Convincing Ground: Learning to Fall in Love with Your Country

Convincing Ground: Learning to Fall in Love with Your Country
---
 12 Ratings  ·  8 Reviews
A wide-ranging, personal and powerful work that resonates with historical and contemporary Australian debates about identity, dispossession, memory, and community. Ranging across the national contemporary political stage, this book critiques the great Australian silence when it comes to dealing respectfully with the construction of the nation’s Indigenous past.
Paperback
Published April 1st 2007 by Aboriginal Studies Press (first published January 1st 2007)
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(showing 1-30 of 39)
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Joey Diamond
Jul 10, 2009Joey Diamond rated it it was amazing
Shelves: aus
Well I learnt about the houses that the Wathaurong people built in the Western District. That's just for starters. Fucking genius book. Fucking devastating record of dispossesion. So much great primary source material and I love his strange ramblings as well.
flag1 like · Like · comment · see review
----
S'hi
Mar 06, 2012S'hi rated it liked it
Recommends it for: all australians
Despite the enticing feminine and cultured image of the introduction, this book is a difficult read. Perhaps it should be for all the horrors of history which have so long been passed over or minimised in our national conscience. But Pascoe actually challenges further by his peppering of current political opinions and events into this already angry volume. Personally I find the assumption of such an attitude jarring me into resistance against the history he is attempting to bring to light. I don’t agree with the alignment of one era with another in this way. There is much more to the story than presented here and I am inclined to look into his references rather than listen further to his own version. And that seems a wasted opportunity. And he is wrong about democracy. This was a system devised in Greek culture where slaves were part of the invisible picture. To equate indigenous culture in Australia with democracy is actually a denigration of their valuing of all members of their society. (less)
-----
Maree Kimberley
Mar 08, 2013Maree Kimberley rated it really liked it
This is a book that will upset some people. But I find Pascoe's central argument - that Australia needs to face the truth about how Aboriginal land was stolen from them in order to come to terms with what it means to be Australian - a valid one.

'Australia has a black history' is not just a slogan on a t-shirt, and Pascoe's book addresses some elements of this statement by writing frankly about the circumstances under which many early white "settlers" took possession of land. In terms of history, Pascoe mainly focuses on incidents that happened in Victoria, in particular those massacres and battles that occurred under Batman and LaTrobe although he does refer to a few other incidents (such as the Coniston Massacre, which was the topic of a documentary released in 2012).

In the six or so years since Pascoe's book was published more about the true history of white invasion in Australia has been released (for example, Rachel Perkins brilliant DVD series and book, The First Australians). However there is still a long way to go in facing up to the realities of the violent nature of black and white relations in the late 1700s, 1800s and 1900s.

Pascoe offers up some good research and some alternative viewpoints but I'll admit his style is at times confronting. But I like his tell it like it is style. Other reviewers have described his writing as rambling but I prefer to call it conversationalist. Pascoe knows he upsets people with some of his views, and he doesn't apologise for this, but at the core of this book is his love for the land of Australia and his sincere wish that through acceptance and acknowledgement of the past, Australians can heal their relationship with this country's First Peoples, and with the land.

If you want to challenge yourself as an Australian, and challenge what you thought you knew about Australian history, read this book. But read it with an open mind, and use it as a catalyst to find out more about the history of Australia, from its ancient history until now.

(less)
flagLike · comment · see review
Nike Sulway
Dec 27, 2014Nike Sulway rated it really liked it
Shelves: australian, non-fiction, book-club, male-writers
"We can make a great nation here, one worthy of the land, but we must be honest with ourselves and learn how we were lucky enough to live here. It won't be easy and sometimes we will be hurt and confused, but nations are not forged without the metal getting hot." (page x)

Lots of people have talked in their reviews about the circular, ambling, personal nature of the writing in this book, and how -- for them -- this detracted from the quality of the work. I'm not going to do that, though it's true that if that's enough to put you off, you will probably struggle with this work. On the other hand, if you are willing to suspend your expectation that a work of history HAS to be linear, impersonal/objective, and unemotional then this book is for you. It is a moving, confronting, didactic, heartfelt, and energetic book about the way Australian history has been written -- what has been left, how and why -- and why it's important for you -- yes you -- to learn the truth. To seek out the truth of the history of your country. And to know that despite the many terrible things that happened here, it is still your country. And you can fall in love with it.

I came to this book after having read a little of Pascoe's fiction, and having had the great honour of meeting him, very briefly, at the Watermark Literary Muster. I have rarely had the honour of meeting a more imposing and gentle man.

It is a peripatetic and partial reconstruction of the history of some areas of Australia, with a particular focus on the south-east coastal areas/Victoria, and Tasmania. In a sense, it is more historiography than history: a book about what happened, but why what happened has disappeared, largely, from the historical record. Or was never part of it to begin with. It is an attempt to begin to recover what evidence there is for a 'history from below'.

The book is rambling, and personal, and shot through with passion -- anger and love. It is an uncomfortable read, if you are a whitefella living on this land with any sense of consciousness about what happened in order for that to be the case.

I am a first generation Australian. My parents came here from Europe after the Second World War. It would be easy for me to say that what was done to the Indigenous peoples of Australia in the early years of settlement is not my responsibility. In a strictly personal sense, it isn't. BUT, my parents were able to come to Australia, and settle here, and flourish, because Australia was 'settled' by the English. The work they did in founding the colony, and the genocidal practices that were included in that action, are part of what made it possible for my Western European/Anglo parents to settle here. To buy homes built on land that was once stolen from Indigenous people, for example.

This is my country, my home, and its history is not an easy one. Few histories are easy to live with, if lived with honestly. And reading this book has been, for me, one small part of facing up to the history of the country of which I am a citizen.

A friend who moved to Australia from Zimbabwe talked recently, following the death of Mandela, about the 'Truth and Reconciliation Commission' in neighbouring South Africa. About how her recollection of that process was that it was a period in which people told their stories. And how it was the role of everyone in the country (and many of those outside it) just to listen. To listen well. To pay attention. To acknowledge and receive the history of their country, so that they could face the future with dignity, honesty, and hope for a better world. So that they could know what they had done, or what had been done in their name, or what they had benefitted from, even indirectly.

Reading this book was like reading one testimony from the almost silenced, invisible and unofficial Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Australia. I feel honoured to have read it. Awed by the courage of those who fought in the colonial war. Shamed by the way in which my ignorance has contributed to the ongoing silencing and oppression of the truth about my country's history. Grateful to have my eyes opened. (less
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Jun 22, 2012Jennifer rated it it was ok
Shelves: rubbish-bin
I should have been warned by the other reviewers on Goodreads about this book, but I am very interested in the hidden history of Australia, and much of the history covered here is little known to Australians, which makes it an important book despite its severe faults. It's far to self indulgent and polemical, unfortunately, for most students of history, who are more interested in facts than endless, unrestrained opinion on any issue which seems to enter Pascoe's head, from Refugee policy to the Howard Government, to the betrayals of the Labour party. And all this criticism I am making is coming from a person who agrees with Pascoe's views, in general, but even I am alienated by his rantings and the poor, vague referencing of the source of his claims.
At the end of the day, despite its important message, this book is a very poor vehicle for the facts, and too thick with viscera to wade through, IMHO. (less)
flagLike · comment · see review
Claire Melanie
Apr 06, 2015Claire Melanie rated it it was amazing
This book is an absolute revelation. So much history that has been erased from the dominant narrative and settler consciousness. It is also another of Pascoe's book that confirms just how brilliant his writing is. He is definitely my favourite author. I absolutely lov his passion and politics. What an inspiration
flagLike · comment · see review
Jane
Aug 30, 2007Jane rated it liked it
Shelves: australian
Rather rambling and repetitive, but has some very interesting insights into the history of settlement of Victoria (especially western Victoria) and the frontier war. Thought provoking; though, lazy person that I am, I would have liked more answers to the thoughts provoked.

When the Rain Returns: Toward Justice and Reconciliation in Palestine and Israel

When the Rain Returns: Toward Justice and Reconciliation in Palestine and Israel
 Review by Canadian Friends Service Committee (Quakers)

This is a good book.  If you want to inform yourself about Israel/Palestine, it is an excellent place to start. It is now several years old, but nothing much has changed – not for the better, at any rate.
The book is the report of personal observations during a visit to the region of a delegation of Quakers, and is informed by Quaker principles, one of which is that in crafting a settlement, all interested parties must be consulted.  They note that this does not include diaspora Jews, since they are able, if they wish, to immigrate to Israel and be given Israeli citizenship, which many of them have done.  Diaspora Palestinians, of course, cannot return to their homes or their land.
When the Rain Returns covers the history of Palestine, including things I did not know.  For instance, that the AFSC took care of refugees after the 1948 war for eighteen months, until the UN took over. Another lacuna in my knowledge is the history of non-violent resistance before and during British colonial rule.  Non-violent resistance continues today, although little of it appears in the western media.
They spoke with Jewish Israelis, one of whom, a psychology professor, saw Israelis becoming “more paranoid, more fearful…. Israelis become so vociferous against any criticism precisely because they are so uneasy in their conscience.  This self-image is crucial; there are many decent, thoughtful Israelis who are living in complete denial of what their government is doing on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip.” (p.41)
Regarding the oft-stated claim that Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan and elsewhere could simply be resettled where they are, they make it clear that “countries that host conflict-driven inflows of refugees are under no international obligation whatsoever to absorb them permanently.  If that were the case, governments would be far more reluctant to offer even temporary refuge to those fleeing violence elsewhere.” (p.128)  And they point out that the diaspora Palestinians have been made powerless by Israel, by the U.S., even by the Palestinian Authority, and that it is quite unconscionable for large groups of people to be kept stateless.
There is a perceptive discussion of the value of violence, a subject which Quakers usually shy away from.  As one of the group wrote, “We must address respectfully the perspective of a humiliated and almost helpless people who turn to or support violence as a means of regaining their self-respect and self-determination; as an attempt to protect their families and friends; as a protest and a refusal to go on passively accepting the endless bludgeoning without letting their oppressors know that they cannot continue without suffering consequences” (p.223).
2
I hope that Quakers who need to know more about what is going on in Israel/Palestine will read this book, perhaps together with Susan Nathan’s The Other Side of Israel, which is also the fruit of personal observation, mostly about the “Israeli Arabs,” Israel’s non-Jewish citizens.
By Elizabeth Block (Toronto Monthly Meeting, CFSC’s Quaker Peace and Sustainable Communities Committee)
The book was prepared by an International Quaker Working Party on Israel and Palestine, and published by American Friends Service Committee, 2004, and may be ordered from the Quaker Book Service ( http://www.quaker.ca/Publications/qbs/qbs.html). Rick McCutcheon, a Canadian, was a member of the working party, and has contributed a chapter.
---
  International Quaker Working Party on Israel and Palestine   When the Rain Returns: Toward Justice and Reconciliation in Palestine and    Israel   (Philadelphia, PA: American Friends Service Committee, 2004, 326pp.)  
  The day after his election on 9 January 2005 to the presidency of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas said “ We extend our hands to our neighbors.  We are ready for peace, peace based on justice.  We hope that their response will be positive.”  Is this a rare opportunity for progress to overcome deep-set frustrations, divisions, hurts and even hate?
  This report from a working party of 14 people sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee aims to provide understanding of both the tensions and the hopes expressed by a range of people —mostly Israelis and Palestinians — interviewed during a three-week period in the summer of 2002 in the Middle East.
  “We hope, therefore, that our account can help build the kind of informed public understanding of this situation that will be necessary as faith groups, other civil society actors and governments around the world all ponder how to give constructive help to the efforts to build a just, sustainable, and hope-filled peace between these two peoples.”
  This report has a moral framework for its analysis: “Because we believe that there is that of God in everyone, we call on Quakers and others to work energetically and non-violently for a solution based on the equal worth and dignity of each person, and on the power of love, forgiveness, moral imagination, and generosity of spirit to find a way to resolve even those conflicts that may appear intractable.”
  When the Rain Returns builds upon two earlier Quaker working party reports, a 1970 Search For Peace in the Middle East and a 1982 A Compassionate Peace: A Future for the Middle East.  The report is the result of intensive talks with people in the Middle East carried out as a group along with reflections of the working party members, many of whom have had experience in Middle East questions, along with observations from people related to the earlier studies on the Middle East and to reading on conflict resolution.
  Much of the report are quotations from those interviewed so that the reader can feel the suffering, fear, intolerance, anger but also hope.  There is enough political and historic background to put the quotations into context.  The report does not try to give answers to the continuing problems as this can only be done by the parties directly involved.  However, the interviewed deal with the questions that will form the agenda of negotiations: the quality of life and socio-economic conditions in a society free from violence and occupation, the condition of Palestinians living abroad, some of whom will want to return, the status of Jerusalem, a city held dear by many Israelis and Palestinians, security relations with other states of the Middle East.
  What positive role can we who are outside the area play?  The report ends with questions addressed to us: “What can we do to support the work of the peace activists in Israel and Palestine?  What can we do to organize in support of a just peace in our meetings, our
congregations, our communities?  What can we do to build relationships with other likeminded people, to publicize the work of Palestinian and Israeli peace activists, or to steer our national governments into wiser and more peace-oriented paths.”
      Rene Wadlow
----

Goodreads | Convincing Ground: Learning to Fall in Love with Your Country by Bruce Pascoe — Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

Rate this book

1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars

Preview

Convincing Ground: Learning to Fall in Love with Your Country

by Bruce Pascoe

really liked it 4.00  ·   Rating Details  ·  12 Ratings  ·  8 Reviews

A wide-ranging, personal and powerful work that resonates with historical and contemporary Australian debates about identity, dispossession, memory, and community. Ranging across the national contemporary political stage, this book critiques the great Australian silence when it comes to dealing respectfully with the construction of the nation’s Indigenous past.

Paperback

Published April 1st 2007 by Aboriginal Studies Press (first published January 1st 2007)

(showing 1-30 of 39)

filter  |  sort: default (?)  |  Rating Details

Jul 10, 2009Joey Diamond rated it it was amazing

Shelves: aus

Well I learnt about the houses that the Wathaurong people built in the Western District. That's just for starters. Fucking genius book. Fucking devastating record of dispossesion. So much great primary source material and I love his strange ramblings as well.

flag1 like · Like · comment · see review

Mar 06, 2012S'hi rated it liked it

Recommends it for: all australians

Despite the enticing feminine and cultured image of the introduction, this book is a difficult read. Perhaps it should be for all the horrors of history which have so long been passed over or minimised in our national conscience. But Pascoe actually challenges further by his peppering of current political opinions and events into this already angry volume. Personally I find the assumption of such an attitude jarring me into resistance against the history he is attempting to bring to light. I don’t agree with the alignment of one era with another in this way. There is much more to the story than presented here and I am inclined to look into his references rather than listen further to his own version. And that seems a wasted opportunity. And he is wrong about democracy. This was a system devised in Greek culture where slaves were part of the invisible picture. To equate indigenous culture in Australia with democracy is actually a denigration of their valuing of all members of their society.(less)

flagLike · comment · see review

Mar 08, 2013Maree Kimberley rated it really liked it

This is a book that will upset some people. But I find Pascoe's central argument - that Australia needs to face the truth about how Aboriginal land was stolen from them in order to come to terms with what it means to be Australian - a valid one.

'Australia has a black history' is not just a slogan on a t-shirt, and Pascoe's book addresses some elements of this statement by writing frankly about the circumstances under which many early white "settlers" took possession of land. In terms of history, Pascoe mainly focuses on incidents that happened in Victoria, in particular those massacres and battles that occurred under Batman and LaTrobe although he does refer to a few other incidents (such as the Coniston Massacre, which was the topic of a documentary released in 2012).

In the six or so years since Pascoe's book was published more about the true history of white invasion in Australia has been released (for example, Rachel Perkins brilliant DVD series and book, The First Australians). However there is still a long way to go in facing up to the realities of the violent nature of black and white relations in the late 1700s, 1800s and 1900s.

Pascoe offers up some good research and some alternative viewpoints but I'll admit his style is at times confronting. But I like his tell it like it is style. Other reviewers have described his writing as rambling but I prefer to call it conversationalist. Pascoe knows he upsets people with some of his views, and he doesn't apologise for this, but at the core of this book is his love for the land of Australia and his sincere wish that through acceptance and acknowledgement of the past, Australians can heal their relationship with this country's First Peoples, and with the land.

If you want to challenge yourself as an Australian, and challenge what you thought you knew about Australian history, read this book. But read it with an open mind, and use it as a catalyst to find out more about the history of Australia, from its ancient history until now.(less)

flagLike · comment · see review

Dec 27, 2014Nike Sulway rated it really liked it

Shelves: australian, non-fiction, book-club, male-writers

"We can make a great nation here, one worthy of the land, but we must be honest with ourselves and learn how we were lucky enough to live here. It won't be easy and sometimes we will be hurt and confused, but nations are not forged without the metal getting hot." (page x)

Lots of people have talked in their reviews about the circular, ambling, personal nature of the writing in this book, and how -- for them -- this detracted from the quality of the work. I'm not going to do that, though it's true that if that's enough to put you off, you will probably struggle with this work. On the other hand, if you are willing to suspend your expectation that a work of history HAS to be linear, impersonal/objective, and unemotional then this book is for you. It is a moving, confronting, didactic, heartfelt, and energetic book about the way Australian history has been written -- what has been left, how and why -- and why it's important for you -- yes you -- to learn the truth. To seek out the truth of the history of your country. And to know that despite the many terrible things that happened here, it is still your country. And you can fall in love with it.

I came to this book after having read a little of Pascoe's fiction, and having had the great honour of meeting him, very briefly, at the Watermark Literary Muster. I have rarely had the honour of meeting a more imposing and gentle man.

It is a peripatetic and partial reconstruction of the history of some areas of Australia, with a particular focus on the south-east coastal areas/Victoria, and Tasmania. In a sense, it is more historiography than history: a book about what happened, but why what happened has disappeared, largely, from the historical record. Or was never part of it to begin with. It is an attempt to begin to recover what evidence there is for a 'history from below'.

The book is rambling, and personal, and shot through with passion -- anger and love. It is an uncomfortable read, if you are a whitefella living on this land with any sense of consciousness about what happened in order for that to be the case.

I am a first generation Australian. My parents came here from Europe after the Second World War. It would be easy for me to say that what was done to the Indigenous peoples of Australia in the early years of settlement is not my responsibility. In a strictly personal sense, it isn't. BUT, my parents were able to come to Australia, and settle here, and flourish, because Australia was 'settled' by the English. The work they did in founding the colony, and the genocidal practices that were included in that action, are part of what made it possible for my Western European/Anglo parents to settle here. To buy homes built on land that was once stolen from Indigenous people, for example.

This is my country, my home, and its history is not an easy one. Few histories are easy to live with, if lived with honestly. And reading this book has been, for me, one small part of facing up to the history of the country of which I am a citizen.

A friend who moved to Australia from Zimbabwe talked recently, following the death of Mandela, about the 'Truth and Reconciliation Commission' in neighbouring South Africa. About how her recollection of that process was that it was a period in which people told their stories. And how it was the role of everyone in the country (and many of those outside it) just to listen. To listen well. To pay attention. To acknowledge and receive the history of their country, so that they could face the future with dignity, honesty, and hope for a better world. So that they could know what they had done, or what had been done in their name, or what they had benefitted from, even indirectly.

Reading this book was like reading one testimony from the almost silenced, invisible and unofficial Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Australia. I feel honoured to have read it. Awed by the courage of those who fought in the colonial war. Shamed by the way in which my ignorance has contributed to the ongoing silencing and oppression of the truth about my country's history. Grateful to have my eyes opened. (less

Convincing Ground: Learning to Fall in Love with Your Country by Bruce Pascoe — Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

Goodreads | Convincing Ground: Learning to Fall in Love with Your Country by Bruce Pascoe — Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

Rate this book

1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars

Preview

Convincing Ground: Learning to Fall in Love with Your Country

by Bruce Pascoe

really liked it 4.00  ·   Rating Details  ·  12 Ratings  ·  8 Reviews

A wide-ranging, personal and powerful work that resonates with historical and contemporary Australian debates about identity, dispossession, memory, and community. Ranging across the national contemporary political stage, this book critiques the great Australian silence when it comes to dealing respectfully with the construction of the nation’s Indigenous past.

Paperback

Published April 1st 2007 by Aboriginal Studies Press (first published January 1st 2007)

(showing 1-30 of 39)

filter  |  sort: default (?)  |  Rating Details

Jul 10, 2009Joey Diamond rated it it was amazing

Shelves: aus

Well I learnt about the houses that the Wathaurong people built in the Western District. That's just for starters. Fucking genius book. Fucking devastating record of dispossesion. So much great primary source material and I love his strange ramblings as well.

flag1 like · Like · comment · see review

Mar 06, 2012S'hi rated it liked it

Recommends it for: all australians

Despite the enticing feminine and cultured image of the introduction, this book is a difficult read. Perhaps it should be for all the horrors of history which have so long been passed over or minimised in our national conscience. But Pascoe actually challenges further by his peppering of current political opinions and events into this already angry volume. Personally I find the assumption of such an attitude jarring me into resistance against the history he is attempting to bring to light. I don’t agree with the alignment of one era with another in this way. There is much more to the story than presented here and I am inclined to look into his references rather than listen further to his own version. And that seems a wasted opportunity. And he is wrong about democracy. This was a system devised in Greek culture where slaves were part of the invisible picture. To equate indigenous culture in Australia with democracy is actually a denigration of their valuing of all members of their society.(less)

flagLike · comment · see review

Mar 08, 2013Maree Kimberley rated it really liked it

This is a book that will upset some people. But I find Pascoe's central argument - that Australia needs to face the truth about how Aboriginal land was stolen from them in order to come to terms with what it means to be Australian - a valid one.

'Australia has a black history' is not just a slogan on a t-shirt, and Pascoe's book addresses some elements of this statement by writing frankly about the circumstances under which many early white "settlers" took possession of land. In terms of history, Pascoe mainly focuses on incidents that happened in Victoria, in particular those massacres and battles that occurred under Batman and LaTrobe although he does refer to a few other incidents (such as the Coniston Massacre, which was the topic of a documentary released in 2012).

In the six or so years since Pascoe's book was published more about the true history of white invasion in Australia has been released (for example, Rachel Perkins brilliant DVD series and book, The First Australians). However there is still a long way to go in facing up to the realities of the violent nature of black and white relations in the late 1700s, 1800s and 1900s.

Pascoe offers up some good research and some alternative viewpoints but I'll admit his style is at times confronting. But I like his tell it like it is style. Other reviewers have described his writing as rambling but I prefer to call it conversationalist. Pascoe knows he upsets people with some of his views, and he doesn't apologise for this, but at the core of this book is his love for the land of Australia and his sincere wish that through acceptance and acknowledgement of the past, Australians can heal their relationship with this country's First Peoples, and with the land.

If you want to challenge yourself as an Australian, and challenge what you thought you knew about Australian history, read this book. But read it with an open mind, and use it as a catalyst to find out more about the history of Australia, from its ancient history until now.(less)

flagLike · comment · see review

Dec 27, 2014Nike Sulway rated it really liked it

Shelves: australian, non-fiction, book-club, male-writers

"We can make a great nation here, one worthy of the land, but we must be honest with ourselves and learn how we were lucky enough to live here. It won't be easy and sometimes we will be hurt and confused, but nations are not forged without the metal getting hot." (page x)

Lots of people have talked in their reviews about the circular, ambling, personal nature of the writing in this book, and how -- for them -- this detracted from the quality of the work. I'm not going to do that, though it's true that if that's enough to put you off, you will probably struggle with this work. On the other hand, if you are willing to suspend your expectation that a work of history HAS to be linear, impersonal/objective, and unemotional then this book is for you. It is a moving, confronting, didactic, heartfelt, and energetic book about the way Australian history has been written -- what has been left, how and why -- and why it's important for you -- yes you -- to learn the truth. To seek out the truth of the history of your country. And to know that despite the many terrible things that happened here, it is still your country. And you can fall in love with it.

I came to this book after having read a little of Pascoe's fiction, and having had the great honour of meeting him, very briefly, at the Watermark Literary Muster. I have rarely had the honour of meeting a more imposing and gentle man.

It is a peripatetic and partial reconstruction of the history of some areas of Australia, with a particular focus on the south-east coastal areas/Victoria, and Tasmania. In a sense, it is more historiography than history: a book about what happened, but why what happened has disappeared, largely, from the historical record. Or was never part of it to begin with. It is an attempt to begin to recover what evidence there is for a 'history from below'.

The book is rambling, and personal, and shot through with passion -- anger and love. It is an uncomfortable read, if you are a whitefella living on this land with any sense of consciousness about what happened in order for that to be the case.

I am a first generation Australian. My parents came here from Europe after the Second World War. It would be easy for me to say that what was done to the Indigenous peoples of Australia in the early years of settlement is not my responsibility. In a strictly personal sense, it isn't. BUT, my parents were able to come to Australia, and settle here, and flourish, because Australia was 'settled' by the English. The work they did in founding the colony, and the genocidal practices that were included in that action, are part of what made it possible for my Western European/Anglo parents to settle here. To buy homes built on land that was once stolen from Indigenous people, for example.

This is my country, my home, and its history is not an easy one. Few histories are easy to live with, if lived with honestly. And reading this book has been, for me, one small part of facing up to the history of the country of which I am a citizen.

A friend who moved to Australia from Zimbabwe talked recently, following the death of Mandela, about the 'Truth and Reconciliation Commission' in neighbouring South Africa. About how her recollection of that process was that it was a period in which people told their stories. And how it was the role of everyone in the country (and many of those outside it) just to listen. To listen well. To pay attention. To acknowledge and receive the history of their country, so that they could face the future with dignity, honesty, and hope for a better world. So that they could know what they had done, or what had been done in their name, or what they had benefitted from, even indirectly.

Reading this book was like reading one testimony from the almost silenced, invisible and unofficial Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Australia. I feel honoured to have read it. Awed by the courage of those who fought in the colonial war. Shamed by the way in which my ignorance has contributed to the ongoing silencing and oppression of the truth about my country's history. Grateful to have my eyes opened. (less