“Savages”, the novel of love and courage about “human zoos”

This is the true and fictitious story of Bonny, Dorondera e Jurano, a woman and two Aboriginal men who traveled to Europe performing as circus animals in what in the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries were known as “Zoo umani”.

An activity that unfortunately was not a marginal episode – it is estimated that between 1800 and 1958 over 35,000 “exotic performers” were admired by a billion spectators on both sides of the Atlantic – and which brought men of different ethnic groups to Europe for perform in «anthropological shows “ which included dances and actions of daily life.

A reality that the Australian writer Katherine Johnson he wanted to bring back to our consciences at a time when it is more than ever necessary for our culture to investigate the origins and consequences of racism.

Thus was born Savages – the novel published by Jimenez Edizioni – which takes us into the story of these three aborigines – two men, Bonny and Jurano, and a woman, Dorendera – who traveled from Freaser Island in the late nineteenth century to the main European cities exhibiting themselves in hope – to be the spokesperson in Europe of what was happening in their homeland, Queensland, where the aboriginal communities were oppressed and exterminated by the arrival of the whites.

To write it, Katherine Johnson studied documents and chronicles of the time, but not only that, she also went to K’gari (the name of Freaser Island in the language of the aboriginal community of Butchulla) from where the aborigines protagonists of the novel left, to ask the community elders for permission to tell the story: “I did not want to appropriate this story and do it once again from a “Eurocentric” point of view – he told us on the phone from Australia – but I thought it was a story to tell. I have been in the community to check on events, to hear the elders’ stories and to get their approval. They were delighted and for me it was a great experience that allowed me to open a small window on a magnificent culture ». The ethnic pacification process in Australia is a major issue that has not yet been resolved, but it is «ongoing», As Katherine says,« in progress »and for this reason it is even more important to tell what it was.

“I followed my characters through the documents of the time. Not much is known about them except that they were three Aboriginal people from Freaser Island, and that they are brought to Europe with the intention of having them perform “anthropozoological shows” together with people of different nationalities such as Sinhalese, Zulu, Fuegians, Lapps, Samoyeds. », Says the writer that It is not known what happened with their lives, many of these people brought to Europe died of smallpox and tuberculosis. It is certainly known that plaster casts were made of Bonny and Jurano to study them in detail, a “scientific” study of racial differences which was a very popular topic at the time“. It is on this terrible and unjust plot that the Australian writer narrates her novel. A story in which hopes and disappointments move, in which all the contradictions of the human soul are exposed, but a story that speaks of courage and where there is also room for hope and love. Where those who have perhaps been losers in history can have a second chance.

Cover photo: Aboriginal hunter posing, Australia, circa 1880. (Photo by Hulton Archive / Getty Images)