AustLit

'Day Break is the story of a family making their way back to Country on January 26. We see the strength they draw from being together, and from sharing stories as they move through a shifting landscape.

'The story refocuses the narratives around ‘Australia Day’ on Indigenous survival and resistance, and in doing so honours the past while looking to the future. Confronting yet truthful, painful yet full of hope, Day Break is a crucial story that will open up a conversation on truth-telling for the next generation.' (Publication summary)

'In times of crisis I take comfort in the words of black women in whatever form, whether it’s poetry, fiction, memoir, academia, journalism or a Twitter feed. When a white police officer killed an African-American man on camera in May, and ignited the fury of the world, I found strength in the activism of Aboriginal women who continued to break through the stifling silences to shout black lives matter on our own shores too. The writing of black women is powerful because, as Distinguished Professor Aileen Moreton-Robinson writes, although we come from a diversity of backgrounds and circumstances, we also share common experiences:

All Indigenous women share the common experience of living in a society that deprecates us. We share the experience of having different cultural knowledges.

We share in the experience of the continual denial of our sovereignties. We share experiences of the politics of dispossession. We share our respective countries’ histories of colonisation. We share the experience of multiple oppressions. We share in the experiences of living in a hegemonic white patriarchal society.

(Introduction)

'For the entirety of my childhood – all through the ’90s, the early noughts – I watched my father go through the same routine. Most days, he rose before the sun, putting on the kettle and sipping coffee as he watched the darkness fade into light. His uniform would be ironed and laid out from the night before, each crease perfectly pressed, just as he learned in the army. He would brush his teeth, comb his bushy hair and kiss us – his children – goodbye, before pushing out the door to make the twenty-minute drive to the Etna Creek jail, just outside Rockhampton.'  (Introduction)

'If you want to know the difference between the Black and White Witness, all you have to do is mention the war. The White Witness will often describe it in this way. In 2004, Palm Island was continually referred to as the 'most dangerous place on Earth outside of a conflict zone', following the tragic death in custody of Mulrunji Doomadgee (who died on a watchhouse floor, with a liver cleaved in two and injuries akin to those of a plane crash victim). In 2015 the Cape York community of Aurukun was labelled ground zero, with 'clashes between warring families ... Forcing terrified locals to flee for their safety', and 'children (who) were now caught in a warzone'. The same was said of Wadeye, thousands of kilometres away in north-east Arnhem Land, which in 2006 was labelled 'Not the Third World, just Australia's first war zone' with 'scores of Aborigines' 'fleeing their homes' and 'living in squalid refugee-like camps' due to 'gang violence'. In 2013 the 'Sydney Morning Herald' manipulated crime statistics to claim that the far-west NSW town of Bourke, with its large Aboriginal population, was 'the most dangerous place on Earth'.'  (Publication abstract)

'It has become one of those family anecdotes: the time a stranger thought my dad had stolen me. 

'Dad was walking around a shopping centre in Liverpool, where I was born and lived for a few months in infancy, when a perplexed man came up to him and asked, 'Is that your baby?' The implication was that he was worried I had been kidnapped.' (Introduction)

In 2016 highly acclaimed Darumbal and South Sea Islander woman and journalist Amy McQuire teamed up with Yuin man and accomplished human rights Lawyer Martin Hodgson and began the podcast to redress the case of Kevin Henry or ‘Kurtain’, who was wrongfully imprisoned 25 years before for the murder of Aboriginal woman ‘Linda’ (last name withheld) in Rockhampton. The two hosts have since used the podcast as a platform to not only present the evidence about the case of Kevin Henry but also to inform their audience of other injustices around the world.

'This is Curtain – a podcast where we pull back the blinds to shine a light on the darkest parts of our justice system and ask – who are the victims?

'A new investigation into the murder trial of Kevin “Curtain” Henry, from Rockhampton Queensland.'

(Source : Curtain The Podcast website)