Check out my instagram page where I put regular updates and subscribe here And follow me on my Facebook page where I also post regularlyhere
Barbara Miller re her 2 memoirs – White Woman Black Heart and Secrets and Lies – brief interview find them HERE
As always, it’s such a pleasure to connect with you through our monthly newsletter. I’ve been busy with voluntary work I do and helping my husband with his art gallery as he is an Aboriginal artist – Munganbana. You can glimpse his work here
However I do have a new writing project which is writing the story of a Holocaust survivor called Eva from Austria who has lived in Sydney for a long time now. I have known her for a few years and interviewed her before with the option of maybe one day writing her story. She is now keen to move it forward so I will be in Sydney 23-26 Sept to do more interviews and to meet someone who will make a documentary on her. So the 2 projects will go hand in hand.
I want to thank you for being a part of my reader community and I would love to hear more from you. What led you to pick up one of my books and what would you like to hear from me in future? What have you been reading lately and who are your favourite authors?
Photo of Barbara interviewing Eva on the left and Eva at the Sydney Jewish Museum.
QUOTES ABOUT BOOKS
“The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.” – Rene Descartes
“That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.” – Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake
“I love the way that each book — any book — is its own journey. You open it, and off you go…” – Sharon Creech
“Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while.” – Malorie Blackman
PLENTY OF BOOKS TO CHOOSE FROM. GET YOURS TODAY! find them here
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.
Check out my instagram page where I put regular updates and subscribe here And follow me on my Facebook page where I also post regularlyhere
Where would you like to keep your books? In an outdoor garden you can retreat to at night or do you like to read in a sunny lounge room by day? As always, it’s such a pleasure to connect with you through our monthly newsletter. Sorry it’s been 2 months. Time flies. I’ve acturally been busy helping my husband with his art gallery as he is an Aboriginal artist – Munganbana. You can glimpse his work here
However I want to thank you for being a part of my reader community and I would love to hear more from you. What led you to pick up one of my books and what would you like to hear from me in future? What have you been reading lately and who are your favourite authors?
Right now, I’m at the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair at the Cairns Convention Centre where my books are available along with my husband’s art so below is a photo of our stall. We have visitors from all over the world and people are lapping up my books and the art.
AMAZON REVIEWS
If I Survive
foxden53 5.0 out of 5 stars Never forget! Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2024 Verified Purchase This is a story of a survivor of one of the worst chapters of history. We all need to remember all those who died during this horrendous chapter of the 1940s and never ever forget the atrocities that lost so many lives. WE ARE ALL EQUAL IN GOD’S EYES AND WE NEED TO “NEVER FORGET “
This is an older review but so worth a read:
White Australia Has A Black History
Brian Aird 5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful, Inspirational and Illuminating Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2019 Verified Purchase White Australia Has a Black HIstory: William Cooper And First Nations Peoples’ Political Activism by Barbara Miller is a compelling narrative that chronicles the Aboriginal movement in Australia and their quest for human rights.
Specifically, the book covers the time frame spanning the years of 1860 to 1941. The main inspirational leader is William Cooper as well as a number of other visionary leaders are highlighted and their impact on the nation of Australia.
This historical and exhaustive work is an engaging read that reflects the plight of the Aborigines of Australia. It details the discrimination placed on the indigenous peoples of this down under country by white settlers. Additionally, in an effort to move towards assimilation, the book moves the reader through the other injustices inflicted upon the Aborigines. Some of those injustices include the removal of children from their families, economic destruction, land grab, rationing of food, etc.
However, the proud native Australians push back and utilize peaceful means to secure their people and bring about change and improvement for their lives.
Adding to the impact of the book is the actual verbiage penned from existing diaries of those who fought for equality. This dimension along with actual published photos adds to the impact of the book and personalizes those victims of one race being devalued significantly by another race.
Above all, in addition to being educational, the book is inspirational as it details the value and effectiveness of making a difference when leaders promote a vision of a greater good for all involved. Adding to the inspiration is the display of powerful impact when leaders from both races work together for the benefit of their homeland.
The author, Barbara Miller, has gifted the reader with a truly inspirational narrative of vision, motivated leaders and an oppressed people fighting for equality. Furthermore, it is a relevant read for the people of today who can relate to discriminatory acts of being marginalized either personally or as a group of people. Both books available on Amazon or my website.
PLENTY OF BOOKS TO CHOOSE FROM. GET YOURS TODAY!
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.
Nothing like a good book to read! What do you like to read- fiction or non-fiction? I mostly like non-fiction with a strong interest in current affairs and history. Hence I like to stay in touch with the daily news. Still, I like to dig into the history behind the news as well – to understand the context.
Which reading space do you like the best? I’m afraid I might go to sleep if I pick the second one. It looks too too comfortable.
Barbara Miller’s book “Voice Treaty Truth” offers a comprehensive guide to understanding the Voice to Parliament and government referendum. Drawing on their extensive experience in First Nations affairs, the writer provides valuable insights into the complexities of this crucial issue. The book presents a balanced evaluation of arguments from both sides from a neutral perspective and the author does ever so well to shed light on the role of different social factors such as inequality in the said debate. The book serves as an informative resource for readers seeking clarity on this significant topic, offering potential avenues towards overall unity in Australia.
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 – https://barbara-miller-books.com
Happy reading!!
Left – Who were the first Europeans to set foot on Australian soil and where did it happen? Find out in “The European Quest to Find Terra Australis Incognita: Quiros, Torres and Janszoon.” Check it out here.
Right – Available as an audio book – a first-hand account of the Holocaust from a Polish Jewish woman who faced death daily in “If I Survive.” Find out more here.
The Dying Days of Segregation in Australia: Case Study Yarrabahgives a blow-by-blow description of the days of apartheid in Qld and how an Aboriginal community lobbied tirelessly for local government and finally got it in 1984 and their progress to today with land rights and native title. Hear the words of Aboriginal leaders themselves. Find it HERE.
William Cooper Gentle Warrior: Standing Up for Australian Aborigines and Persecuted Jews is the first book by Barbara Miller on William Cooper and tells his amazing story and that of the Australian Aborigines’ League as they work for the uplift of their people and stand up for Jews at Kristallnacht, the start of the Holocaust when Aborigines were not citizens in their own nation. Find it HERE
A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles By Thomas Sowell (a famous black American economist)
Controversies in politics arise from many sources, but the conflicts that endure for generations or centuries show a remarkably consistent pattern. In this book, which the author calls a “culmination of thirty years of work in the history of ideas,” Sowell attempts to explain the ideological difference between liberals and conservatives as a disagreement over the moral potential inherent in nature.
Those who see that potential as limited prefer to constrain governmental authority, he argues. They feel that reform is difficult and often dangerous, and they put their faith in family, custom, law, and traditional institutions. Conversely, those who have faith in human nature prefer to remove institutional and traditional constraints. Controversies over such diverse issues as criminal justice, income distribution, or war and peace repeatedly show an ideological divide along the lines of these two conflicting visions. Get book HERE
Daughter of the River Country by Dianne O’Brien & Sue Williams (Dianne is William Cooper’s great-granddaughter)
A heartbreaking, redemptive memoir of raw power, Daughter of the River Country is the story of an extraordinary journey from a childhood as one of Australia’s Stolen Generation to Aboriginal Elder
Born in rural Australia in the 1940s, baby Dianne is immediately taken from her parents and placed with a white family. Raised in an era of widespread racism, she grows up believing her Irish adoptive mother is her birth mother.
When her adoptive mother tragically dies and she is abandoned by her adoptive father, Dianne is raped, sent to the brutal Parramatta Girls Home and forced to marry her rapist in order to keep her baby. After suffering years of domestic abuse, but refusing to let her spirit be broken, Dianne finally discovers she is a Yorta Yorta woman, a daughter of the river country, and is reunited with her birth mother. She learns that her great-grandfather was a famous Aboriginal activist and from here she becomes a powerful leader in her own right, vowing to help others in any way she can.
Daughter of the River Country explores for the first time the devastation caused to Australia’s Aboriginal Stolen Generation, who were forcibly placed with white families as part of a government assimilation programme.
‘A compelling memoir about the power of love and staying the course.’ LINDA BURNEY, the first Aboriginal Member of Australia’s House of Representatives. Find it HERE
REQUEST A FREE HANDBOOK ON THE HOLOCAUST AND THE AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL RESPONSE WRITTEN BY BARBARA MILLER & PUBLISHED BY ELI RABINOWITZ OF THE WE ARE HERE FOUNDATION
This contains educational modules with videos and activities and is suitable for high school students, tertiary education and adult education. It also contains antisemitism education. It is highly suitable for the Australian context using examples from the life of Aboriginal William Cooper and the Australian Aborigines’ League. It is a highly engaging and free resource on a difficult topic and is highly relevant today. Get it HERE
Fun Facts About Books!
The largest collection consists of 1.5 million books!
According to the Guinness World Records, the largest privately owned collection of books is a massive 1.5 million.
They are owned by John Q. Benham who lives in Indiana in the USA.
He has to keep them in lots of different places because he doesn’t have enough space in his house.
They are in the garage, in his two-storey building and even outside!
If you read 20 minutes a day, you would have read 1.8 million words in a year
All it takes is 20 minutes a day.
If you read for this long every day for a year, then you would have read 1.8 million words.
You will be like a human dictionary!
You can read books in many different ways including e-books & audiobooks!
There used to be a time where we only had books to read.
Lucky for us, we can access them in lots of different ways now.
Whether it’s online, an e-book or even an audiobook there are lots of ways to access your favourite stories.
The person who draws pictures in books is called an illustrator.
Take a look at your books and they will say “Illustrated by…”.
The illustrator is the person who draws all the pictures in the book.
Books don’t always have to have one illustrator, there can be multiple.
If you love art then you might like to work as an illustrator when you are older!
Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press.
We need to thank Johannes Gutenberg for the books we have today.
He invented the printing press, which prints words on to paper.
This was in 1440.
It meant that thousands of books could be produced very quickly!
Send us your favourite facts! Above facts are from:
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!!
Left – Who were the first Europeans to set foot on Australian soil and where did it happen? Find out in “The European Quest to Find Terra Australis Incognita: Quiros, Torres and Janszoon.”Check it out here.
Right – Available as an audio book – a first-hand account of the Holocaust from a Polish Jewish woman who faced death daily in “If I Survive.” Find out more here.
The Dying Days of Segregation in Australia: Case Study Yarrabahgives a blow-by-blow description of the days of apartheid in Qld and how an Aboriginal community lobbied tirelessly for local government and finally got it in 1984 and their progress to today with land rights and native title. Hear the words of Aboriginal leaders themselves. Find it HERE.
William Cooper Gentle Warrior: Standing Up for Australian Aborigines and Persecuted Jews is the first book by Barbara Miller on William Cooper and tells his amazing story and that of the Australian Aborigines’ League as they work for the uplift of their people and stand up for Jews at Kristallnacht, the start of the Holocaust when Aborigines were not citizens in their own nation. Find it HERE
Is it hard to choose what to read next? Is it a juggling act?
BOOK OF THE MONTH FEATURE
In Beyond Belief: Rethinking the Voice to Parliament, twelve distinguished Australians set out their reasons why we need to question the wisdom of enshrining a Voice to parliament by amending the Constitution.
Some of these reasons are legal, political and constitutional; but others express concern that constitutional amendment will do nothing to address the social disadvantage endured by many Indigenous Australians – a burden which weighs heavily on each of the contributors.
Beyond Belief: Rethinking the Voice to Parliament will equip Australians who have their own doubts about the proposed referendum with informed and compelling reasons for deciding to vote ‘No’ when asked to change our nation’s founding document.
The Voice to Parliament Handbookis an easy-to-follow guide for the millions of Australians who have expressed support for the Uluru Statement from the Heart, but want to better understand what a Voice to Parliament actually means.
‘We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.’ These words from the Uluru Statement from the Heart are a heartfelt invitation from First Nations People to fellow Australians, who will have the opportunity to respond when the Voice referendum is put to a national vote by the Albanese Government.
Indigenous leader Thomas Mayo and acclaimed journalist Kerry O’Brien have written this handbook to answer the most commonly asked questions about why the Voice should be enshrined in the Constitution, and how it might function to improve policies affecting Indigenous communities, and genuinely close the gap on inequalities at the most basic level of human dignity.
A handy tool for people inclined to support a ‘yes’ vote in the referendum, The Voice to Parliament Handbook reflects on this historic opportunity for genuine reconciliation, to right the wrongs and heal the ruptured soul of a nation. This guide offers simple explanations, useful anecdotes, historic analogies and visual representations, so you can share it among friends, family and community networks in the build-up to the referendum.
I had a scoop about the Path to Treaty Bill being likely to pass through Qld parliament at its sitting in Cairns May 9-11. This had not surfaced in the national or even the state or local media so I wrote an article for The Spectator which would have been breaking news had it been a newspaper. It was approved to be published on 13 May and came out in the magazine cover attached. Since then, there has been a lot of coverage in Qld and national newspapers and national TV. Most people were surprised the opposition LNP supported the bill which has wide-reaching ramifications.
L – Author Barbara Miller with Cheryl Buchanan, co-chair Interim Truth and Treaty Board at the Path to Treaty workshop in Cairns 9 May. R – Barbara and Norman Miller with Cheyl Buchanan after the Premier’s breakfast when she announced to media the Path to Treaty Act had been passed the afternoon before.
Fun Facts About Books!
The largest collection consists of 1.5 million books!
According to the Guinness World Records, the largest privately owned collection of books is a massive 1.5 million.
They are owned by John Q. Benham who lives in Indiana in the USA.
He has to keep them in lots of different places because he doesn’t have enough space in his house.
They are in the garage, in his two-storey building and even outside!
If you read 20 minutes a day, you would have read 1.8 million words in a year
All it takes is 20 minutes a day.
If you read for this long every day for a year, then you would have read 1.8 million words.
You will be like a human dictionary!
You can read books in many different ways including e-books & audiobooks!
There used to be a time where we only had books to read.
Lucky for us, we can access them in lots of different ways now.
Whether it’s online, an e-book or even an audiobook there are lots of ways to access your favourite stories.
The person who draws pictures in books is called an illustrator.
Take a look at your books and they will say “Illustrated by…”.
The illustrator is the person who draws all the pictures in the book.
Books don’t always have to have one illustrator, there can be multiple.
If you love art then you might like to work as an illustrator when you are older!
Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press.
We need to thank Johannes Gutenberg for the books we have today.
He invented the printing press, which prints words on to paper.
This was in 1440.
It meant that thousands of books could be produced very quickly!
Send us your favourite facts! Above facts are from:
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 outHERE
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!!
Left – Who were the first Europeans to set foot on Australian soil and where did it happen? Find out in “The European Quest to Find Terra Australis Incognita: Quiros, Torres and Janszoon.” Check it out here.
Right – Available as an audio book – a first-hand account of the Holocaust from a Polish Jewish woman who faced death daily in “If I Survive.” Find out more here.
