An unheralded classic that captures the brutality and ignorance of colonialism's cultural cleansing... and two centuries later, the fightback. Acclaimed on its in initial release by Australian literary giant, Morris West, The Soul Stone is a journey into humanity’s far-distant past—to a time when people were bound intrinsically to the natural world. This is the story of one man’s compulsive search for meaning from an ancient people whose spiritual identity is bound to nature, to country—and who refuse to be subsumed.
A Catholic priest is assigned to a remote mission station in Australia’s Kimberley region to maintain the culture of colonisation. But the converter becomes the converted; the priest is consumed by a mystery of faith, an entwining with nature, far more powerful than anything his own doctrines can help him counter or comprehend. He is confronted by a world in which there is no separation of the material from the mystical. Most confronting of all are laws and lores from the beginning of human time. The priest’s attempts to bring this experience to his ministry trigger violent, passionate repercussions.
Author's notes:
1. The Soul Stone was initially published in 1993 by Hodder & Stoughton but its distribution curtailed when its printing was caught out by a corporate take-over and the new publishing entity had a different market focus. In the intervening years the book has been re-edited, including weaker sections re-written or removed to tighten the narrative and make the language more contemporary.
2. Of critical importance, this is not a European Australian writing an Indigenous story. It is the story of the profound influence of Indigenous culture and land spirituality on a European Australian - the reversal of the coloniser narrative.