Edenglassie is a word that was once bandied about as an alternative name for Brisbane, the setting of Melissa Lucashenko's latest book. The name Brisbane originates from Anglo-French words meaning smashed bones.
The plot of Edenglassie weaves the history of early settlement in the 1800's through to the present day. Lucashenko paints a world in flux, with complex relationships between black and white.
The point of the book is to say that everything that's historically been taught and told about Blackfellas here in this country is so wrong.Melissa Lucashenko
Edenglassie opens with an Indigenous Pullen Pullen, a meeting of First Nations countries from across the continent for diplomatic negotiation, friendly combat, feasts and marriages. Leaders are deciding what to do about the pale new arrivals flooding in on strange boats.
Lucashenko says she wanted to challenge the idea that dispossession and violence were an inevitable part of English settlement.
Possibilities for different futures existed as they still exist today. It didn't have to be that way. And because there are different possibilities back then, there's also different possibilities today. There is always more than one path forward.Melissa Lucashenko
We meet Mulanyin, an ambitious and restless teenager, who falls in love with Nita. Together they negotiate how to maintain their freedom and keep their culture alive in an environment that's being ravaged.
Edenglassie is Lucashenko at her best. There's a feisty female lead, romance, suspense, wit and intrigue. It's an ambitious novel that is beautiful, boisterous, and deeply moving - a lens on Australia's past that inspires you to think about how we might shape a more equitable future.
Hear a conversation with Melissa Lucashenko in this episode of the SBS Book Club. Listen above or find the series the SBS Audio app, LiSTNR, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Executive producer and host - Sarah Malik
Sound engineer - Micky Grossman
