The Tin Ticket takes readers to the dawn of the nineteenth century and into the lives of three women arrested and sent into suffering and slavery in Australia and Tasmania-where they overcame their fates unlike any women in the world. It also tells the tale of Elizabeth Gurney Fry, a Quaker reformer who touched all their lives. Ultimately, this is a story of women who, by sheer force of will, became the heart and soul of a new nation.
Book Group Questions can be found on her website: http://www.deborahswiss.com/book_clubs.html
A HUGE thank you to Deborah Swiss for sharing her time with our book group. It was such a treat to eat together, share conversation, learn about her experience writing the book, and ask questions about what we read. This narrative nonfiction book was filled with research and discovery. Deborah was able to make links and tell the stories of four convict women (Agnes McMillan, Janet Houston, Bridget Mulligan, Ludlow Tedder) based on multiple primary source materials as well as from the oral stories which was passed down through the generations by the descendants of these women. The last quarter of the book is filled with literal translations of conduct reports, prison rules, and other documents.
Here is her website again: http://deborahswiss.com/index.html scroll down for the video
And the recent Huffington Post article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deborah-swiss/honoring-ancestors_b_1168975.html
Our understanding was deepened through the “show and tell” that Deborah brought to share. She had a sandstone brick made by convicts and identified by a symbol (from a suit of cards – heart, spade, diamond, club). A convict’s weekly quota was counted based on the symbols. She also brought several examples of carved pennies (the size of half dollars) which would have been tokens left with loved ones upon departure to Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania). Some were very intricately carved. It was fun to handle them and feel their weight, as well as to look at the carvings on front, back and even edge!
Here is a quick summary of our thoughts…
IT’S NOT FAIR!
* Exile for life for first offense, with the largest crime being poverty
* Women become slaves/indentured servants
* Women are raped, healthcare for women is terrible, young children are sent with their mothers
* Women were disposable, like “tin”
* Those in “power” were really, really wealthy and the “powerless” were poor
* “Convicts” were treated as “criminals”
POVERTY & EDUCATION
* Children miss their parents (who are working)
* Emotions aren’t shared
* We considered the emotions that babies are born with and those that may need to be taught. How are they taught when parents are working? Here is an article on baby emotions: http://mentalhealth.about.com/library/weekly/aa110298.htm
IT’S COOL TO KNOW!
* 1 in 5 people in Australia is a descendent of a convict
* The strongest, most resilient folks survived
* This book helps us go from HIStory to HERstory
OTHER TOPICS A few related, but not really part of the book, topics with links are below:
* ASJ nonfiction New York conference – http://newyorkwritersworkshop.com/nyww-non-fiction-pitch-conference (I hope this is the right conference that we talked about!)
* There are only 7 publishing houses – This site lists ten – http://michaelhyatt.com/top-ten-book-publishers-in-america-through-march-2008.html
* Rajah quilt – http://nga.gov.au/rajahquilt/ - The Rajah quilt is one of Australia’s most important textiles, and a major focus of the National Gallery of Australia’s Australian textiles collection. While it is a work of great documentary importance in Australia’s history, it is also an extraordinary work of art; a product of beauty from the hands of many women who, while in the most abject circumstances, were able to work together to produce something of hope.
* Irish hunger museum in New York – The Irish were discriminated against more than others wherever in the world they were during this certain time period – http://www.strokestownpark.ie/irish-national-famine-museum/ there is a good video on this site. The Famine Museum at Strokestown Park, Strokestown, Co. Roscommon, Ireland is twinned with Grosse Ile and the Irish Memorial National Historic Site, Grosse Ile, Quebec, Canada. Over 5,500 Irish people who emigrated during the famine of Ireland are buried in mass graves at Grosse Ile.
* Rabbit Proof Fence – A great movie about the Aboriginal People of Australia showing the outright racism against them by the dominant culture. In 1931, three aboriginal girls escape after being plucked from their homes to be trained as domestic staff and set off on a trek across the Outback – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB-jkydqADg and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit-Proof_Fence_%28film%29
