book excerpt: Living with the Locals comprises the stories of 13 white people who were taken in by Indigenous communities of the Torres Strait islands and eastern Australia between the 1790s and the 1870s, for periods from a few months to over 30 years. The shipwreck survivors, convicts and ex-convicts survived only through the Indigenous people's generosity. They assimilated to varying degrees into an Indigenous way of life and, for the most part, both parties mourned the white people's return to European life. The authors bring fresh insight to the stories and re-evaluate the encounters between Indigenous people and the white people who became part of their families.