AustLit

'Every hill got a story is the first comprehensive history of Central Australia’s Aboriginal people, as told in their own words and many languages.

'Nyinanyi ngurangka – being on country – is not a ‘lifestyle choice’ but a hard-won right, a spiritual and cultural duty, a constant battle, a source of happiness and opportunity and the meaning of life all at the same time.

'In this heartbreaking, funny and poignant collection, 127 eminent men and women remember surviving first contact, massacres and forced removals and resisting more than a century of top-down government policies.

''I'm your half-brother and I'm here to stay. This is my home.' With these words Wilmot Abraham sought refuge with his white relations. Wilmot was the best-known Aboriginal in the Warrnambool district of Victoria, a man who maintained the old way of life long after his people were dispossessed. Local farmers spoke of him as 'the last of his tribe'. Few were aware that his father had been a white lad working as a boundary rider on the Western District frontier; and only the Aboriginal community knew that Wilmot had barely escaped with his life from the violent seizure of his mother's people's country.

'Survival In Our Own Land presents history in 'South Australia' for the first time from the point of view of Nungas, as many 'Aborigines' call themselves, showing Goonyas, as Europeans are called, as the invaders.

Almost 150 Nungas have told how the Goonya invasion and implementation of Goonya law and policy have affected us. Fifty years ago for 'South Australia's' centenary we were a chapter in a Goonya book. Now we are our own books.

The stories, in prose and poetry, speak volumes of much that has been previously omitted from history and textbooks.

'These stories rise out of the pain of separation and displacement. Showing hope and forgiveness, the writers give an insight into the strength of the human spirit. The Stolen Children - Their Stories is an acknowledgement of the human tragedy created during a misunderstood and shameful part of Australia's history. The Stolen Children - Their Stories includes a collection of documents and personal stories of Indigenous people that appear in the Report from the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Bringing Them Home.

'Separating Aboriginal children from family and community began as soon as Europeans set foot on our land. The belief that it is in the best interest of Aboriginal children to be removed from Aboriginal culture and assimilated into White culture has justified the systematic disruption of Aboriginal families. This book traces the history of removing Aboriginal children in New South Wales and contains testimonies of Aboriginals whose lives have been profoundly and painfully altered by separation.