Grand Experiment

Two boys travel three continents to follow one monk's dream, in this untold story from Australia's colonial history. In 1848, the Spanish missionary Rosendo Salvado, founder of New Norcia Monastery in Western Australia, had an idea. He would prove that Aboriginal people could be educated and 'civilised', by taking two Nyungar boys to be schooled in Europe. And so it was that Conaci, aged seven, and Dirimera, aged ten, left their tribe to travel by sea to the racially-divided colony of South Africa, Ireland at the beginning of their nationalist uprising, the United Kingdom in the midst of its industrial revolution, France ravaged by civil war and finally entered a monastery in Naples. This is a remarkable and timely book - a colourful detective story of research through the archives and libraries of Australia, France, Italy and the Vatican - and is very much part of the whole story of the 'stolen generations'.