This is a work of imagination inspired by the little-known true story of three Aboriginal people – Bonangera (Bonny/Boni), Dorondera and Jurano – taken to Europe as living exhibits in 1882–83. While travellers and performers had been journeying to Europe from distant lands since the time of Columbus, it was not until the mid-to late-nineteenth century that ‘ethnic shows’, also known as ‘human zoos’, became mass entertainment. Such shows took place in zoological gardens, museums, colonial exhibitions and world fairs. ‘Human zoos’ were also popular in America under the likes of showman P.T. Barnum. According to a retrospective on the subject in Paris in 2012, worldwide, between 1800 and 1958, over a billion spectators attended such acts, marvelling at more than 35,000 individuals, significantly influencing views on ‘race’. For a brief history of the events that inspired this novel, please see the afterword, which includes references to the letters, diary entries, newspaper reports and scientific journal articles that I have quoted verbatim. Paris Savages builds on these scant records to envisage the story of Bonny, Jurano and Dorondera, Badtjala/Butchulla people from K’gari (Fraser Island). Rather than assuming Aboriginal viewpoints, the story is told through fictional characters related in the novel to the German engineer Louis Müller, who is known to have transported the group to Europe.