'The Tin Ticket': Australian actresses, Cape Cod author to discuss turning hidden women's history into TV series

Two Australian actresses have chosen a Harwich author’s book about a long-hidden part of human-trafficking history as the first project for their new production company dedicated to uncovering women’s stories.

Ella Cannon (the new Netflix movie “Trees of Peace” and CW’s “iZombie”) and Jenna Rosenow (Netflix’s “Firefly Lane” and TV’s “Neighbours”) will appear June 23 at Cape Cod Museum of Art in Dennis with Harwich author Deborah Swiss to talk about turning her 2011 book “The Tin Ticket” into a TV series for their Midnight Madhouse company. WCAI's Mindy Todd will moderate.

Swiss’ narrative nonfiction book tells the story of a little-known population migration that took place in 19th-century Australia, and the crucial role women played in developing the country while enduring conditions of cruelty and duress.

The book describes the dramatic historical changes set in motion when, between 1788 and 1868, more than 25,000 British and Irish women prisoners — most serving long sentences for minor theft — were sent to Australia. They were part of a plan hatched by the British and Australian governments to have them serve as what official documents called “breeders and tamers” in a newly expanding country where male settlers far outnumbered women.

The “social engineering” experiment, which eventually brought more than 126,000 exiled men, women and children to Australia, was a well-kept secret for nearly a century. It was planned as a convenient way to dispose of Britain’s burgeoning convict population while helping to populate the newly expanding country of Australia.

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“The Tin Ticket” book details documented histories of several of the women convicts, their struggles and eventual achievements in helping found today’s Australia. Those are now expected to be brought to a worldwide audience through the TV series.

'It's all storytelling'

Cannon and Rosenow founded their Midnight Madness production company in late 2021, after meeting several years earlier in Canada, where they were pursuing separate film careers. In a recent Zoom interview from their current base in Los Angeles, both said they discovered many mutual interests, especially around creating female-driven narratives and true-to-life histories. They said they bonded over a craving for powerful stories and complex female characters who could be developed for film.

Cannon discovered “Tin Ticket” after watching a documentary on the history of Australia. Like many Australians today, she says, she had “no idea” of the crucial role these women convicts played in the country’s history, nor of the brutal conditions under which they struggled to survive.

In mid-2021, Cannon and Rosenow contacted Swiss about the rights to adapt her book to film. Swiss says the trio “clicked instantly,” and they formalized a contract late last year.

For the new project, the two producers envision a serialized journal of several episodes, starting when the women convicts leave Britain, and following their lives as they endure and eventually prevail in a new, unforgiving environment.

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Both say that their prior focus on acting has proved instructive as they divert some of their skills to production work. With this new project, they will get to see how things work from behind the camera, viewing the process as a challenging part of a broader picture.

“It’s all storytelling,” says Cannon. “There are so many ways to be involved.”

Uncovering women's history

Reached at her Harwich home, Swiss recalled her own six-and-a-half-year odyssey creating the “rich and complicated” history for “The Tin Ticket.” The extensive appendix, notes and index in her book testify to the author’s journey of research and writing as the manuscript evolved.

Swiss, who has since worked with Cape efforts to fight human trafficking, made two multi-week trips to Australia for more research, and spent time with descendants of the women she wrote about, who live in such areas as Tasmania, Melbourne and Brisbane. Her many sources have included digitized historical records, newspaper archives, obituaries and ships’ and convicts’ records as she painstakingly followed the “convict trail” to unearth the women’s lives.

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Their “tin tickets” were the identifying tags each wore around her neck during incarceration.

According to official records, perhaps as many as one in five Australians share a convict ancestry. Yet many may not be aware of that.

The two producers say their commitment to uncovering and filming women’s stories like “The Tin Ticket” has brought like-minded people out of the woodwork, allowing the filmmakers to create more conversations around women’s experiences.

Histories that involve a legacy of abuse and cruelty still affect the present day, they say, and making more people aware through conversations and projects like their series could make a difference.

Hear about how 'Tin Ticket' book will be put on film

What: Discussion by film producers/actresses Ella Cannon and Jenna Rosenow and author Deborah Swiss on turning “The Tin Ticket” into a TV series

When: 5 to 6:30 p.m. June 23 (event is sold out as of June 19)

Where: Cape Cod Museum of Art, 60 Hope Lane, Dennis

Admission: $15, members $12

Information and tickets: ccmoa.org; 508-385-4477

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: TV actresses, author to talk on putting hidden women's history on film