Press

Newsletter Sept 2021

Hi all you wonderful readers – I’m blessed to be living in Cairns in the Sunshine state of Queensland and we have only had 3 days of lockdown due to Covid-19 this year, faring much better than crowded cities like Sydney and Melbourne coping with the Delta strain.

In fact, except for the QR code requirement at venues, life has not changed much in Cairns since Covid-19 struck. My best wishes go out to all of you who have had your lives curtailed by many restrictions. A big hug to all of you who have been doing it tough. I only hope that during this time, you’ve been able to use it creatively to try out new things and to catch up on things you didn’t have time to do before. Maybe you even have more time to read books. Anyway, there is light at the end of the tunnel, so all the best.

Below are 2 photos taken by Norman of the Cairns Esplanade at night. Maybe we should be called a City of Lights.

During NAIDOC Week (National Aborigines and Islanders Week), I was interviewed about my new book Secrets and Lies

by Trevour Timms of Bummera Bippera Indigenous radio in Cairns
for National Indigenous Radio.
Here is the short but lively interview:

Mp3 format

High Maximum quality (WAV) file
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s9j-9RqC5l3NPsI3ORLXd-vbDWSmrW5d/view

SPECIAL PROMOTION

FREE EBOOK – White Woman Black Heart from 14-18 Sept on amazon – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CCMV6CP
Oppressed Aborigines forced off their land at gunpoint. Over a decade later, one passionate young woman would take up their fight. Melbourne, 1970’s. Twenty-three-year-old university student Barbara Miller always stood her ground, even when it made her an outcast in her own family. So when she became a radical Christian advocate for social change, she didn’t think twice about joining the movement for Aboriginal justice. Boldly relocating to tropical Cape York and linking up with a Black activist and mentor on the frontline, she plunged into a life-changing battle despite the State’s threat of legal prosecution.

14-18 Sept the following ebooks will be reduced to 99c on amazon.
The Dying Days of Segregation in Australia – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GF864Q6
Did the deep north of Australia experience racism, discrimination, and segregation? Yes. But it was different from the deep south of the USA. A system similar to South African apartheid existed on Aboriginal reserves like Yarrabah in Queensland till as recently as 1984.

White Australia Has A Black History
https://www.amazon.com/dp/064847223X
Some say he was Australia’s Martin Luther King. William Cooper saw his Aboriginal people dying around him and decided black lives matter. Starvation and discrimination took their toll. He became passionate that they should have a voice in Australia’s federal parliament.

Shattered Lives Broken Dreams –
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084Q4SSTX
The Nazis shatter glass and shatter the lives of European Jews at Kristallnacht, the start of the Holocaust. An Australian Aboriginal, William Cooper, leads the campaign for civil rights for his people who are dying of poverty and mistreatment around him. 1938; two worlds, far apart. Cut to the core after Kristallnacht, can he do anything to stop it?

BOOK OF THE MONTH

There were certainly plenty of good books to choose from. The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku is not new but it is certainly acclaimed. It is the WINNER OF THE ABIA BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR 2021.

Life can be beautiful if you make it beautiful. It is up to you. Eddie Jaku always considered himself a German first, a Jew second. He was proud of his country. But all of that changed in November 1938, when he was beaten, arrested, and taken to a concentration camp.

Over the next seven years, Eddie faced unimaginable horrors every day, first in Buchenwald, then in Auschwitz, then on a Nazi death march. He lost family, friends, his country. Because he survived, Eddie made the vow to smile every day. He pays tribute to those who were lost by telling his story, sharing his wisdom, and living his best possible life. He now believes he is the ‘happiest man on earth’.

Published as Eddie turns 100, this is a powerful, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful memoir of how happiness can be found even in the darkest of times.

  • SHORTLISTED FOR THE ABA NIELSEN BOOK BOOKSELLERS’ CHOICE – ADULT NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021
  • SHORTLISTED FOR THE INDIE BOOK AWARDS FOR NON-FICTION 2021
  • LONGLISTED FOR MATT RICHELL AWARD FOR NEW WRITER OF THE YEAR 2021 

Interview I did with ABC Radio Cairns for Reconciliation Week on my book Secrets and Lies

 

REVIEW FEATURE

Authors depend on reviews so I help other authors out with reviews when I can so I have decided to feature a few occasionally in case you’re interested. They are usually inexpensive and quick to read as ebooks on amazon.

Instead of the reviews this month, I have included an exciting opportunity for you with a feature called – BOOKS YOU MIGHT LIKE.
They are from other non fiction authors. Check it out now – https://storyoriginapp.com/to/RWP8CwX

 

Question- What is your favourite book and why in a few words? Or a book that impacted you as a child? Let me know: 

bmiller-books@bigpond.com 

One of the books that impacted me in childhood was Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, an 1852 anti-slavery novel that had great impact in the US.

 

CAIRNS – CITY IN A RAINFOREST – PAINTING BY ABORIGINAL ARTIST MUNGANBANA. If you want to see more, go to www.munganbana.com.au

Newsletter August 2021

Hi all you wonderful readers – It was an effort to get this newsletter out because I am in my 11th day of being sick with a painful bacterial infection of my leg called cellulitis. After a couple of short stints in hospital and some home nursing from the hospital, I am slowly on the mend at home with antibiotics. I know some of you are in lockdown because of covid. Not an easy situation but I wish you all the best and hope you can take some time out to read.

Announcement My new book Secrets and Lies: The Shocking Truth About Recent Aboriginal History, A Memoir, is available on Amazon for 2.99 US as an ebook. The print book will be available from my website for Australians or from Amazon worldwide. Here is the link – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B095SDW3LY

I would love some reviews on Amazon please and for you to share about it on social media. IRealesedon 3 July, it has been no 1 best seller in a number of categories and no. 1 new release in a lot of categories – Civil Law, Public Law, Constitutional Law Discrimination, International Treaties, Sociology of Race Relations, Civil Rights, Australian and NZ History, Australian and Oceanian Politics, Study and Teaching and Education Reference.

I have done interviews with Cairns ABC, The Cairns Post where it was front page as well as inside, Torres Strait Islander Radio, Bumma Bippera Radio and National Indigenous Radio Service and Vision Christian Radio. Below are photos of me with my new book banner outside Munganbana Aboriginal Art Gallery and my article in The Cairns Post. Norman photocopied it with the QR code to my website

barbara miller banner shopfront

barbara miller frontpage paper

BOOK OF THE MONTH

God is Good for You: A Defence of Christianity in troubled times by Greg Sheridan, foreign editor of The Australian newspaper.

At a time of crisis for Christianity in the West, God is Good for You shows just why we need faith in our world.

The Judeo-Christian tradition has created and underpinned the moral and legal fabric of Western civilisation for more than 2000 years, yet now we’ve reached a point in both Australia and many parts of the West where Christianity has become a minority faith rather than the mainstream belief. It’s a situation that’s fraught both for Christians and our wider society, where the moral certainties that were the foundation of our institutions and laws are no longer held by the majority.

At this point of crisis for faith, God is Good for You shows us why Christianity is so vital for our personal and social well-being, and how modern Christians have never worked so hard to make the world a better place at a time when their faith has never been less valued. It carries a vital torch for Christianity in a way that’s closely argued, warmly human, good humoured yet passionate, and, above all, convincing.

Interview I did with Vision Christian Radio Australia

Vision radio Q and A

REVIEW FEATURE

Authors depend on reviews so I help other authors out with reviews when I can so I have decided to feature a few occasionally in case you’re interested. They are usually inexpensive and quick to read as ebooks on amazon.

Instead of the reviews this month, I have included an exciting opportunity for you with a feature called – BOOKS YOU MIGHT LIKE.
They are from other non fiction authors. Check it out now – https://storyoriginapp.com/to/RWP8CwX

Books on Yarrabah, Mapoon, William Cooper and de Quiros

The Dying Days of Segregation in Australia: Case Study Yarrabah– https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GF864Q6/ 
White Woman Black Heart: Journey Home to Old Mapoon, A Memoir– https://www.amazon.com/dp-B07CCMV6CP/
White Australia Has A Black History: William Cooper and First Nations Peoples’ Political Activism – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X1MYCDX/
William Cooper Gentle Warrior and The European Quest to Find Terra Australis Incognita:Quiros Torres and Janszoon – www.barbara-miller-books.com

Be blessed and happy reading!

Barbara Miller Books Newsletter June 2021

Announcement My new book Secrets and Lies: The Shocking Truth About Recent Aboriginal History, A Memoir, is available for pre-order on Amazon for the special price of 99c US as an ebook. It will be launched on 3 July and will stay at 99c for a few more days. The print book will be available shortly after. Here is the link – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B095SDW3LY

I would love some reviews on Amazon please and for you to share about it on social medial. It is my second memoir, a follow-up from White Woman Black Heart which was too long. So in mid-2017, I pulled out about 50,000 words written mostly in 2016 and published White Woman Black Heart in March 2018. I planned to use the chapters I took out to write a second memoir and wondered if I would ever get back to it.

Then in November 2020, I had a dream where I was taken to Aurukun Aboriginal community, and saw an elder, a relative by marriage who was a Uniting Church pastor. In my dream, I thought ‘but you’ve passed away’. Then I saw a young Aboriginal girl who I thought might be his great-granddaughter. She pointed to a mobile phone of all things and said, “This is your story. You need to tell it.” Surprised, I didn’t say anything. The next morning, I remembered the dream clearly and that the first few chapters of my unfinished second memoir were about Aurukun. This gave me the inspiration and motivation to pick up the pieces and finish the writing.

REVIEW
Secrets and Lies: The Shocking Truth of Recent Aboriginal History, A Memoir, is both a political chronicle and a personal memoir – a journey the young Barbara took into political activism and personal transformation, which became life-long. Barbara Miller shows the political and the personal can be two sides of a life journey of service.

There is critical history in this book from an activist on the inside. Yet the book also shows that political activism is not enough. It must be balanced by personal integrity and pursuit. The journey from the political into the personal, with fulfillment in spiritual practice, is also illuminating. Can we do one without the other? I think not, whatever the spiritual practice is.

Barbara’s book bought memories of the days of the Aboriginal Co-ordinating Council (ACC), both of us working at different levels within the ACC to respond to the directions and needs of the old reserve mission controls moving into deeds of grant in trust and ‘self-management’. Barbara’s political background provided essential insight and sound analysis. Mine saw the failure of the services delivered by a racist regime, with the ACC working to meet their legislative responsibilities. Barbara supported this work through research. Hers has been an inspirational journey of service at many levels.

Judy Atkinson, Emeritus Professor, PhD AM

ANOTHER REVIEW OF SECRETS AND LIES
Secrets and Lies contains exciting examples of the battles by the indigenous people of QLD against a repressive state regime which greedily sought to control their land and their lives in order to exploit the natural resources. They have developed a remarkable capacity for developing relationships with non-indigenous people who have joined them in their struggle. Barbara has been admitted, not only into their confidence, but also into their families and has achieved remarkable advantages for them in those battles.

Paul Richards, lawyer, author of Adventures with Agitators


MONTHLY FEATURED BOOK BY ANOTHER AUTHOR

it is incredible to read a true account of a life and understand firsthand what leads a person down ‘an inevitable path’. The person in question is Josie Lacey OAM whose experiences of antisemitism and the rise of Nazism saw her and her parents have to leave their homeland, apply to immigrate to Australia, arriving here in 1939.

At school as a ‘reffo’ Josie encountered ignorance and antisemitism which left an indelible mark. Her strong moral stance and her deep desire to combat racism and foster greater understanding between people of different faiths has resulted in her extraordinary life’s work; to educate, demystify and to fulfill responsibilities to family members who never had the chance to reach their potential. The scope and extent of this work demonstrates Josie’s many and varied achievements, including her interfaith activities, her enormous contribution to WIZO and her work on the Race Discrimination laws. Her commitment to her husband, Ian, and to her family is like every aspect of her life; complete and unfaltering.

This book reveals Josie’s thoughts on so many subjects and shows her joie de vivre and the passion she has to effect change, which is Josie’s hallmark. An insightful and comprehensive look into a life well-lived, An Inevitable Path will provide the reader with a real sense of the amazing woman that is Josie Lacey.

ORDER FROM
– https://sydneyjewishmuseum.com.au/shop/products/books/an-inevitable-path/

Books on Yarrabah, Mapoon, William Cooper and de Quiros

The Dying Days of Segregation in Australia: Case Study Yarrabah
– https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GF864Q6/
White Woman Black Heart: Journey Home to Old Mapoon, A Memoir
– https://www.amazon.com/dp-B07CCMV6CP/
William Cooper Gentle Warrior and The European Quest to Find Terra Australis Incognita:Quiros Torres and Janszoon – www.barbara-miller-books.com

Be blessed and happy reading!

Newsletter May 2021

Nearly there – new book.

I had planned on the title Battles with Bjelke and then Let My People Go, but ended up with Secrets and Lies. The subtitle is The Shocking Truth of Recent Aboriginal History, A Memoir. It is very revealing and no doubt you will be surprised many times. But also informed. It helps to understand how we got where we are today. But this is not first settlement history. It is a today book, or the last 50 years to May 2021 book. Don’t miss this exciting story! I plan to launch it at NAIDOC – National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Day Observance Committee in July 2021. Check my website for a discount for early buyers – www.barbara-miller-books.com

My book Secrets and Lies starts with the Aurukun people’s fight against mining on their land in 1975 and ends with the work for constitutional recognition including the Uluru Statement.

BOOK DESCRIPTION OF SECRETS AND LIES

Barbara Russell, a young woman from a white working-class family. A ruthless Premier Bjelke-Petersen enforcing legal discrimination. What secrets lie hidden? What lies are being told?

Barbara couldn’t stand by and watch the feud of the people with governments and miners strip Australian Aboriginal communities of all they held dear. Not if she could help.

But a white woman wasn’t always welcomed. A man fascinated with her passion might be her ticket to the action. Was she strong enough to make a difference for the people, resist the temptation of love, and stand up to her family too?

In this story of secrets, lies, ideological conflict and racial discrimination laws, Barbara teams up with Mick, an Aboriginal schoolteacher. They organise remote Australian Aboriginal people to fight Bjelke and the mining companies that encroach on their land. But Bjelke has a few tricks up his sleeve and will use all in his powers in this police state to stop them.

Can the church take on the state and win in this epic battle as the church stands with the Aboriginals to challenge racism? This historical memoir is another sizzling story in the First Nations True Stories series.

With the current debate in Australia of “Voice Treaty Truth” and the worldwide issue of Black Lives Matter, this book gives many key Aboriginal people a voice and reveals the shocking truth of the hidden history of 1975 to 2021 in a near-novel like manner. Every important historical event is covered. This is one of the social justice books that you will want on your shelf. The political activism examples are not those of keyboard warriors but those of a people who took to the trenches.

If you like fast-paced action, real-life heroes, and the window opened on another culture, this book is for you. If you like books with political intrigue that bring to life an interesting historical period, you’ll love Secrets and Lies.

REVIEW OF SECRETS AND LIES

A powerful, hard-hitting yarn, from the grassroots of Cape York community-life through to the necessary development of life-changing political activism on Cape York in the 1970s and 80s.

This is a story which needs to be told and has to be taught, with lessons to learn about what should be done, and how it should (and shouldn’t) be done.

These yarns are at the roots of what still happens today, in this day and age, making it an essential read for anyone who has ties or an interest in, not just in the Cape York landscape, but across all of Government/Aboriginal politics.

A well-written and fascinating contextual read for anyone with a passion for justice for Aboriginal people.

Christine Howes, FNQ correspondent for Koori Mail

 

AUSTRALIAN BOOK INDUSTRY OF THE YEAR AWARDS

Congratulations to the following winners of the ABIA Awards
ABIA BOOK OF THE YEAR
Phosphorescence: On awe, wonder and things that sustain you when the world goes dark, Julia Baird (HarperCollins Publishers, Fourth Estate)

Audio Book of the Year
Tell Me Why, Archie Roach; narrated by Archie Roach (Sound Kitchen, Simon & Schuster Australia, Simon & Schuster Australia)

Biography of the Year
The Happiest Man on Earth, Eddie Jaku (Pan Macmillan Australia, Macmillan Australia)

Also to other authors including Indigenous authors
In the children’s category, the Small Publishers’ Children’s Book of the Year was awarded to Gunai author Kirli Saunders for her book Bindi (illustrated by Dub Leffler). Rapper Adam Briggs, alongside co-authors Kate Moon and Rachael Sarra, won the Children’s Picture Book of the Year Award for Our Home, Our Heartbeat.

Books on Yarrabah, Mapoon, William Cooper and de Quiros

The Dying Days of Segregation in Australia: Case Study Yarrabah – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GF864Q6/
White Woman Black Heart: Journey Home to Old Mapoon, A Memoir – https://www.amazon.com/dp-B07CCMV6CP/
William Cooper Gentle Warrior and The European Quest to Find Terra Australis Incognita:Quiros Torres and Janszoon 

Be blessed and happy reading!

Newsletter for Feb-March 2021

Spoiler Alert – new book is on the way. Possible title – Battles with Bjelke: An Insider View of the Aboriginal Movement, A Memoir. This may not be the title but it is a shocking expose of the treatment of Aboriginal people in the days of the Bjelke-Petersen government and beyond and their valiant resistance.

Left – Barbara with John Mark and Susan Brown at the Paanja Festival at Mapoon. They were visiting from New Mapoon. Right – Barbara with Henrietta Fourmile and Rev Dorita at the launch of her book at Yarrabah – The Dying Days of Segregation in Australia: Case Study Yarrabah.

Books on Yarrabah, Mapoon, William Cooper and de Quiros

The Dying Days of Segregation in Australia: Case Study Yarrabah – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GF864Q6/
White Woman Black Heart: Journey Home to Old Mapoon, A Memoir – https://www.amazon.com/dp-B07CCMV6CP/
William Cooper Gentle Warrior and The European Quest to Find Terra Australis Incognita:Quiros Torres and Janszoon –
www.barbara-miller-books.com

Be blessed and happy reading!

Recent interview on William Cooper, Evian and Kristallnacht conducted with Barbara by Ruth Webb for Bendigo Radio.

J-wire article on Holocaust survivor Lena Goldstein

J-Wire have just featured a story on Holocaust survivor, Lena Goldstein.

Pictured here is Lena beside Barbara, receiving the Order of Australia medal from then Governor of NSW

Lena is the subject of Barbara Miller’s latest book, “If I Survive” – and recently celebrated her 100th Birthday on 31/1/2019, in Sydney Australia. The article talks about here amazing courage to fight back against the evil Nazi rule and her ability to keep and share a sense of humour during the darkest of days:

“…Following her escape from the ghetto in 1943, Lena was hidden by a Polish caretaker for 18 months. Later, her hiding spot was an underground bunker, cramped together with eight others. Lena set to writing a satirical newsletter for her companions in the bunker, “just to put some humour into the tragic life that we were living in the bunker.” Lena’s outward humour during this time was masking her actual anxieties. Lena’s satirical ‘Bunker Weekly’ and her personal diary entries from this time are now held in the Sydney Jewish Museum’s collection for safekeeping…”

100 year-old Holocaust survivor reflects on the duty to remember
http://www.jwire.com.au/100-year-old-holocaust-survivor-reflects-on-the-duty-to-remember

The If I Survive book will be launched at the Sydney Jewish Museum on Sunday 10 February, 2.30pm

You can make a booking to the free event here:
https://sydneyjewishmuseum.com.au/shop/events/book-launch-if-i-survive/

We look forward to seeing you there!

 

 

If I survive – Press Release

New email: bmiller-books@bigpond.com, no fax

 

PRESS RELEASE 17.1.19

Cairns author Barbara Miller has written If I survive: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 100-year-old Lena Goldstein’s Miracle Story. Lena, living in Sydney, turns 100 on 31 January and the book will be in her hands in time for her birthday.

Published on Amazon on 7 January, the book has been rated the no 1 new release in Jewish History, the no 1 new release in Jewish Holocaust History, the no 1 new release in Historical German Biographies and the no 1 new release in Social History.

Miller says, “Lena is so gracious despite all the trauma she went through. The thought ‘If I Survive’haunted Lena. Her loved ones were cruelly forced from her arms in the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland and perished in Treblinka Death Camp. This is a true story of Holocaust survival. Lena kept thinking, ‘It’s my turn next’.”

Miller says, “Hitler’s main target was the Jews who he wanted to wipe off the face of Europe. However, there were other targets of Hitler and Nazism – Poles and other Slavic people, Roma (Gypsies), Catholic priests and Christian pastors, homosexuals, political prisoners and the disabled. In all, there were 11 million victims of Hitler’s racist diabolical ideology including 6 million Jews, 1.5 million of the Jews being children.

Lena’s voice reminds us now, and will inform future generations, what it was like to be a Jew during the Holocaust. Voices were silenced by gunshots, bayonet stabbings, the gas chambers or burning ghettos but Lena’s voice will live on to tell her story. She is one of the last living witnesses of the Holocaust.”

This is one of eight reviews by key Jewish leaders who have endorsed the book – “This is a truly beautiful collaboration between the author and her subject, who have together produced an invaluable documentation of a unique, moving, life story set against the backdrop of one of the darkest moments in human history.  To read ‘if I Survive’ is to meet a remarkable person and to be touched by her intense humanity in an inhuman world.” Jeremy Jones AM, former President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and Director, Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council

The book will be launched at the Sydney Jewish Museum on 10 February, NSW Parliament on 11 February and the Jewish Holocaust Centre in Melbourne on 14 February. The book is available from Amazon or the author’s website – www.barbara-miller-books.com.

Barbara Miller

 

 

END

To download the PDF version please click the link below:
Press release re If I Survive 17.1.19

 

 

New Book No 1 Release Amazon

Barbara Miller’s New Book “If I Survive” is scaling the heights on Amazon bookstore!

Barbara Miller pictured here with her new book in draft A4 copy from the printer.

Barbara with If I Survive book 17.1.19 Cairns Esplanade

The Kindle version as reached “#1 New Release in Jewish History” & “#1 in Jewish Holocaust History” and more you can see in the gallery below.

Black Star Radio Interview with Barbara Miller


Full Length Interview:

  • 1-7.30 is the Cooper book
  • 11.17-17.52 is the European Quest book
  • 22.54-27.39 Dying Days book
  • 32.10-40.46 Mapoon book

Book Sections:

Cooper book  

European Quest book

Dying Days book

Mapoon book

 

Visit the Black star website:

https://qram.com.au/blackstar/

TSIMA 4MW Radio Thursday Island Interview

Archive link from April 27th:

Tune into http://indigitube.com.au/ to hear my radio interview with Sylvia Tabua, or listen in to her brekky session…

Posted by Barbara Miller Books on Friday, 27 April 2018

Barbara Miller ABC Radio Interview

Barbara’s interview live with ABC Far North Radio’s Adam Stephen this afternoon in Cairns. The interview was about her memoir White Woman Black Heart.

Posted by Barbara Miller Books on Wednesday, 28 March 2018

 

Barbara’s interview live with ABC Far North Radio’s Adam Stephen this afternoon in Cairns. The interview was about her memoir White Woman Black Heart.

Queen accepts petition for Aboriginal rights, 80 years on – Article

The following is a recent article published by The Age Newspaper (Oct 4th 2014) about the news of the Queen accepting the petition for Aboriginal rights, 80 years on. To read the full article please head over to the site.

It has been an 80-year struggle, but a petition from a Victorian Aboriginal family has finally arrived at the doorstep of Buckingham Palace.

In 1934, Yorta Yorta man William Cooper wrote a petition rallying King George V for a representative for indigenous people in Federal Parliament to help address injustices.

Continue reading “Queen accepts petition for Aboriginal rights, 80 years on – Article”

Interview with Vision Radio on William Cooper

Click the link below to play the podcast from the Vision Radio Network 20Twenty Podcast

http://mediapoint.org.au/podcasts/0000241875.mp3

7 July 2014 radio interview with Barbara and Norman Miller from Adelaide for NAIDOC Week re William Cooper. Barbara did an interview with them in 2013 on William Cooper as well.

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