A Terribly Wild Man

Race, sex, religion, human frailty, noble intentions and grand failures - such were the ingredients in the pioneering life of Rev. Ernest Gribble. Dr Christine Halse knows this life well, having researched and interviewed extensively to uncover the Gribble tale. This is the story of that terribly wild man, hailed as the Anglican church's first successful missionary to the Aborigines, and his descent into disgrace.;The son of a famous missionary whom he was determined to surpass, Ernest Gribble was a driven, quixotic priest who became Australia's most famous - and infamous - humanitarian. His passage through life encompassed extreme authoritarianism, adultery, violent struggles against police and white settlers, the abduction of Aboriginal children (he instigated the Stolen Generations), a police massacre of Aboriginals that put Australia in the international spotlight, a successful campaign for a Royal Commission, vicious battles with the Church of Rome for the possession of black souls, and eventual obscurity.;But beneath the public persona was a more complex, tragic figure. White society relegated Ernest Gribble to the no-man's land inhabited by those who defy the status quo. But his life confronted the collective conscience with the moral dilemmas and tragedy of Australia's black/white history. His is one of the great untold stories in the history of Australian race relations.Read less