{"id":1163,"date":"2020-12-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-29T22:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/?p=1163"},"modified":"2025-05-03T13:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T01:49:07","slug":"no-mans-land-and-jerningham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2020\/12\/01\/no-mans-land-and-jerningham\/","title":{"rendered":"No Man’s Land\/Jerningham"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A.J. Fitzwater<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Paper Road Press<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Cristina Sanders<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Cuba Press<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Landfall, December 1st, 2020<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The best historical fiction gives readers a space to explore the origins of issues that continue to affect them. It also presents writers with unique challenges of voice, emotional plausibility, and historical and contemporary validity. Two new novels, No Man\u2019s Land<\/em> by Vogel Award-winner A.J. Fitzwater and Cristina Sanders\u2019 first adult novel, Jerningham<\/em>, tackle these challenges in different but equally engaging ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early 1940s, when thousands of New Zealand men served in the armed forces overseas, women stepped into traditional male roles in farming, factories and other essential industries. This provides the backdrop for Fitzwater\u2019s exploration of sex, gender and identity in No Man\u2019s Land.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Dorothea (Tea) Gray, being posted by the Woman\u2019s Land Service to the North Otago farm where her twin brother Robbie worked as a shearer before his deployment allows her to maintain (at least momentarily) the illusion that the world has more in store for her than a life of married respectability. Despite fearing that she will be somehow be found wanting, she is readily accepted into the MacGregor household, and is immediately taken under the wing of two of her brother\u2019s closest friends, the frail young Grant Stevenson and an irrepressible M\u0101ori girl called Izzy Larson. As hard as the work is, Tea\u2019s physical exhaustion is tempered by a deep-seated awareness of the land and its inhabitants, and the sense of something deep within herself struggling to awaken. But is not until Grant and Izzy explain that she is tipua, possessing, like them, an animal as well as a human spirit, that she finally begins to understand the awareness that has tugged at the edges of her consciousness for as long as she can remember. Surrendering to the power\u2014whaiwhai\u0101\u2014that flows through her is terrifying for Tea, but Grant and Izzy teach her how to use and control it. Where Grant and Izzy are aligned with the land, Tea is connected with the water and, through it, to Robbie. Her brother\u2019s pain and fear calls to her with increasing urgency. As her taniwha self she travels the oceans to save him, and discovers that Robbie\u2019s whaiwhai\u0101 is of an altogether different (and even more dangerous) nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite its brevity, No Man\u2019s Land<\/em> is a rich, poetic and deeply layered novel, its language and imagery suffused with sensuality. Tea can smell the way Grant looks at her (a pleasant mixture of dust and hay), thoughts tingle like cold water, and when startled she gulps down the taste of her heart, or feels the sting of fear on skin. This synaesthetic layering of sensory experiences transcending normal sight and sound conveys the intensity of Tea\u2019s interaction with the world around her, a hyper-awareness that escalates during moments of transformation, when cognition is subsumed by somatic experience. Here Fitzwater deploys the tools of poetry to convey the urgency of being, with great effect. Modifiers and conjunctions are abandoned and the text rings with assonance, consonance and percussive rhythm: eels\u2019 voices join in \u2018an age-old water song\u2019 and, within that song, \u2018disharmony; water shed, breath shed, blood shed\u2019. Ocean currents deliver \u2018song sweetness savour surrender\u2019. Senses collapse into one another entirely: \u2018green-yellow-sunshine grass-hay\u2019, \u2018hurt-fear\u2019, \u2018piss-yellow red-clot taste-scent\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skin, the body\u2019s largest sensory organ, is a recurring motif, first as a metaphor for passing and later as a physical manifestation of identity. When she arrives on the farm Tea feels like she is wearing \u2018[t]he wrong clothes, the wrong skin. A skin that pretended she could be a good farmhand. A skin obviously too much like her brother\u2019s \u2026 this was her one chance to draw a new skin over herself.\u2019 But as she comes to understand and accept her tipua nature, skin is transformed from an external veneer to an expression of her true self, a literal second skin that she can hide or reveal at will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skin also comes to symbolise the responsibility that comes with power. Although the terms tipua and whaiwhai\u0101 carry frightening connotations, the evil things that humans do far outweigh those of their animal-selves, and their actions carry consequences: \u2018wages of skin [that] must be addressed\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These themes are reflected in\u2014and amplified by\u2014the novel\u2019s time and place. The war may have necessitated a temporary expansion in the scope and extent of female participation in the workforce, but New Zealand remains a society dominated by racism, sexism and homophobia. Despite finding her feet alongside the other Landgirls (who, given the opportunity to step beyond the normal gender roles, spend their days shearing, repairing fences and hunting feral pigs), Tea can\u2019t shake her mother\u2019s denunciation of her as \u2018unladylike, loud, not marriage material\u2019, which follows her wherever she goes. Fearing that the colour of her skin or the width of her nose will betray her own M\u0101ori heritage, she cringes at the MacGregors\u2019 casual racism, and she is more terrified by her attraction to Izzy\u2014forbidden, unnatural, dangerous\u2014than she is of her taniwha self. Embracing her waiwhai\u0101 enables Tea to recognise that, beneath the skin, all of us are both different and connected, and that being gay\/trans\/M\u0101ori\/tipua is not wrong (although this acceptance does not, it would seem, stretch so far as to investigate her own heritage). But safety necessitates the concealment of these identities, and the four tipua dedicate themselves to providing protection for others of their kind until society is ready to accept them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fitzwater, who identifies as non-binary, draws on the long history of the LGBTQI+ community, in which self-created families provided (and still provide) a place for those rejected by mainstream society, to inform the narrative, but the themes explored here will resonate with anybody who has found themself on the margins. As a life-long social misfit, I recognise the relief that comes from finding others from the same tribe, and the part of me that still checks the back of every wardrobe for a streetlamp in a snowy wood identifies with Tea\u2019s reluctance to relinquish her \u2018childish\u2019 belief that \u2018the world holds a secret in store for her\u2019. (After all, what is a good novel if not an exercise in wish fulfilment?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although its fantastical themes and impressionistic structure may force some readers beyond their comfort zone, No Man\u2019s Land<\/em> is a rich and evocative novel that rewards repeated reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast to the watercolour expressionism of No Man\u2019s Land<\/em>, Cristina Sanders\u2019 Jerningham<\/em> is a meticulously composed oil portrait of New Zealand\u2019s early colonial history painted by a straight white man. The novel\u2019s narrator, Arthur Lugg, is one of the first settlers to reach the New Zealand Company\u2019s colony at Port Nicholson, arriving on the Aurora<\/em> in January 1840 just days after surveying work for the town has begun. A bookkeeper by training, he is engaged by Colonel William Wakefield to carry out clerical duties and keep an eye on Wakefield\u2019s venturesome young nephew, Jerningham. This places Lugg in the ideal position to document the development of the colony and the increasingly complex relationships between and within colonial and Indigenous interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the course of his work Lugg comes into contact with many notable individuals, including Charles Heaphy, with whom he shares a hut soon after his arrival; Reverend Hatfield, whose affection and respect for his congregation is contrasted with that of other missionaries who \u2018impose [themselves] on the natives or rearrange their system of aristocracy\u2019; and Te Rauparaha, whose fearsome presence on K\u0101piti <\/a>[IC1]<\/a> casts a shadow from Nelson to Wanganui. <\/a>[IC2]<\/a> He is also witness to the earliest days of Wellington city, the foundations of which develop at a remarkable pace, from temporary camps on the flat flood-prone Pito-one <\/a>[IC3]<\/a> foreshore to pre-fab houses spreading across Thorndon and key landmarks such as Cuba Street and the Terrace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the centre of Lugg\u2019s professional and personal life is Jerningham Wakefield, a charismatic and enterprising young man with little respect for authority, whose business dealings range from land-deals with East Coast tribes on the Company\u2019s behalf to establishing a trading post and public house-cum-brothel at Wanganui <\/a>[IC4]<\/a> (which he considers his<\/em> town, having negotiated the sale), to trading in horses and hounds. His dealings with others reflect an effortless facility to move freely between duty and self-interest, exploiting the bonds of friendships one moment, making gestures of extraordinary generosity the next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Jerningham\u2019s official minder, Lugg travels the country, sitting in on negotiations with various chiefs and reporting his observations back to Colonel Wakefield, thus keeping himself gainfully (if not always safely or appreciatively) employed. Jerningham is also responsible for brokering Lugg\u2019s engagement to Dorothy Lewis, a young governess abandoned by her former employers, whose reputation as a respectable woman is at risk of falling into disrepute. Most important here is Lugg\u2019s meticulous recording of events, providing a view of escalating tensions between the New Zealand Company, M\u0101ori and the Crown. The relentless tide of immigrants with pre-purchased titles and the rapid expansion at both Port Nicholson and across the strait in Nelson, as well as resistance from local M\u0101ori (leading to armed confrontation and culminating in the \u2018Wairua Massacre\u2019 that cost the lives of twenty-two settlers and four M\u0101ori), threaten the Company\u2019s existence, which is made even more precarious by competition between the Company and the Crown for land, governance and proposals for the location of the nation\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the setting, then, for the novel. Sanders has drawn on contemporary sources to inform her characters\u2019 thoughts and deeds, explaining in an author\u2019s note at the end of the book that the attitudes to race, culture, class and gender they espouse are intended to reflect common perspectives of the time\u2014one of the challenges of historical fiction, particularly when told in the first person. The value here is that Sanders can provide glimpses of some of the more problematic aspects of colonial society, albeit through a white male lens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jerningham, for example, has benefited significantly from his adoption of M\u0101ori ways and is concerned that the imposition of \u2018our language, our religion, our culture, our so called \u201ccivilising influence\u201d \u2026 [will] cause [M\u0101ori] to lose their own way of being\u2019. He also despairs: \u2018heaven knows what the M\u0101ori make of [the concept of sovereignty] \u2026 there is no word for it in M\u0101ori. Even Williams can\u2019t begin to translate something where the concept doesn\u2019t exist.\u2019 Meanwhile, Charles Heaphy asks Jerningham to \u2018imagine how powerful [M\u0101ori] will be with the vocabulary and complexity of ideas that English will give them\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanders also expresses regret that, for the sake of authenticity, she was unable to provide a feisty heroine and \u2018woke bloke\u2019. But Lugg is a thoughtful and relatively self-aware narrator, a passive observer rather than active participant. When asked by Te Puna, the Te \u0100ti Awa chief from whom Port Nicholson was purchased, \u2018How many more P\u0101keh\u0101 come?\u2019, he wonders (fleetingly) how he<\/em> would feel about a foreign contingent arriving in Somerset \u2018spilling endlessly over our hills, trampling the graves of our forebears\u2019, and he becomes increasingly troubled by the motivations and actions of government, missionaries and Company alike: \u2018each was as bad as the other, all scrabbling for power, trampling over rights and ideals, bribing the M\u0101ori for land or labour or souls\u2019. But rather than taking any sort of constructive action, Lugg allows himself to be distracted by other considerations (although he has the decency to refrain from reminding Te Puna that \u2018when he sold [the land] it had become our home\u2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanders\u2019 portrayal of Wellington\u2019s colonial beginnings is, of course, only one perspective of a troubled and complex history, and I would love to see the equivalent scene through M\u0101ori eyes. But even with its limited view, Jerningham<\/em> is not merely a reiteration of the Company propaganda, such as Heaphy\u2019s Company paintings \u2018of ships nestling in calm harbours with peaceful natives resting by the water\u2019s edge\u2019. Rather than a postcard of a Southern Eden, it is closer to the sketches Heaphy painted for himself, \u2018fast, visceral and real\u2019. Here we get a glimpse of discontent and discord: \u2018of boggy swamps and dark hills \u2026 wild-eyed native men and bare-breasted women with blue lips and tattooed chins, naked children and the impoverished shacks of the M\u0101ori settlements\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/landfallreview.com\/?s=Cushla+McKinney<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A.J. Fitzwater Paper Road Press Cristina Sanders The Cuba Press Landfall, December 1st, 2020 The best historical fiction gives readers a space to explore the origins of issues that continue to affect them. It also presents writers with unique challenges of voice, emotional plausibility, and historical and contemporary validity. Two new novels, No Man\u2019s Land […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[326,343,344,333,500],"class_list":["post-1163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","tag-326","tag-a-j-fitzwater","tag-cristina-sanders","tag-landfall","tag-nz-author"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1163"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2165,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163\/revisions\/2165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}