AustLit

'The 1954 novel The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a story about young boys shipwrecked on a desolate island, is a parable for the supposedly innate cruelty and selfishness of human nature. This week, an excerpt was published on The Guardian from the book Humankind by Dutch historian Rutger Bregman, who claimed to have discovered the “real Lord of the Flies”. The story of six Tongan teenagers who were shipwrecked for 15 months, and the man who rescued them, has been shared far and wide as proof that in the same situation, young boys might in fact be kind and collaborative instead. The problem is, writes Meleika Gesa, this retelling erased the voices of the boys themselves and the Tongan values and knowledge systems that prepared them for survival.

'I’m often reminded that I am not the preferred narrator of my own story. That my life and struggles would look more believable and trustworthy (code words for marketable and consumable) if they were told from mouths that do not belong to me, my family, or my people. The coloniser wants to own you and your experiences and exploit you however they wish. There are so many instances in life where I’ve seen this firsthand.'

Source: Introduction.