History has come to represent more than just the account of the past. It helps us define who we are, and what we represent. In the 1960s a group of Australian aboriginals went on a strike, demanding not just living conditions, but their recognition as the original custodians of the land. Their strike would force a 'reversal of history', and so send Australia on a path to amend how it saw and defined itself. The path continues to be uneasily trodden to this day.
Read MoreWilliam Buckley, who would at various times also be known as "The Wild White Man" and "The Anglo-Australian giant", was a man who bore little respect for convention, authority, nor the confines of society. Over the course of his life his experiences would range from fighting in the Napoleonic wars, sailing across the globe, and spending a significant part of his life living in the Australian bush, prior to the settlement of the continent's south-east. After him, the expression "you've got Buckley's chance" has come to describe having no chance for success, or endurance. So was his life a success or failure?
Read MoreWhat was that crazy story that we just told? How much of it really happened? What does it all mean for our understanding of rebellion and resistance, and for how we perceive the role of defiance in events that have come before us? We explore all of this in the final episode of our series: The Unfortunate Voyage of the Batavia.
Read MoreThe VOC is back! Three and a half months after Commander Pelsaert abandoned everybody to a life a brutality and thirst, finally those who have managed to survived may just be rescued. But who of the mutineers and the defenders will be able to tell their story first? How will the VOC react to the utter madness that has taken place on these islands? This episode tackles all this and more.
Read MoreIn the history of European military aggression in Australia, this is where it all began. Of the people that remain alive following the doomed voyage of the Batavia, not to mention the shipwreck and then the genocide that followed, they now have to face a civil war.
Read MoreUpper Merchant Francisco Pelsaert, Captain Arjen Jacobsz and about 40 other people are sailing in a longboat north along the immense coast of Het Zuidland. They're on a rescue mission to the fort at Batavia, 3000kms north of where the ship Batavia has sunk at Houtman's Abrolhos. Unfortunately, they won't be able to rescue as many people as they would like, because Jeronimus Cornelisz is about to go on a rampage of murder, sex slavery, and pretty much every other horrible thing you can think of. Batavia's Graveyard, July 1629, is one of those places in history that you would never, ever want to find yourself.
Read MoreAs all hell breaks loose aboard the sinking ship Batavia, saving the lives of crew and passengers aboard may not be the most important priority. In this episode, we look at how authority handles the most unique and unprecedented circumstances, stuck on a craggy island with little hope for rescue and even less hope for a cup of water.
Read MoreIt should be fairly smooth sailing from here on for the Batavia... Were it not for the small matters of a brewing mutiny amidst the crew, divisions and distractions amongst the leaders of the ship and the impending doom that lays ahead, unbeknownst to them all, they may stand a chance... (they don't stand a chance.)
Read MoreLife on board a ship in the 1600s was no joyous experience. In this episode, we look at what the crew, soldiers and passengers aboard the Batavia went through, as they made their way from the United Provinces to their first scheduled stop at the Cape of Good Hope: the southern tip of Africa.
Read MoreIn an age when traditional European feudalism was breaking down, the United Provinces of the Netherlands chartered the world's first corporation. The VOC would become a major authority for thousands of people, all around the world. In this episode we explore why and how the company came into existence, and what that meant for those who were (un)lucky enough to have anything to do with it.
Read MoreIn October, 1628, a merchant ship called Batavia set sail from the Dutch republic bound for an island on the other side of the world called Java. She was the flagship of a fleet of vessels being sent by the richest corporation to ever exist and, along with extremely precious cargo, carried 341 men and women, including captain, sailors, soldiers, passengers, merchants, a minister and his family. Her voyage would end, however, on a jagged reef near a tiny set of islands off the Western Australian coast, and in the weeks that followed 110 men, women and children would be brutally murdered by a gang of bloodthirsty mutineers led by a psychopath who believed he could do no wrong since God himself inspired all his actions. In this first episode we take a look at the situation in the Netherlands and Amsterdam in the 1500s and early 1600s. With a focus on the sensory elements that are so often forgotten in the telling of history, we explore the world in which the rebellion on the Batavia took place; and discover what conditions existed that would foster such an unfathomable story as this one.
Read MoreMartin Luther would see immediate impacts of his resistance on the world around him, but he would die before some of the most cataclysmic effects occurred. Arguably, we are still living through them as their reverberations echo through time. In this episode we summarise some of the consequences of Luther's resistance.
Read MoreLike a burning-hot microphone, Luther had dropped his theology onto the stage of European society. The Church was tardy in its response, standing at the back of the crowd, generally just disturbed by the noise. The general population began to grab a hold of these reforming ideas and Luther began to clarify and solidify his position. Stubbornly, that position would not change.
In this episode we cover the next several years of Luther's rebellion against the most powerful authority the world had ever known.
Read MoreIt's tempting to imagine that Luther dropped a bombshell when he released his theses. However, it was more like he stuck a paper-bag full of theologically important dog-poo outside the Church's front door. The Church did not answer the doorbell, and while Luther went about telling people why he'd done it, the flaming-poo-bag set the whole house ablaze. His theology was now in the open and thanks to the quick hands of his supporters and the availability of the printing press, Luther's ideas started becoming popular. This, however, would bring its own problems...
In this episode, we look at Luther's 95 theses, what he did with them, and what they did to everyone else.
Read MoreCorruption had been given a thousand years to entwine itself within the administrative and dogmatic structure of the Church. Indulgences were an example of money being paid in exchange for spiritual benefit. The Pope held control over everybody's soul so, well, you may as well do what you can to make the Pope happy. Who could have a problem with this kind of practice?
Martin Luther. That's who.
In this episode we look at indulgences: where they came from, and what they could get you.
Read MoreBetween the years 1510-1520 Luther lectured in Wittenberg on the Psalms, the books of Hebrews, Romans and Galatians. This would take him on a mad spiritual trip that would come to reconcile himself with God. Better than ayahuasca, faith alone is all that Martin wanted.In this episode we dabble in a bit of monkish mind magic, peering into this fan-dangled theology of Martin Luther.
Read MoreLuther lived in the state of the Saxony, within the Holy Roman Empire. The dominance of the Church pervaded through all aspects of the society, but within the framework of the spiritual domain. The temporal domain structure wielded rule in the physical world. These two power structures were interconnected and interdependent.
In this episode we go a little into this complicated and somewhat ridiculous power complex. Ooooh yea.
Read MoreLuther's solution to his over-bearing thoughtfulness about the world was to become a monk. What a radical! His time in the monastery would help shape many things that he would stand for and many things that he would stand against.
In this episode, we go through Luther's transition and travel with him to Rome, where he will learn how monking is really done and climb some very special stairs. Say your pater nosters folks, it's about to get real.
Read MoreBefore he became an earth-shattering theologian, Martin Luther was on the path to becoming a lawyer. But after being struck by perhaps the most influential lightning bolt in history, his life was forever changed and the world would get one less lawyer. In this episode we look at Luther’s early life, and look at his first rebellion; that against his parents.
Read More500 years ago Martin Luther stood up to the might and authority of the Roman Catholic Church. Pitted against the most established institution in European history, Luther would bear and wield an idea that should have gotten him killed.
Instead, he rode a wave of luck and circumstance to stand up for what he believed in, against everything that was thrown at him. Those beliefs turned out to be of such magnitude that they would usher in a whole new world, forever reeling from and expanding upon the resistance of Martin Luther.
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