Butterflies & Demons
Eva Maria Chapman
Butterflies & Demons
Eva Maria Chapman
Copyright © 2020 by Eva Chapman
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Published 2020 by DoctorZed Publishing Pty Ltd
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ISBN: 978-0-6487107-6-9 (hc)
ISBN: 978-0-6487107-5-2 (sc)
ISBN: 978-0-6487107-4-5 (ebk)
A CiP entry can be found at the National Library of Australia
This is a work of fiction based on actual events. Names, characters, places, events, and dialogues are re-creations of the author and are used both factually and fictitiously. Factual and fictitious resemblance has been made to historical individuals. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
Cover image © DoctorZed Publishing Pty Ltd
Printed in Australia, UK & USA
DoctorZed Publishing rev. date: 14/04/2020
Chapters
Chapter 14 Promise to Obey her Lords
Testimony for Butterflies & Demons
“As well as reading Butterflies & Demons, I have also read Eva’s book, Sasha & Olga, and was struck by how hard her own life was. I appreciate how she has weaved her life story in with the story of my people and recognises us as the healers and educators we are.
I enjoyed showing Eva many of the Kaurna historical features of Adelaide, especially the painting of Murlawirrapurka’s last stand, which she describes so well in Butterflies & Demons. We also visited our commemorative bricks in the South Australian Migration Museum, not that my people were ever ‘migrants’, but she was happy that her family’s brick was near that of Murlawirrapurka.”
Uncle Yelopurka Lewis,
Kaurna Elder
16th March 2020
Acknowledgements
I loved researching and writing this book. It came out of a vison I had in Peru. My parents and I came to Adelaide in 1950, escaping war torn Europe. It was such a healing process to intertwine my Adelaide story with that of the Kaurna who had lived there for 40 thousand years. They are a beautiful people and I am so happy to have made their acquaintance; especially Kaurna elder, Uncle Lewis Yelopurka and his son Michael O’Brien. I loved all our chats. What generous and beautiful people they are.
People in the 19th century were great diary keepers and prolific writers of letters, which shed so much light on early Adelaide. I am especially indebted to Teichelmann and Schurmann, the Lutheran missionaries who did so much to document their time in Adelaide between 1838 and 1842 (Lutheran Archives, North Adelaide.) Not only did they write a comprehensive Kaurna grammar book (1840), but recorded many observations and priceless conversations with the main Kaurna people of the time especially their elder, Murlawirrapurka (also spelt Mullawirraburka in the history books). I want to acknowledge Rob Amery, a gifted linguist who has done so much to bring forth the Kaurna language, as well as a history of the early days, in Warraparna- Kaurna Reclaiming an Australia Language, Adelaide Press 2016. I drew heavily on many letters written at the time, for example between Governor Hindmarsh and the first Aboriginal Protector, Bromley, as well as the newspapers The Colonial Register and The South Australian Register. A wealth of excellent information was found in History in Portraits. Biographies of South Australian Aboriginal people, editors Jane Simpson & Luise Hercus, 1998.
William Cawthorne who befriended Murlawirrapurka, wrote diaries between 1842-1846 Cawthorne Papers ed. RKG Foster 1991. Cawthorne also sketched the scene in 1844, capturing the last Kaurna battle ‘Shields & spears of the Natives on the Battlefield’, which hangs in the Lounge Gallery of the Kaurna Building in the University of South Australia.
I really wanted to have an Adelaide publisher for this book and was delighted to find Dr. Scott Zarcinas of DoctorZed Publishing, who has done such a good job in helping to bring out this fascinating local Adelaide history and whose team produced an arresting cover.
Thanks to my husband, Professor Jake Chapman, who supported