'Mudrooroo’s vampire trilogy, The Undying, Underground and The Promised Land was published at the end of the last century amid an unrelenting public questioning of the author’s claim to Aboriginal heritage through a matrilineal link. The Gothic narratives feature a white female vampire named Amelia (an anagram of Lamiae), whose violent acts of penetration and (dis)possession act as metaphors for the colonial invasion of Australia by the British' (Maureen Clark, p. 121).
Master of the Ghost Dreaming
North Ryde
:
Angus and Robertson
,
1991
Z232555
1991
single work
novel
'... Jangamuttuk is an ageing Aborigine shaman whose people have been relocated to an island off the Australian coast under the control of a former bricklayer turned missionary. Jangamuttuk helps them come to terms with the invaders' presence and, at the same time, offers them a restorative vision of community by entering into "the dreaming," a magical time every bit as real as conventional reality. ...' (Source: Amazon website)
The Undying
Pymble
:
Angus and Robertson
,
1998
Z341388
1998
single work
novel
fantasy
horror
'A daring and thrilling journey into a fantastic world of shamans, vampires and werebears, where Aboriginal Dreaming and Gothic horror are woven together to create a powerful and seamless narrative' (www.goodreads.com), a schooner of Aborigines fleeing colonial Tasmania encounter a vampire who haunts their flight, and infects several of their number (Jason Nahrung, 'Vampires in the Sunburnt Country,' 2007, p.56).
Underground
Pymble
:
Angus and Robertson
,
1999
Z27324
1999
single work
novel
horror
fantasy
'By the firelight, a mysterious storyteller weaves a captivating tale of sea journeys, vampire women, and Aboriginal Dreaming. Around the campfire the gold diggers listen and journey with George as he plunges underground to rescue his ship's captain from the horrific and mesmerising vampire woman.
Jangamuttuk, the Master of the Ghost Dreaming, sends his son, George, to rescue Wadawaka from the ghost vampire woman who has taken him as her Dark Lord and imprisoned him in her underground kingdom. Will George, in either his human form or as his Dreaming animal-self Dingo, be able to withstand Amelia's powers; will he survive the underground caverns; can he tear Wadawaka and himself from the violent but seductive power of the vampire woman? And who is the strange but familiar ghost woman accompanying the new colonial governor?' (www.qbd.com.au).
The Promised Land
Pymble
:
Angus and Robertson
,
2000
Z447704
2000
single work
novel
horror
fantasy
Set during the gold rush days, The Promised Land focuses on the partnership of missionary-protector Sir George Augustus and the vampiress Amelia, and their bid to control colonial value - gold and blood respectively. Having returned to the Great South Land with his young wife, Lady Lucy, Augustus intends establishing a mission to educate and Christianise the native people. When he hears that gold has been found on the land, his missionary zeal increases. Accompanied by the mysterious white woman, Amelia Fraser, and a troop of native police, he sets out on an expedition to the diggings. As Sir George journeys into what he hopes is a golden future, his past begins to creep up on him, and those he thought were dead return to confront him.' Meanwhile, Amelia, with voracious (sexual) appetite and relish, preys on all continental human life, no matter what social class, gender, race or creed.
'Starting from Edward Said’s The World, the Text and the Critic, in which he theorizes the cultural movements of filiation and affiliation, this article questions the epistemological links Alan Duff’s and Mudrooroo’s novels weave with European constructs of the Indigenous subject. This theoretical framework can be helpful in understanding the relations between the individual and the collective, mostly concerning their drive toward self-definition and emancipation.' (Publication abstract)
'Indigenous literature of Australia initially descended from the folklore, which was transmitted in the form of storytelling. This storytelling tradition is significant in the lives of Aboriginal people. Hence, it was considered essential by the elders of the Aboriginal communities to pass on this knowledge to their next generation. Because of various reasons a lot of stories were forgotten. There's been a need for restoring the lost tradition and indigenous people took the initiation towards raising awareness concerning the preservation of their cultural heritage.' (180)
'In the first half of the 19th century, George Augustus Robinson’s journals, which he had written after being officially appointed Protector of the Aborigines, show the growing interest in Indigenous populations, from the very first voyages of discovery to the beginning of the 18th century. Those first accounts were informed by Victorian attitudes and contributed to forging the stereotypes which can be found either in novels by early Australian (i.e. white) writers or, later, in those by Aboriginal writers. Wavering between the “noble savage,” who may benefit from education, and the “ignoble savage,” violent and dangerous, those stereotypes feed on these attitudes and fuel them with new anecdotes and experiences.
'This article explores how Aboriginal writer Mudrooroo engages with the relation between fiction and History in his novels, which are set at the time of the first contacts between settlers and Aborigines, Doctor Wooreddy’s Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World (1983) and the Master of the Ghost Dreaming tetralogy (1991). Indeed, this rewriting of historical events starts either a conversation or a confrontation with the depositaries of the first historical accounts about those encounters between whites and Aborigines—that is to say the whites themselves.' (Publication abstract)
