AustLit

'As an eleven-year-old cherub, I remember the 1967 Referendum well and the lead-up to it. If I had to make another toffee or lamington for the numerous fundraising drives, I was sure I'd puke. Similarly, the standing on street corners handing out badges and pamphlets, the barbeques, the dances and the talks that my dearest and committed mother would 'drag' us around to were all in the week's agenda.' (Publication abstract)

My writing is often a personal account of my own journey in dealing with particular issues. I do acknowledge the demand by some contemporary theorists for a transparent and reflexive strategy in cultural production. Such strategies, it is claimed, place analysis within the context of the subjective experiences that shape it. I think that this approach is commendable. But that is not the only reason why I write as I do. Aboriginal protocol usually links the right to tell a story with a declaration of involvement or connection to the story. This, for me, is a more compelling reason to make the connections between the issues about which I write and myself.' (Publication abstract)

'Over the past two decades, rock music has become a conspicuous means through which Aborigines confront and raise awareness about issues affecting Indigenous Australians and seek to educate other Australians about Aboriginal cultures. Aboriginal rock music is a complex site with multiple meanings dependent on, among other factors, the perspective of the listener, changing attitudes to Aboriginal arts, and the representation of Aboriginality by performers, writers, and the record industry. It is common, for example, to align Aboriginal rock music with other indigenous musics internationally and to present it as protest music from a reading of its topics at the level of the individual song. This approach is found in Breen (1994), Chi (1990), Streit-Warburton (1995) and Sweeney (1991), and song topics cited by these writers include black deaths in custodv, the removal of Aboriginal children from their parents, Aboriginal prison experience, and land rights. Strengthening the view of the song as the unit of meaning is the practice of using it for spreading information about the dangers and consequences of AIDS (for example, 'Inipanya AIDS Ngku' by Isaac Yamma and the Pitjantjatjara Country Band), alcohol abuse (for example, 'Leave the Grog' by the Yartulu Yartulu Band) and petrol sniffing (for example, 'Petrol Sniffing' by the Wedgetail Eagle Band) in Aboriginal communities, and for the expression of local identity (for example, 'Ngura Panyatja Titjikalanya' by the Titjikala Desert Oaks Band; 'Warumpinya' by the Warumpi Band).'  (Publication abstract)

'As an anthropologist, Diane Barwick reminded us that people of less than full Aboriginal descent are Aborigines too. As an historian, she rescued from anonymity the people who paid the highest price for the establishment of a new European society in the southern hemisphere (Reece 1987, 3).' (Publication abstract)

'Rita Cynthia Huggins was born in Carnarvon Gorge/Springsure, Queensland, on 10 August 1921. She died on 27 August 1996, in Brisbane. The fact that over a thousand people, both black and white, attended her funeral last August, in Brisbane, is testimony to her standing in the Aboriginal community and beyond. Rita Huggins was one of those people whom you never quite forgot. You could never say 'Rita who?' after meeting her. For she was a woman of presence, passion and dignity.'  (Introduction)