Newsletter Sept 2022

Hi all you wonderful readers – I hope that even if you are busy, you are able to have a little time out to read to refresh you and stimulate you. If you have a favourite book, please tell me about it. Also, what book would you recommend to readers?

NEW WRITING PROJECT FOR SCHOOLS & ADULTS ON THE HOLOCAUST


Holocaust education is important when there is so much Holocaust denial and distortion out there. Also, this study looks at the causes of antisemitism and what we can do about it. It is suitable for upper primary school and adults and I hope it will be used overseas as well as in Australia. Negotiations of course need to be held with curriculum developers. More information coming out soon.

BELOW COST SALE
WILLIAM COOPER GENTLE WARRIOR

Slashed from $29.95 to $7ea for September only.
Sales of 10 or more copies, the low price of $5 each
$12 Shipping for 1 copy. $2 extra for each additional copy. 
Email me for direct sales here

william cooper book insert flier

the big boomerang next big thing

THE BIG BOOMERANG – THE NEXT BIG THING!


Munganbana Norman says – I have a dream of having a Big Boomerang icon for Cairns. To get some community support and publicity, I made a very big boomerang and put it on a float in the Cairns Festival Parade last weekend. Recently, it got some coverage in The Cairns Post and ABC radio Cairns will cover it soon. I hope that this project will get the support of Cairns, especially as it would be the only big icon in Australia expressing Aboriginal heritage.


It has been on my heart since 2017 to have a Big Boomerang icon for Cairns as then I wanted to get a Big Boomerang beside the Capt Cook statue as an act of reconciliation and to showcase our Indigenous heritage. However, the owner was not interested. Recently, James Cook University bought the site on which the statue stood and sold the statue to someone in a nearby town. It was not removed because of cancel culture. Now the Capt Cook statue, which was in the list of Australia’s big icons, has been removed from Cairns, it is important, as a tourist city, that we get another big icon.


So my boomerang is the next big thing. It is 5.5m wide and about 3m high. Either this boomerang or one the city comes together to build, could be it. It is housed in my Munganbana Reef and Rainforest Aboriginal Art Gallery in 33 Lake St Cairns since the Cairns Festival Parade. It is important because in all the big icons around the nation, none represents Aboriginal heritage. Indigenous tourism is a big draw card for Far North Qld.


I am hoping that the people of Cairns, the council, the Qld and federal governments, businesses, and of course our First Nations People will be excited and get behind this project. I have the support of traditional owners. We need to get a committee together to work on this project of the Next Big Thing or the Big Boomerang as the big icon for Cairns.


Many Australian towns have big icons – https://www.australianexplorer.com/australian_big_icons.htm – the Big Gumboot, the Big Pineapple, the Big Banana, the Big Prawn etc. Now we need the Big Boomerang. I think it will showcase Cairns and draw visitors to our wonderful city. We need cultural tourism and we need tourists to COME BACK to our tourist paradise.

WATCH THIS SPACE AS A BOOK ABOUT MUNGANBANA’S JOURNEY WITH BOOMERANGS WILL COME OUT IN THE NEXT 6 MONTHS OR SO!!

IS THERE A LINK BETWEEN AUSTRALIA DAY AND NATIONAL ABORIGINES AND ISLANDERS WEEK (NAIDOC)?

NEW OUTLET

Some of my books are now available in the beautiful Blue Mountains amongst an amazing collection of books by Indigenous writers, including children’s books. The Wiradjuri nation have an outlet in Leura and stock beautiful art as well as literature. See – https://bilingarra.com.au/collections/books-1?page=2

REEF AND RAINFOREST: AN ABORIGINAL VOICE THROUGH ART AND STORY
Now recognised among the foremost talents of this region’s outstanding Indigenous artists, Munganbana’s “Reef and Rainforest: An Aboriginal Voice Through Art and Story” is representative of the body of visual art, in a variety of media and styles, created over a period of twenty-five years.

Henrietta Marrie, Gimuy Walubara Yidinji Elder and Traditional Owner of Gimuy-Cairns
LEARN MORE

BELOW COST SALE
WILLIAM COOPER GENTLE WARRIOR

Slashed from $29.95 to $7ea for September only.
Sales of 10 or more copies, the low price of $5 each
$12 Shipping for 1 copy. $2 extra for each additional copy. 
Email me for direct sales here

If I Survive: Nazi Germany and the Jews,100-Year-Old Lena Goldstein’s Miracle Story is available here

Re White Australia Has A Black History 
Read about up-to-date information on William Cooper and the people he mentored and how they changed Australian history

Re Shattered Lives Broken Dreams

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?
FIND IT HERE

BOOK OF THE MONTH FEATURE

We Pay Tribute to Archie Roach Who Passed Away Recently and Left His Mark on the Hearts of Australians

Title of Book – Tell Me Why Review from Amazon

‘Archie’s deeply resonant voice sings out – of a broken country and a life renewed. The voice of Australia.’ — Daniel Browning, ABC journalist and producer

‘Just like his early songs, Tell Me Why was written with empathy as its impetus and that intent shines through on every page. This is a phenomenal work by one of the most articulate and recognisable members of the Stolen Generations. It will be read, studied and discussed for many years to come.’ ― The Australian

‘Beautiful, gut-wrenching and compelling memoir’ ― Sydney Morning Herald

‘Roach is honest and humble in his oft-heartbreaking retelling of his search for identity, belonging and purpose’  ― Courier Mail

‘Best book of 2019: Tell Me Why by Archie Roach, a beautifully written autobiography that captures one of the most remarkable lives in Australian music’ ― Weekend Australian

‘Tell Me Why is an extraordinary odyssey and offering. Archie has come through snares, pits and suffering to bring us an inspiring tale of survival, grace and generosity. This book should be in every school.’  — Paul Kelly –This text refers to the paperback edition.

About the Author

Archie Roach AM, a Gunditjmara and Bundjalung man, was born in Victoria in 1956. Taken at the age of two from parents he never saw again, he was placed into foster care. He started writing songs after meeting his soulmate Ruby Hunter when they were both homeless teenagers. His heartbreaking signature song, ‘Took the Children Away’, from his 1990 ARIA award-winning debut album Charcoal Lane, has become an anthem for the Stolen Generations. The song was the first to win an Australian Human Rights Award and the album was featured in US Rolling Stone magazine’s Top 50 in 1992, won two ARIA awards and went gold in Australia. Archie’s recording history includes twelve albums, soundtracks, film and theatrical scores and his books include the award-winning memoir Tell Me Why, accompanied by a companion album, and the picture book Took the Children Away, illustrated by Ruby Hunter. 

Learn More
 

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

Oppressed Aborigines forced off their land at gunpoint. Over a decade later, one passionate young woman would take up their fight…

 

AVAILABLE HERE

Secrets and Lies: The Shocking Truth of Recent Australian Aboriginal History, A Memoir (First Nations True Stories)

Barbara Russell, a young woman from a white working-class family. A ruthless Premier Bjelke-Petersen enforcing legal discrimination. How could Barbara stand by and watch the feud of the people with governments and miners strip Australian Aboriginal communities of all they held dear? But what could she do to make a difference?

CHECK IT OUT

best seller amazonMy book Secrets and Lies is often no 1 best seller on Amazon Australia as an ebook in Discrimination Constitutional Law, Public Law and Civil Law – 3 categories. 

Newsletter Feb 2022

Hi all you wonderful readers – No doubt you are well and truly into your business of the new year with holidays left behind. But we trust you will still have some time out for the pleasure of reading.

Russian Invasion of Ukraine

A number of commentators are comparing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with Hitler’s invasion of European countries in World War 11 and wondering how far Putin will go to re-establish the USSR. People are also asking is the west having its Neville Chamberlain moment of appeasement?

 Poland was not part of USSR as was Ukraine till 1991, but Poland will have bad memories of how it was treated by the Russians during and after World War 11. Surprisingly, perhaps, my book If I Survive covers some of that story. The reason for this is that I needed to piece together the information from Lena Goldstein, whose story it is, by doing a lot of background research to put it in context. So I will include some extracts here:

Excerpt of horrific story from If I Survive

The Nazis fought their way into Warsaw. Dead bodies were everywhere. They closed the schools, shut down the newspapers and concerts. The people loved music, but the city fell silent.

The Siege of Warsaw by the Germans began on 1 September 1939, one week after the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, while the Soviet invasion of Poland commenced on 17 September. The Polish Warsaw Army (Armia Warszawa) defended Warsaw, the capital of Poland, as substantial aerial bombardments by the Luftwaffe rained down.
………………………….
To offer what support she could (to her brothers who were sent to the east to fight), Lena went undercover as an actress with a troop of actors who happened to be going to Brest. She says:
 
“We were already on the Russian side, and people were coming back from the Russian side, saying, ‘Go back, go back because they’re killing people,’ especially Jews because they know the Jews are escaping from the Germans. They’re killing Jews because they know that everybody is selling all that they possess to run away from the Germans to the Russian side. It was dangerous.”
…………………………….
Lena’s sister Fela and her husband did not want to accept Russian citizenship. They were Polish citizens, and they wanted to go back to Poland. Angered, the Russians sent them to Siberia instead, as punishment. Russia had already been sent many dissidents to this remote place. Lena longed to find her sister, hold her in her arms, share sisterly stories, even to know she was alive and not suffering. But there was no word from her. It was as if a chapter of her life had closed.
……………………………
(Because of the Warsaw Uprising Aug-Oct 1944 led by the Polish home army or resistance timed for the retreat of the Germans and advance of the Soviets) The Germans reduced Warsaw to smoking ruins, the skeletons of burnt blocks of apartments surrounded by rubble and destroyed bridges sunk into the river. It was like a ghost town.

The Soviets paid the highest price to defeat the Nazis in Europe, losing more than 26 million troops, so the Allies didn’t want to upset them, and this accounted for their low-level support for their ally Poland. This lack of support was despite the fact that Polish pilots helped win the Battle of Britain in 1940, 115,000 Poles fought in Italy under British command, and after D-Day Poles fought on the western front. They also fought for Britain in the Middle East.

 Tehran Conference

The Tehran Conference sealed the fate of Poland. It was a meeting between US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin in Tehran, Iran, between 28 November and 1 December 1943. It is reported that:
 
Stalin pressed for a revision of Poland’s eastern border with the Soviet Union to match the line set by British Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon in 1920. To compensate Poland for the resulting loss of territory, the three leaders agreed to move the German–Polish border to the Oder and Neisse rivers. This decision was not formally ratified, however, until the Potsdam Conference of 1945. (Office of the Historian n.d.)
 
It seems the president of the Polish government-in-exile, Władysław Raczkiewicz, was not aware of this. Also, the Americans were keen to get Soviet support for the war against Japan. At the Yalta conference between the Americans, British and Soviets from 4 to 11 February 1945, the Allies withdrew support for the Polish government-in-exile and Poland was allowed to become a Soviet satellite. Other decisions were made that enabled a Soviet sphere of influence in Europe that led to the Cold War. Stalin said:
 
For the Russian people, the question of Poland is not only a question of honor but also a question of security. Throughout history, Poland has been the corridor through which the enemy has passed into Russia. Poland is a question of life and death for Russia. (The Latin Library n.d.)
 
After the war, Poland became a communist state and remained so until 1989. One occupying force was replaced by another. The Soviets persecuted the soldiers of the Home Army and the resistance fighters of the Warsaw Uprising as being anti-Soviet. Instead of being honoured as brave fighters, they were maligned. A monument to the Home Army was not built until 1989 when the Soviets lost control of Poland. Instead, the Soviet-backed People’s Army was glorified. the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), Stalin’s secret police, or the Office of Security (UB), the Polish political police, captured many Home Army fighters, eradicating opposition to post-war communist Poland. The UB operated from 1945 to 1954. They imprisoned the soldiers on charges such as fascism and sent many to Gulags. However, memories of the uprising and lack of Soviet support for them motivated the Polish labour movement, Solidarity, which led to peaceful opposition against the Polish communist government in the 1980s.

In Poland now, 1 August is a celebrated anniversary. On the fiftieth anniversary of the (Warsaw) uprising, in 1994, Poland held a ceremony and invited the German and Russian presidents. Russian President Boris Yeltsin didn’t attend but German President Roman Herzog visited and was the first German statesman to apologise for German atrocities against Poland during the uprising. “

For more information

The story of how Australian Aboriginal William Cooper led a group of Aborigines to the German Consulate in Melbourne in 1938 to protest the Holocaust or Shoah is told here.

William Cooper was a pioneer for the rights of Indigenous people in Australia, being the father of NAIDOC, working with key leaders to hold the Day of Mourning on the 150th anniversary of British settlement in 1938 and petitioning the King of England for better conditions for Indigenous people as well as representation in federal parliament. Read more about him here.

Summer or winter, autumn or spring, pick up a book.
Review of White Woman Black Heart: Journey Home to Old Mapoon by author Barbara Miller

This is a personal memoir recording biographical details which illuminates many aspects of contemporary Australian history. Miller takes us on a fascinating journey from her working class background and her spiritual and political awakening through to her involvement in Anti-Vietnam War demonstrations and the Aboriginal Tent Embassy.

This is woven around her coverage of her involvement with helping to re-establish Mapoon in 1974.  Miller gives an insightful treatment of how and why she became engaged in social justice issues in the 1970s. This was a period of major social change in Australia when there was no internet or digital technology and yet Miller manages to convey the passion and commitment of the times.  It is apparent that her social activism is guided and motivated by her faith. 

The atrocious treatment of the residents of Mapoon when the Director of Native Affairs used police-state tactics to remove them in 1963 from their traditional lands, is both heart-breaking and uplifting. The author shows great sensitivity, respect, and understanding and manages to convey the petty-fogging autocratic paternalistic control of Indigenous people, which pervaded the period of the Bjelke-Petersen era. One can see what Aboriginal people had to contend with and how, with the re-establishment of Mapoon, a most positive success story has finally been achieved. This is an engrossing and compassionate memoir of an extraordinary woman who through her actions demonstrates what can be achieved through persistent commitment and faith.

Dr Timothy Bottoms, author of Conspiracy of Silence, Queensland’s frontier killing times (Allen & Unwin 2013) and CAIRNS, City of the South Pacific, A History 1770-1995 (Bunu Bunu Press 2016). 

Check White Woman Black Heart out as it is only $2.99 US for the ebook. Look here.

Right – I am with my husband Norman at the Queensland Literary Awards ceremony in Brisbane where my book White Woman Black Heart was a finalist for the main award – the Premiers’ Award for a Work of State Significance. My brother Greg and sister-in-law Lynne are behind us. 

Left – My follow up memoir, Secrets and Lies (2021) which is doing well on Amazon Aust. For a closer look, click here

The Shocking Truth of Recent Aboriginal History, A Memoir”, by Barbara Miller is a heartfelt historical and personal account about the Aboriginal people of Australia. It is a story about their fight to preserve their ancestral land, their culture, and customs. It is a fight against big mining companies and their very rough treatment of the Government.

This is the third book about the Australian Aboriginal people that by Barbara Miller that I have read. It is as if one is sitting around a fireplace night after night, and being taken back in time. What makes it special is the depth of researched material, and the detailed references from newspapers, conferences, meetings, and quotes.

The reader also gets an insider’s view of the cultural clashes in the Australian society. On one hand, the values of innovation, disruption, and change are desirable. Yet, the indigenous people valued security, conformity, and stability. There are some very shocking revelations in the book, such as the Government policies of withholding wages of the indigenous employees or disallowing the Aboriginal people to receive a formal education beyond a few years …

by Monica Rubombora, South African author

BOOK OF THE MONTH FEATURE

The #1 New York Times bestseller. Over 3 million copies sold!

Given up on your new year resolutions yet? Try this. Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results

No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving–every day. James Clear, one of the world’s leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.

If you’re having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn’t you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don’t want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you’ll get a proven system that can take you to new heights.

You can get it here

Question –What is on your reading list for the new year?
Let me know via email