Bringing Them Home

In this national bestseller Robert Mane attacks the right-wing campaign against the Bringing them home report that revealed how thousands of Aborigines had been taken from their parents. What was the role of Paddy McGuinness as editor of Quadrant? How reliable was the evidence that led newspaper columnists from Piers Akerman in the Sydney Daily Telegraph to Andrew Bolt in the Melbourne Herald Sun to deny the gravity of the injustice done? In a powerful indictment of past government policies towards the Aborigines, Robert Manne has written a brilliant polemical essay which doubles as a succinct history of how Aborigines were mistreated and an exposure of the ignorance of those who want to deny that history. "In Denial is not a book of history. It is a political intervention. By holding an influential section of the Right to account-Manne was exercising the kind of responsibility often demanded of public intellectuals." —Raimond Gaita "In complex intellectual conflicts, there will always be argument about whether the antagonists are committed to finding the truth or to winning the battle. This essay tells us that Robert Manne is intent on finding the truth." —Morag Fraser "In Denial is a work of both the head and the heart. It is carefully researched and powerfully expressed. It needs to be widely read." —The Hon. P.J Keating 6 April 2001 "Robert Manne has made an important contribution to the continuing debate and in doing so has helped launch a new and important venture." —Henry Reynolds

There was a hum of excitement. Flags flickered in the breeze as Maggie's heart danced with delight. 'This is a very special day!' her mother said. Maggie holds tight to her mother as they await the long anticipated apology to show a willingness to reconcile the past for future generations. In the excitement of the crowd Maggie loses touch of her mother's hand as is lost. In a time 'long ago and not so long ago' children were taken from their parents, their 'sorrow echoing across the land'. As the Prime Minister's speech unfolds Maggie is reunited with her mother. But the faces and memories of the stolen generation are all around them. Two stories entwine in this captivating retelling of the momentous day when the then Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, acknowledged the sorrows of past and said 'Sorry' to the generation of children who were taken from their homes. The book includes a foreword from Lee Joachim; Chair of Rumbalara Aboriginal Cooperative and Director of Research and Development for Yorta Yorta Nation Aboriginal Corporation.

Based on true events, Bringing Them Home follows the lives of several young service members: fierce and feminine O’Neil, the narrator, who surprises everyone by enlisting; Jake, straightforward and handsome, a friend who turns into so much more; Ace, O’Neil’s on-base bestie who becomes more like a sister; and Jonas, Jake’s closest friend and teammate. Offering an inside look at war, this book allows the reader to see inside the relationships, friendships, hardships, and challenges experienced by the everyday individuals who defend our nation. “I already know someone saw this title and said, ‘Great, another book on PTSD.’ Wrong. That’s not the perspective I’m coming at you from. There are so many factors regarding these guys, deployments, and PTSD that isn’t able to be summed up in some dictionary as a psycho-analyzed term. What constitutes as normal, I believe, is the real question. If someone sees something incredibly traumatic, life-changing, or gut-wrenching, it’s impossible not to change in some way. Unless you’re stagnant in your personal growth as an individual, we are all changing all the time, typically for the better. We are always learning, evolving, and growing. No one ever really stays the same. I know that the circumstances with Jake and I were very different than most. The fact of the matter is, war and military love is anything but romantic. You see the constant romanticization of it in movies, but no one sees what really happens to the men and women who come home.”

Bringing them home.

The Black Grapevine tells the extraordinary story of Indigenous efforts to stop children becoming part of the 'stolen generations' and to end the government policies and practices which destroyed their families.Linda Briskman uses the story of the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Island Child Care (SNAICC) to centre her book. Indigenous people involved tell how they came together to form a national organisation for child care, how they found similar experiences from one end of Australia to the other, how they pooled experience and emotion to provide support for one another, how they lobbied for a national inquiry.And they campaigned. Indigenous activists fought with astonishing resilience for recognition of past and present practices, for the right to have Indigenous viewpoints to the forefront, and for resources.Briskman's story goes beyond the contest with the state to give a convincing portrait of the ways in which Indigenous groups worked. There are connections with international action, educational and fund-raising projects, and the much-vaunted annual Aboriginal and Islander Children's Day.She concludes by reflecting on the successes of campaigns and actions to date, and the extent of 'unfinished business'. Her strong academic background combines with the oral testimony of the activists to produce a fast-moving book that is both entertaining and rigorous.

The removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families gained national attention in Australia following the Bringing Them Home Report in 1997. However, the voices of Indigenous parents were largely missing from the Report. The Inquiry attributed their lack of testimony to the impact of trauma and the silencing impact of parents’ overwhelming sense of guilt and despair; a submission by Link-Up NSW commented on Aboriginal mothers being “unwilling and unable to speak about the immense pain, grief and anguish that losing their children had caused them.” This book explores what happened to Aboriginal mothers who had children removed and why they have overwhelmingly remained silent about their experiences. Identifying the structural barriers to Aboriginal mothering in the Stolen Generations era, the author examines how contemporary laws, policies and practices increased the likelihood of Aboriginal child removal and argues that negative perceptions of Aboriginal mothering underpinned removal processes, with tragic consequences. This book makes an important contribution to understanding the history of the Stolen Generations and highlights the importance of designing inclusive truth-telling processes that enable a diversity of perspectives to be shared.

In the end, I trusted gut feeling most when picking these essays ...... writing that made me laugh, reminded me of times I'd forgotten, or took me places I'd always wanted to go. - David Marr It was the year of Wall Street's collapse and Australia's apology, of a film-world tragedy and an art-world scandal. In Best Australian Essays 2008, David Marr has selected great writing from a turbulent time. With eyewitness accounts from crisis zones and film sets, deserts and campaign trails, and tales of failing banks and wounded birds, hitchhiking and footy jumpers, mourning brothers and raising children, music, media, art, love and obscenity, these wonderful essays paint a vivid picture of the year that was. Contributors include- Tim Flannery, Kate Jennings, Guy Rundle, Don Watson, Christos Tsiolkas, Robert Manne, Les Carlyon, Tim Winton, Robert Dessaix, Barry Humphries, Inga Clendinnen, David Malouf, Nicolas Rothwell, plus many more.