Newsletter July 2022

Hi all you wonderful readers – May you find time to relax and read in the busy lives many of us lead. Reading biography can give us wonderful insights into the lives of others, seeing them go through their challenges and seeing the inspiring decisions and journeys they have had.

Reading history gives us a context for our lives and the lives of others and helps us have greater perspective on today and sense future possibilities. 

FREE PRINT OF THE COVER OF DYING DAYS OF SEGREGATION IN AUSTRALIA. i.e. THE ACTUAL PAINTING WITHOUT THE TEXT. IT’S CALLED DREAMS AND VISIONS AND IS WORTH $80. SEE www.munganbana.com.au for more information on it. WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO DO TO GET IT? BUY A COPY OF THE BOOK FROM MY WEBSITE VIA GUMROAD AND I’LL MAKE SURE THE PRINT COMES WITH IT. HERE IS THE LINK https://barbara-miller-books.com/store/#dying-book. AS THE BOOK IS $24.99, THIS IS A GREAT DEAL!! 

DREAMS AND VISIONS

By Munganbana Norman Miller

This black and white print shows me thinking, dreaming, imagining, looking at the possibilities before me. I am musing, creating what might be. It is as if the circles are bubbles of thought and above them to the top left there are rivers of possibilities, stepping stones to the fulfilment of my dreams. On the right are vine leaves I can climb up into the future, the rainforest holding its treasures for me to find.


Amazon Review

The Dying Days of Segregation in Australia: Case Study Yarrabah (First Nations True Stories)
LitPick Book Reviews
Inspirational and an insightful look into Australian history
Format : Paperback

To most people in the United States, the word “segregation” will conjure up images of whites-only drinking fountains or, if being optimistic, the late leader Nelson Mandela. But this abhorrent situation of separating the races was not wholly unique to South Africa or post-Civil War America. In Australia, Aboriginal peoples suffered apartheid-like conditions that prevented full freedom, happiness, and social mobility.

The Dying Days of Segregation in Australia wastes no time letting readers know about the recently removed, yet vastly underreported, institutional barriers to equality. One man’s anecdote tells of a childhood spent sitting in the hard, uncomfortable seats in the back of a movie theater, since the soft canvas chairs in the front were only for white patrons. As if that wasn’t upsetting enough, his story takes a dark turn — even in the hospital, all of the white patients had to be seen first. It is clear that racism, especially when endorsed by the government, is a matter of life or death.

Author Barbara Miller’s clear historical approach, peppered with deeply emotional stories of the best and worst of mankind, is sure to appeal to people who want to better understand the complex, disturbing nature of racial hierarchies …

IT IS NAIDOC WEEK AND WILLIAM COOPER IS THE FATHER OF NAIDOC SO WHAT BETTER TIME THAN TO READ A BOOK ABOUT HIM.

White Australia Has A Black History talks about his work for the “uplift” as he called it, for Aboriginal Australians. National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee came about because a committed Aboriginal Christian named William Cooper persuaded the churches to institute Aboriginal Sunday which later became Aborigines Day, a secular observance and later NAIDOC week.

He got the National Missionary Council to promote an annual Aboriginal Sunday, the first of which was on 28 Jan 1940. Aboriginal Sunday, as a national day of observance for Aboriginal people ran from 1940 to 1954, being held the Sunday before Australia Day.

In 1955, the date changed to the first Sunday in July and became known as National Aborigines Day. In 1957, the National Aborigines Day Observance Committee (NADOC) was formed whose goal was to promote awareness of Aboriginal people, their cultures and their plight. In 1989, the title changed to NAIDOC Week to include Torres Strait Islanders in the national celebrations.

Join in your local celebrations and read about him here

William Cooper Gentle Warrior is available with FREE SHIPPING. Find it here.

William Cooper led the Australian Aborigines’ League on a protest march to the German Consulate in Melbourne against Kristallnacht, the start of the Holocaust, in 1938 even though Aboriginals were not citizens of Australia. 

Amazon Review

Shattered Lives Broken Dreams: William Cooper and Australian Aborigines Protest Holocaust (First Nations True Stories)
PAR
This novel may just change your life!
November 22, 2021
Format : Paperback | Verified Purchase

As an member of a multicultural family I cannot tell you how your story came so close the my heart. I read and learned the history of your country and who William Cooper was and how he fought for the rights of all. This is a history that I did not know. Ms. Miller you presented it in a manner that was easy to read, and from what I read of all the acolytes that I were on the Amazon page everyone talked about the life long journey you took to assure that the story was told correctly. I would like to thank you for this work that you have done, and for sharing that work with the rest of the world. It shows that people will listen. That changes can be made. It takes a few of to stand up, to share, to educate a few others, and they tell others and it grows. I was so blessed the day that I received your novel. I highly recommend it to others.

 

White Woman Black Heart: Journey Home to Old Mapoon, a Memoir
Amazon ReviewWhite Woman Black Heart: Journey Home to Old Mapoon, A Memoir (First Nations True Stories)
Kindle Customer
Born of another race
October 9, 2021
Format : Paperback | Verified Purchase
Story of the aboriginal people of Australia as experienced by a white woman. Barbara Miller was raised by a typical Australian couple. Somehow though their attitudes and prejudices did not take root in her. Instead she became a champion for the rights and reparations due the Aboriginal people. She spent her life helping them legally establish those rights. She also married into that group.Check it out hereAmazon Review
Secrets and Lies: The Shocking Truth of Recent Australian Aboriginal History, A Memoir (First Nations True Stories)
Joy RS
A memoir with a punch
October 24, 2021
Format : Paperback | Verified Purchase
This is a frank and compelling story of a fight that should never have had to happen. Personal anecdotes are interwoven with a very important message for us all and the photographs bring it very close. This author’s writing about the marginalised people in Australia has always resonated with me. I am South African and witnessed the end of apartheid and the inclusion of every citizen as a human being with equal rights. It has, therefore, long angered me that other countries have legislation and social constructs that are just as draconian as those under apartheid yet parade themselves as democracies. I was so glad to read this book, which not only tells Australia’s story of human rights travesties but also demonstrates that there are solutions. It is at once heartbreaking and uplifting and should be required reading for everyone who thinks apartheid is South African only and that there are human beings who are in any way less than other human beings. I recommend this to you as well!

You can find it here 

Left – Barbara holding an early copy of Shattered Lives Broken Dreams

Right – Barbara with Jeremy Jones after she gave a lunchtime talk about her memoir White Woman Black Heart at the Sydney Jewish Museum.

 

Newsletter May 2022

Hi all you wonderful readers – I usually only send out one newsletter a month but as there is an international book summit in early June you may be interested in, I will send some info on that shortly. There may be aspiring authors reading this who want to enter the self-publishing milieu or seasoned authors who’d like some tips from experts in the field. I’m privileged to be one of the many contributors with a session on writing memoirs.

White Woman Black Heart: Journey Home to Old Mapoon, a Memoir

Kindle Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating read.
Reviewed in Australia on March 18, 2022
Verified Purchase
Just finished reading this book. Couldn’t put it down. To see people’s names in it that I know was amazing.
So glad it had a happy ending & people came home. The community is going from strength to strength now. A new church opened recently. The Rugapayn store is being run by locals and is due to be upgraded. I miss being there.Find the book HERE
Secrets and Lies: The Shocking Truth of Recent Australian Aboriginal History, A Memoir
Amazon Customer
 
5.0 out of 5 stars Important History lesson!!
Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2022
Verified Purchase

As an American, I learned something new from this book. Either Voice Treaty Truth in Australia or Black Lives Matter in America, this book brings out many eye-opening critical social issues and an opportunity to adapt and change for a better world.

Check it out HERE 

If I Survive: Nazi Germany and the Jews: 100-Year Old Lena Goldstein’s Miracle Story
Review from Amazon
Meera
4.0 out of 5 stars Not a memoir!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 4, 2022
Verified Purchase

This is a hard read, mainly due to the fact that only 1/3 of this book is actually about Lena Goldstein and the rest is a timeline of the atrocities done to the polish Jewish community and what they faced. Hard to read and even harder to stomach. Saddening to see the difficulties and hatred brought on by so many. I applaud this woman for sharing her story and what I did learn of her survival was a large mixture of determination as well as good deeds returning the favour. I hope some people can learn from this.

Find it HERE

The Dying Days of Segregation in Australia: Case Study Yarrabah


Monica Rubombora
VINE VOICE
5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting!
Reviewed in the United States 
Verified Purchase

This book resonated a lot with me. As someone that has lived on the African continent all my life (and in South Africa the last 27 years), I could see the parallels with the apartheid regime & the current unresolved land wrangles & struggles of indigenous people on the continent. I kept saying OMG! OMG! this is where these guys here got these crazy ideas of separation from! Gosh! The experiment worked! And now we are still feeling the impact.

I like the way the author, Barbara Miller, has documented the historical progress of the indigenous people in this book. It is definitely a well-researched book and I hope it can be used as a history book in schools around the world. It has certainly given me hope in humanity once again.

Check it out HERE

Left – Barbara delivering her books to a bookshop in Port Douglas

Right – Munganbana Norman Miller presenting a canvas painting to Aviva Wolff of the Sydney Jewish Museum at the earlier launch of Barbara’s White Australia Has A Black History book. The canvas is a replica of the cover of Barbara’s first book William Cooper Gentle Warrior.

 

White Australia Has A Black History: William Cooper And First Nations Peoples’ Political Activism 
PAR
5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read for All Not Just Australians!
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2022

First let me begin by saying that I am of Native heritage, so I perhaps took a look at this novel in a different light than others, but perhaps not. As I read this novel, I often felt tears, and silent sobs, I read the struggle and thought there are so many of us around this world who are struggling yet today to be heard. This novel was written with such feeling, and honesty, a living history, not just facts, and liturgy, but her words breathed the life into what was and what is! Barbara Miller is a gifted author who has found her passion and has invited along for the journey, to learn, to grow, and to look at our own selves, and our countries history, what have we done? What have we left undone? What is the next step that can be taken? Shortly our world will be recalling International Holocaust Remembrance Day. We have children who have never heard of the Holocaust and there were so many disseminations in so many countries. Thank You Ms Miller for teaching us all a lesson, by reminding us of the history of what was!

Find it HERE

Shattered Lives Broken Dreams: William Cooper and Australian Aborigines Protest Holocaust

Brian Aird
 
5.0 out of 5 stars Actions to Words
Reviewed in the United States on March 25
Verified Purchase

…The response of the indigenous people of Australia to Germany’s injustices and outright attempts of annihilating the Jews in Germany during the Nazi regime is reminiscent of the 1960s in America when the African-Americans were fighting for equality.

Added to the amazing actions of the Aborigines, as wonderfully disclosed to the reader in this book, is that they themselves did not enjoy their own personal freedoms in Australia. However, they were fighting for the rights, indeed the lives of others. Recognition for the native people of Australia wasn’t realized until decades later…

Shattered Lives Broken Dreams: William Cooper and Australian Aborigines Protest Holocaust Number 2 by Barbara Miller is a comprehensive, motivational and inspirational narrative that captures the actions of standing up to the inhuman treatment of others. Added to the education and study of this extensive chronicled period of time is the inclusion of memorable photographs. The combination makes for a remarkable reflection of this dynamic time period.

The author has gifted the reader with an incredible and exhaustive work that captures the spirit of the protest as well as the burning heart of the movement’s leader William Cooper.

Check it out HERE

Question – WhO IS YOUR FAVOURITE AUTHOR AND WHY? Let me know  via email

BOOK OF THE MONTH FEATURE
 
Sister Girl: Reflections on Tiddaism, Identity and Reconciliation (New Edition)
By Jackie Huggins
Book description
“The pieces in this seminal collection represent almost four decades of writing by historian and activist Jackie Huggins. These essays, speeches and interviews combine both the public and the personal in a bold trajectory tracing one Murri woman’s journey towards self-discovery and human understanding. As a widely respected cultural educator and analyst, Huggins offers an Aboriginal view of the history, values and struggles of Indigenous people.
 
Sister Girl reflects on many important and timely topics, including identity, activism, leadership and reconciliation. It challenges accepted notions of the appropriateness of mainstream feminism in Aboriginal society and of white historians writing Indigenous history. Jackie Huggins’ words, then and now, offer wisdom, urgency and hope.”
Check it out HERE