This August, the Otago Settlers Association’s Tuesday Club welcomes Hannah Bulloch, social anthropologist and narrative nonfiction writer, to speak about her family memoir, Overland to the Island: New Zealand to Skye with Six Kids in a Homemade House-Truck.
In the early 1960s on their ramshackle Otago farm, Alan built a house-truck from a collection of old vehicles, Joan stocked it with home- tinned food, and the children raised money by selling livestock. With the house-truck as cargo, the family then boarded a ship to Singapore, intent on travelling to Scotland overland.
The journey was a pilgrimage to their ancestral heartland on Skye, where they hoped to visit their clan chief, Dame Flora MacLeod. Alan also wanted to search out locals he had befriended in Italy during World War II.
Weaving material from interviews, diaries, letters and more, Hannah summons five generations of voices to tell the tale of the MacLeods’ daring, lively and often quirky adventure.
This event begins with refreshments and an opportunity to chat with Otago Settlers Association members.
10.15am, Tuesday 11 August
Toitū Auditorium
Gold coin donation for Otago Settlers Association members, $5 for non-member attendees
