Strange Objects PPT

7/22/2019 Strange Objects PPT

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B Y G A R Y C R E W

STRANGE OBJECTS


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MEET THE AUTHOR

Gary Crew is an Australian author who lives inMaleny.

He deliberately set out to find an episode inAustralian history that dealt with a teenager

being isolated.

I would like to trace the life of a boy leftentirely alone in Australia before settlement. Ithink this would be like leaving me alone onMars. While there would be a drive for'physical survival', there would also be a needfor 'psychic survival' - how to adjust, cope,grow through loss

[Personal Journal of Strange Objects. Entrydated 11/7/1988.]


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BATAVIA WRECK

The Dutch vessel Batavia was wrecked off the WesternAustralian coast on 4th June 1629, whilst on her maidenvoyage to Batavia, now Jakarta.


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BATAVIA SURVIVORS

Most passengers and crew survived and made their way to thetiny Abrolhos Islands.

Captain Palsaert took off on one of the smaller sailing shipsback to Batavia (the place, aka Jakarta) to get a rescue vessel


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FYI: AUSTRALIAS STILL INTERESTED

The Australian National Maritime Museum inWestern Australia

Batavia Replica

WHY? THINGS GOT INTERESTING


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BATAVIA MUTINY

Although the initial loss of life had been minimal, once thepassengers and crew were settled on the God-forsakenAbrolhos Islands, they, led by the most senior sailorJeronimusCornelisz began to murder each other for food rations and

other supplies.


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BATAVIA MASSACRES

Over 120 of the

marooned were

stabbed, bashed,

raped,

beheaded,drowned

or strangled.


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BATAVIA MASSACRES

Captain Pelsaertreturned, 14 weekslater, to the wreck

with a rescue yacht.

What he foundsickened him and he

immediately setabout punishingthose who hadacted immorally.


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TRIAL & PUNISHMENTS

He tried the murderers.

(Records of the proceedingshave been used so that thistragedy can be shared today)

The culprits were punished byhaving their hands cut offthen they were


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HUNG - OCTOBER 2ND

However, two were spared and instead castaway

on the barren mainland coast of unsettled Australia.


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THE CASTAWAYS

It was the fate of these two castaways that intrigued authorGary Crew.

Wouter Loos was in his early thirties but Jan Pelgrom was only

seventeen and by all accounts not a very nice boy.


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YOUNG KILLERS?

Pelgrome was a mass murderer andprobably a psychopath while evidencesuggested Wouter Loos (what a name)was not a psycho killer but merely

following orders

After their trial, this pair were droppedon the Western Australian coast with

some trading goods - being Dutch,Pelseart hoped that they would tradewith the local 'Indians' - and left to theirown devices...


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HISTORY LIVES ON

The following are details about these two realfigures from history according to authentichistorical documentsnot the ones Gary Crew

dreamed up forStrange Objects which are allCOMPLETELY FALSE.)

Accounts of the trial detailing the men's crimes arefully documented and included as an appendix toH. Drake-Brockman's Voyage to Disaster: TheBatavia Mutiny, also Captain Pelsaert wrote of themin his ships log.


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JAN PELGROM DE BYE

18 year old Cabin Boy

Murdered a boy on seal island.

Helped kill women (Janneken Gijssenand Andries Jansz)

Insisted he be allowed to cut the headoff Coen Aldertsz and cried whenMattys Beer was given the honour.

Raped married women (Susan andCatherine Fredericks and AnnieBosschietsters).

Was sentenced to hang without hishand being cut off but after pleadingfor mercy he was marooned on theAustralian coast.


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WOUTER LOOS

Soldier who takes part in thekilling of the preachers familyand is given command of the

mutineers upon the capture ofJeronimus.

He was to be taken to Bataviato have his guilt furtherinvestigated but acts ofkindness towards Judith andLucretia moved Pelsaert toland him on the Australiancoast with Pelgrom.


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WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

Thats where Gary Crews imagination comes intoplay.

He tells of their lives through the fictional journal ofWouter Loos and many other texts.


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A STRANGE NOVEL INDEED

Strange Objects is not your usual novel, Gary

Crew has created an intertextual tapestry that

must be considered carefully by the reader (us) to

make the required connections.

It involves both the present (1986) and the past

(1629)and is told to us through many different

types of texts

e.g. handwritten journal entries, news articles,

interview transcripts etc.


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IT FOCUSSES ON

The disappearance of 16 year oldStephen Messenger (1986)

The discovery of wreckage inWestern Australia from the sinking ofan old Dutch ship The Batavia (1629)

Stephens time warp link to thesurvivors and the indigenousAustralians they met up with.


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IT TELLS THE STORY THROUGH CLUES

Stephen sent a project book to:

Dr Hope Michaels Western Australian Institute of Maritime Archaeology

She has had this project book published under thetitle: Strange Objects. Through it we can choose to

believe Stephens version of events or we canquestion the reliability of his state of mind.

At its time of publishing Steven had been missing for

just over a year.


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MESSENGER PROJECT BOOK


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THE TALE BEGINS

As you read ask yourself:

Is what youre reading fact or fiction,

objective or subjective,

real or imagined,

evidence based speculation or blatant gossip?

Who can you believe?


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THIS ONE TIME ON BIOLOGY CAMP


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STEVEN MESSENGER

I found a

cannibal pot

and amummified

hand!


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PAST & PRESENT COLLIDE


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CANNIBAL CAULDRON


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MUMMIFIED HAND


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WOUTER LOOS JOURNAL


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THE STRANGEST OF THEM ALL


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THE AUTHORS OTHER INSPIRATION

For there are strangeobjects in the great

abyss, and theseeker of dreamsmust take care not to

stir up, or meet, thewrong ones


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REFLECTION

1. What did Gary Crew want to write about in the beginning?

2. What historical event eventually gave him a basis?

3. Who were the two real people he decided to use in thenovel?

4. How are they similar & how are they different?

5. Why is this book going to be strange to read?

6. What does the beginning quote tell you about the strangeobjects Steven finds and the effect they may have?

Documents

Strange Objects PPT