A Terribly Wild Man

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Race, sex, religion, human frailty, noble intentions and grand failures - such were the ingredients in the pioneering life of Rev. Ernest Gribble. Dr Christine Halse knows this life well, having researched and interviewed extensively to uncover the Gribble tale. This is the story of that "terribly wild man", hailed as the Anglican church's first "successful" missionary to the Aborigines, and his descent into disgrace. The son of a famous missionary whom he was determined to surpass, Ernest Gribble was a driven, quixotic priest who became Australia's most famous - and infamous - humanitarian. His passage through life encompassed extreme authoritarianism, adultery, violent struggles against police and white settlers, the abduction of Aboriginal children (he instigated the "Stolen Generations"), a police massacre of Aboriginals that put Australia in the international spotlight, a successful campaign for a Royal Commission, vicious battles with the Church of Rome for the possession of black souls, and eventual obscurity. But beneath the public persona was a more complex, tragic figure. White society relegated Ernest Gribble to the no-man's land inhabited by those who defy the status quo. But his life confronted the collective conscience with the moral dilemmas and tragedy of Australia's black/white history. His is one of the great untold stories in the history of Australian race relations.

Reviews

"What a story! A man who made hell in the name of heaven but in the late 1920s forced his country to acknowledge one of the last great massacres of black Australians." (David Marr)

Author Bio

Christine Halse, was born and grew up in Sydney. She studied education at Macquarie University and gained her PhD in race relations at the University of Queensland. She is currently working at the University of Western Sydney, where much of her time is devoted to research and working with post-graduate students. Her research interests include cultural identity formation and relations between cultures and communities. She has published widely in these areas locally, nationally and internationally. An independent researcher for government and non-government organisations and national evaluator of institutions and education programs, Dr Halse is also an Executive member of the Aboriginal Studies Association and the Pacific Circle Consortium and Editor of the Journal Pacific Asian Education. She plans to start sky-diving lessons on her 60th birthday. She is married and revelling in life with her daughter. A Terribly Wild Man is her first book.