A deeply personal exploration of Australia's colonisation past, present and future by one of Australia's finest contemporary authors.
This is a difficult piece to write. It cuts closer to the bone than most of what I have written; closer to my bones, through my blood and flesh to the bones of truth and country; there is truth here, not disguised but in the open and that truth hurts.
In Lies, Damned Lies acclaimed author Claire G. Coleman, a proud Noongar woman, takes the listener on a journey through the past, present and future of Australia, lensed through her own experience. Beautifully written, this literary work blends the personal with the political, offering listeners an insight into the stark reality of the ongoing trauma of Australia's violent colonisation.
Colonisation in Australia is not over. Colonisation is a process, not an event - and the after-effects will continue while there are still people to remember it.
'An urgent examination of oneself and one's country. Written with a booming cadence that demands to be read aloud, again and again' Tara June Winch, Miles Franklin Award-winning author of THE YIELD
'You may think you're woke, but Coleman never sleeps' Dr Tyson Yunkaporta, bestselling author of SAND TALK
A heartbreaking, redemptive memoir of raw power, Daughter of the River Country is the story of an extraordinary journey from a childhood as one of Australia's Stolen Generation to Aboriginal Elder
Born in rural Australia in the 1940s, baby Dianne is immediately taken from her parents and placed with a white family. Raised in an era of widespread racism, she grows up believing her Irish adoptive mother is her birth mother.
When her adoptive mother tragically dies and she is abandoned by her adoptive father, Dianne is raped, sent to the brutal Parramatta Girls Home and forced to marry her rapist in order to keep her baby. After suffering years of domestic abuse, but refusing to let her spirit be broken, Diane finally discovers she is a Yorta Yorta woman, a daughter of the river country, and is reunited with her birth mother. She learns that her great-grandfather was a famous Aboriginal activist and from here she becomes a powerful leader in her own right, vowing to help others in any way she can.
Daughter of the River Country explores for the first time the devastation caused to Australia's Aboriginal Stolen Generation, who were forcibly placed with white families as part of a government assimilation programme.
'A compelling memoir about the power of love and staying the course.' LINDA BURNEY, the first Aboriginal Member of Australia's House of Representatives
What is it like to grow up Aboriginal in Australia? This anthology, compiled by award-winning author Anita Heiss, showcases many diverse voices, experiences and stories in order to answer that question. Accounts from well-known authors and high-profile identities sit alongside those from newly discovered writers of all ages. All of the contributors speak from the heart - sometimes calling for empathy, oftentimes challenging stereotypes, always demanding respect.
