Kirjahaku

Thomas began as a question. Imaginea pious young Englishman kneels in prayer. Weighed down by guilt, he prays for a sense of purpose and for the opportunity to serve God and find redemption. On the other side of the world, a young Maori girl sits with her family beneath a star-studded sky. A little distance off, warriors are opening an earth oven, and the air fills with the odor of cooked human flesh. Within two decades or so, they will become lovers. And so the question is, What combination of character and circumstance could have made this possible? Taken from history, Thomas follows the life of Thomas Kendall, one of the first missionaries to New Zealand. With his wife and growing family, he settled at Rangihoua in the Bay of Islands. Living in wretched, primitive conditions, in discord with his colleagues and defiance of his superiors, he was drawn into the world of the Maori. Beset by the twin demons of Utter Doubt and Utter Certainty, he struggled to bring redemption to the Maori and to find it for himself and failed spectacularly.

Thomas began as a question. Imaginea pious young Englishman kneels in prayer. Weighed down by guilt, he prays for a sense of purpose and for the opportunity to serve God and find redemption. On the other side of the world, a young Maori girl sits with her family beneath a star-studded sky. A little distance off, warriors are opening an earth oven, and the air fills with the odor of cooked human flesh. Within two decades or so, they will become lovers. And so the question is, What combination of character and circumstance could have made this possible? Taken from history, Thomas follows the life of Thomas Kendall, one of the first missionaries to New Zealand. With his wife and growing family, he settled at Rangihoua in the Bay of Islands. Living in wretched, primitive conditions, in discord with his colleagues and defiance of his superiors, he was drawn into the world of the Maori. Beset by the twin demons of Utter Doubt and Utter Certainty, he struggled to bring redemption to the Maori and to find it for himself and failed spectacularly.

1 Synopsis "Thomas" (a working title) covers the life of Thomas Kendall, one of the earliest missionaries to settle in Aotearoa. While I would describe the work as a novel, the great majority of characters and events are historically based - with occasional tweaking (e.g. dates around the battle of Moremonui, the saga of the Venus and the execution of John Cashman). Because the story covers 82 years, information tends to be collapsed into scenes or events; e.g. much of the quality of Thomas' early childhood is to be inferred from a shopping expedition he and his mother make to the local village. The flow starts from p.16 where Thomas is engaged as a tutor in London. He falls into sin, then into depression, recovers, meets Jane Quickfall (Historical) and is manipulated into marriage with her. He moves with Jane and the beginning of an eventually large family to Thoresby, becomes disenchanted, has an epiphany at the Bentinck Chapel where he meets Basil Woodd (H) and resettles in London as a schoolteacher. Through Woodd he makes a connection with the Church Missionary Society, hears the call and is engaged as a missionary. In 1813 he and his family cross to Port Jackson and then on to Rangihoua where he becomes part of the mission settlement.