community – Barbara Miller Books

Have You Read These Lesser-Known Australian Tales?

I wanted to take a moment to reconnect and share some hidden gems from my collection of books that delve into the rich tapestry of Australian history, particularly focusing on Indigenous affairs.

Many of you know my passion for bringing these stories to life. But with 12 books under my belt, it can be hard to know where to start!

This month, I want to highlight a few lesser-known titles that might pique your interest:

Voice Treaty Truth: Has the Christian Voice Been Heard?

Even though this was a hot topic prior to the referendum late last year, it is a continuing issue with South Australia having set up its own voice and other state governments continuing with treaty and truth telling. While the Christian view is covered in this book, it also covers the main arguments of supporters and opponents of the Voice.

This book explores key issues. What is happening in Australian race relations is a mirror of what is happening in the Western world. Australia is currently divided 60/40 over a recent referendum to enshrine an Indigenous representative body in the constitution which would be a Voice to parliament and the executive government. There was pushback about creating a race-based body in the constitution and the inequality of having two classes of citizens. This is likely to continue with division over the need for a treaty and debating about the truth of Australia’s history. This book, Voice Treaty Truth, examines both sides of the argument in a passionate and balanced way and looks at the issues from political, historical, and spiritual viewpoints.

In this book, Barbara Miller, a pastor, sociologist, and historian, offers an insightful Christian response to the Uluru Statement From the Heart. She shares her 50 years of experience as an activist and researcher in First Nations affairs to help readers understand this debate which is potentially nation-changing.

If I Survive – Interview with Holocaust Survivor Lena Goldstein
by Author Barbara Miller
See https://barbara-miller-books.com/ for her full story in the book “If I Survive: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 100-Year Old Lena Goldstein’s Miracle Story.” Lena passed away in her sleep Tuesday night, 14 May 2019. The timing was not lost on me – the anniversary of the rebirth of the state of Israel. This video was uploaded overnight 13 May 2024 in her honour.

For better sound, see this video in my instagram account and subscribe https://www.instagram.com/barbaramiller8917/

Unveiling the Stories That Shaped Australia, Myself and Maybe You

In Secrets and Lies: the Shocking Truth of Recent Australian Aboriginal History, A Memoir, I weave together memoir and historical research to tell the story of First Nations Australians. It is not a story of the past but current events and recent history.

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.

Would her passion make a way for her? 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. If the Aboriginal people fail, more of them will die in poverty and desperation.

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.
These books offer unique perspectives and I truly believe they’ll resonate with anyone fascinated by Australia’s past.

Looking for something different? Don’t forget I also delve into topics like the Holocaust and Christian themes in some of my other works.

Browse my full collection at https://barbara-miller-books.com/latest-books/

Click on the titles above to learn more about these books, or visit my website to discover your next captivating read!

Happy reading,

Have You Always Dreamed of Being a Published Author? – The Successful Author Kit is for You.

Bestselling author Barbara Miller has produced the following guides to help you on your way to fulfilling your dream. It is called the Successful Author Kit. She knows what it takes to have a successful writing career. You can get the following guides in the kit:

Guide to Choosing Your Niche

Guide to Finding Your Book Topic and Title

Guide to Structuring Your Non-Fiction Book, and as a bonus

List of Resources for Authors

If you would like more information, check it out HERE

My books can be found at the Munganbana Reef and Rainforest Aboriginal Art Gallery at 33 Lake St Cairns, at Cairns Books bookshop at Cairns Central Shopping Centre, on Amazon, and on my website – www.barbara-miller-books.com.

Happy reading!!

Hi all you wonderful readers – Well a little late with this newsletter but it has been a busy writing time. I was happy to write the history of the leaders of an Aboriginal community I’ve had a lot to do with for a special event they have in May.

I’ve also been asked to write a handbook for schools which will be a surprise to readers until I finish it.

Last week I did an interview with a South African writer on the topic of Writing Memoirs That Matter. It will be part of an international book summit where a number of writers speak about the writing and book publishing process. I’ll keep you posted on that too in case you want to check it out. Both of my memoirs – White Woman Black Heart and Secrets and Lies have been bestsellers on Amazon from time to time.

Earlier on, I did an interview with ABC National Radio for their overnight program on my books on William Cooper. It meant I was interviewed live and answered questions from the audience at 3am in the morning, a big ask!

NEW BOOK COMING UP

A book on the European explorers’ quests to find the unknown great south land in the Pacific.

Left – Patricia Ryan launched her book on communication at the Rydges Cairns last week and I was one of the authors from Tropical Writers who shared about my books and had them available for sale.

Right – Donna Odegaard who owns First Nations TV in Darwin visited Munganbana Aboriginal Art Gallery and is photographed with me there. My books are available here at 33 Lake St Cairns. Ph Munganbana 0407128199. While there, check out his awesome paintings.

Cover of The Dying Days of Segregation in Australia (final)

Review of If I Survive
from Amazon
Guy S
5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful must read book
Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2022
Verified Purchase

This book is a tour de force, a must read book that blends the personal story of a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and 2nd world war, with the history of that period, made vivid through the eyes of a brave young Jewish girl enduring the pain and suffering of that horrid period, helping those in need the best way she could, and hiding from not only the Nazi’s but her Polish countrymen, for such long periods in horrendous conditions.

I have read many books about this period and yet this book touches one deeply not only because of the personal exploits, hope and survival of Lena during this terrible period in history, but because the author successfully meshes the history of that period with the story, such that the impact of what was truly happening at that time, the occupation of Poland by the Nazi’s, the resistance, the day to day living under occupation, the concentration camps, is felt with force, not at all like many boring history books. The aim of this book is not only to save the personal story of a single person that endured and survived that treacherous period for eternity, but to educate the younger generation of what really happened at that time, in the hope that such barbarism will never happen again. In my view, this book is a must read, not only by adults, but by all older schoolchildren, alongside Anne Franks diary. It is worthy of that.

REVIEW OF THE DYING DAYS OF SEGREGATION IN AUSTRALIA

from Amazon

Dan Stirling
5.0 out of 5 stars A compelling first-hand account of the apartheid-type treatment of Aboriginals in Australia
Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2018
Verified Purchase

A compelling first-hand account of the apartheid-type treatment of Aboriginals in Australia, even in modern times, and the efforts to eliminate legal discrimination from the 1960s to 1980s.
Long after most Western countries had given full equality to all citizens, parts of Australia continued to subjugate its Aboriginals. Segregation, control over property ownership, and limits on education were just part of a system designed to keep them under the thumb of their supposed superiors. Barbara Miller documents the abuses as well as the efforts made to overcome them, culminating in the Community Services (Aborigines) Act 1984 which finally showed a federal commitment to ending discrimination. In this 2nd edition Miller updates with changes that have come about in the 30-plus years since the Act.

Left – I was being interviewed by zoom a few days ago for an international book summit in June on writing and publishing. My topic was Writing Memoirs That Matter.

Right – An earlier launch of a book on William Cooper at the Lamm Library in Melbourne.

Question – What is on your reading list for the new year?
Or a book that you like? Let me know via email

BOOK OF THE MONTH FEATURE

WAR ON THE WEST
By Douglas Murray

Book description from Amazon:

“‘The most important book of the year’ Daily Mail

The brilliant and provocative new book from one of the world’s foremost political writers
‘The anti-Western revisionists have been out in force in recent years. It is high time that we revise them in turn…’

In The War on the West, international bestselling author Douglas Murray asks: if the history of humankind is one of slavery, conquest, prejudice, genocide and exploitation, why are only Western nations taking the blame for it?

It’s become perfectly acceptable to celebrate the contributions of non-Western cultures, but discussing their flaws and crimes is called hate speech. What’s more it has become acceptable to discuss the flaws and crimes of Western culture, but celebrating their contributions is also called hate speech. Some of this is a much-needed reckoning; however, some is part of a larger international attack on reason, democracy, science, progress and the citizens of the West by dishonest scholars, hatemongers, hostile nations and human-rights abusers hoping to distract from their ongoing villainy.

In The War on the West, Douglas Murray shows the ways in which many well-meaning people have been lured into polarisation by lies, and shows how far the world’s most crucial political debates have been hijacked across Europe and America. Propelled by an incisive deconstruction of inconsistent arguments and hypocritical activism, The War on the West is an essential and urgent polemic that cements Murray’s status as one of the world’s foremost political writers.”

Preorder on Amazon