20 Feb 2018

Black Sheep's Back (Alright!)

10:02 am on 23 February 2023

Black Sheep season three is nearly upon us! But first we want to give you a heads up about a special live show which we'd love to see you at. 

You can register for free tickets...

...At Eventbrite

...Or on Facebook

The live show will be an investigation of the mysterious Charlotte Badger, a convict who’s said to have stolen a ship off the coast of Tasmania in 1806, sailed it to the Bay of Islands and lived among Maori for much of the rest of her life.

The show will be held at Charlotte’s Kitchen, a restaurant named after her on the Paihia waterfront and will feature two historians: Kate Martin, the curator of Russell Museum and Jennifer Ashton, an Auckland historian who’s been investigating Charlotte’s story.

Here’s a basic outline of what we’re planning to cover in the show:

  • The traditional tale of Charlotte Badger, how she came to be a convict, why she stole the Venus and sailed to New Zealand, why she chose to remain living among Maori and what happened to the other convicts who sailed with her to New Zealand.
  • The controversy of her story, including new evidence that she may never have sailed to New Zealand at all and that the European woman who was living in the Bay of Islands may have been a different person entirely.
  • How Charlotte’s story has been told and retold through history, originally it was a rip-roaring tale of piracy and adventure but as times have changed it’s been reinterpreted as a feminist parable and even a love story between Charlotte and another female convict aboard the Venus.

We expect it to last about one hour with a chance for audience Q+A at the end.