AustLit

'Briscoe's grandmother remembered stories about the first white men coming to the Northern Territory. This... memoir shows us the history of an Aboriginal family who lived under the race laws, practices and policies of Australia in the twentieth century. It tells the story of a people trapped in ideological folly spawned to solve 'the half-caste problem'. It gives life to those generations of Aboriginal people assumed to have no history and whose past labels them only as shadowy figures.

Briscoe's... narrative combines his [own], and his contemporaries, institutional and family life with a high-level career at the heart of the Aboriginal political movement at its most dynamic time. It also documents the road he travelled as a seventeen year old fireman on the South Australia Railways to becoming the first Aboriginal person to achieve a PhD in history.' Source: Publisher's blurb

Discusses author's intentions and achievements in this novel.

'Burnum Burnum, born Harry Penrith during 1936, was a prominent Australian and a leader in the Aboriginal societies in which he grew up. Burnum Burnum, a name which he took from his greatgrandfather, was born at Wallaga Lake on the south coast of New South Wales. His mother came from this region and his father from Victoria, and his traditional ties were both Woiworung and Yorta Yorta. It was not surprising, therefore, that he was best known for his early political activity in southern New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania, where he was educated. In his very early childhood he was admitted by the NS W government to the United Aborigines Mission's home for children at Bomaderry. As was customary for state wards reaching primary school, he went to Kinchela boys home near Kempsey. Harry Penrith excelled at high school. On leaving school, he was employed in 1955 in the N.S.W. Department of Agriculture.' (Introduction)

'Kevin John Gilbert died on 1 April 1993 from a debilitating respiratory illness. He was an acclaimed Australian writer and he takes his place at the hem of 'the Australian national tradition'. During his life, however, he was an enigma to Australians, Aborigines and other Australians alike. This appreciation hopes to throw some light on the man by discussing first, my personal view, second, the literary authenticity of what he wrote about, and third, the public Kevin Gilbert.'