Publisher's Synopsis
In this groundbreaking book, author Davina B Woods PhD presents a rigorous investigation into the shared history of Australia, filling in gaps in knowledge of most people of the uncomfortable truths of tragic, sometimes violent incidents from our shared history.
We as a society need to know about these historical events. It is the way to move forward as a nation towards harmonious relationships between the First Peoples of Australia and those who themselves or their ancestors came after 1788.
A labour of love, the researching and writing of this book has taken the author from her teenage years to a woman with grandchildren. Her dedication to the work is driven by her belief in the inclusion of First Peoples perspectives in Australian history, our shared history, as a healing process.
Beginning as family history, telling the story of her First Peoples grandfather and the colonisers in whose household he lived and worked, the book naturally evolved to become a truth-telling about Australia's shared history. Along the way Davina also touches on the position of women, South Sea Islanders, Chinese and soldiers.
A must-read for anyone wishing to deepen their understanding, it exposes a little known secret of the shared history of Australia's First Peoples and the colonisers.
