Tag: Memoir

Barbara Miller Books Newsletter July-August 2023 

Book library snug cozy


Which reading space would you choose?

BOOK OF THE MONTH FEATURE

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:

Top 10 Facts About Books!

Sometimes you just want a book that’ll give you a laugh!
Must admit my books are a bit serious but very interesting!

White Australia Has A Black History Book
shattered lives broken dreams

FIND THESE WILLIAM COOPER BOOKS WHCH GO TOGETHER- HERE

FIND THESE MEMOIRS WHCH GO TOGETHER – 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 – www.barbara-miller-books.com.

Happy reading!!

THE EUROPEAN QUEST TO FIND TERRA AUSTRALIS INCOGNITA: Quiros, Torres and Janszoo

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 

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 March 2022

Hi all you wonderful readers – There has been a lot happening in the world and we trust you are in a good place and can take time out from your busy schedule to read some interesting books. It has been said that “reading is dreaming with open eyes.” What do you dream about when you read?

Author Marji Hill, who facilitates the Fast Self-Publishing Online group, interviewed author Barbara Miller this week.

NEW BOOK COMING UP

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

Summer or winter, autumn or spring, pick up a book

Review of White Australia Has A Black History: William Cooper And First Nations Peoples’ Political Activism

5 Star Review – We’ve learned about the atrocities that were committed against Aboriginal people during white settlement but never before have I read about the attempts by Aboriginals like William Cooper to try and work with the system, to try and succeed as farmers. Barbara tells a heartbreaking story of betrayal and injustice, not against rebels, but against people who made every attempt to work with the Government. We learn how the original owners of the land didn’t ask for anything more than what was given to the white settlers, but they were denied even this. Worse, it was sometimes given and taken away as collective punishment for the failure of a minority of people to fulfil obligations. forced on them.

This book should be mandatory reading in the Australian school curriculum. (Mike007, Amazon reviewer)

Check White Australia Has A Black History out as it is only $2.99 US for the ebook. Click here.

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

5-star review, Amazing Story – Shattered Lives Broken Dreams: William Cooper and Australian Aborigines Protest Holocaust ( William Cooper Gentle Warrior Series Book 2) by Barbara Miller. This is a historic novel about how the Australian Aborigines protested against the Jew Holocaust during the Nazi regimen. The fact that these Australians guided by William Cooper had done a fierce protest against the holocaust is something that took me by surprise, I am very aware of everything that happened during the Holocaust, not just because I read about it but because I had classmates that their parents used to have the concentration camp number in their wrists, like a second-hand history close to me during my high school years but I had never heard this story about William Cooper and their mates. The book is well written, it has a lot of investigative work involved in its development, it has some pictures about the events that are narrated and I think that if you are a history fan or if you want to know things about the Jew Holocaust that you don’t know yet, this is a great book to read.
Review by Quirru, Amazon reviewer
Check the book out here, only $2.99 US.

Right – I am with my William Cooper Gentle Warrior book which is available with free shipping from my website. Click here.

Left – My follow-up memoir, Secrets and Lies (2021) which is doing well on Amazon Aust. 

Review of Secrets and Lies: The Shocking Truth of Recent Aboriginal History, A Memoir” 

5 star review – A Memoir with a Punch – 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!
by Joy RS Amazon reviewer
For a closer look, click here

BOOK OF THE MONTH FEATURE

For the Record: 160 years of Aboriginal print journalism by

Michael Rose

From September 1836 to December 1837, young Aboriginal clerks produced the Flinders Island Weekly Chronicle, a remarkable record of life on the island off Tasmania where a number of Aboriginal people had been forced to resettle. Copied by hand, it describes the settlement in often poignant terms ‘I am much afraid none of us will be alive by and by as there is nothing but sickness among us. Why don’t the black fellows pray to the king to get us away from this place?’

Starting with this extraordinary newsletter, Michael Rose has brought together examples of Aboriginal journalism from a wide range of Aboriginal and mainstream publications. He includes articles from early activists and others who used newspaper and magazine journalism in their fight for justice.

For The Record also offers the reader an unusual glimpse, through Aboriginal eyes, of key issues and events in Aboriginal and Australian history. Included in the dozens of articles selected: protests about poor treatment on reserves in the 1930s, an eyewitness account of a Maralinga atomic bomb test in the 1950s, Bill Rosser’s reporting of life on Palm Island, Kevin Gilbert’s passionate call for a formal treaty between Aboriginal people and the Australian government and Poel Pearson’s commentary on the High Court’s Mabo decision.

You can check it out here.
Interestingly, there are some articles by me as both Barbara Russell, my maiden name, and Barbara Miller, my married name as I was the editor and a writer for the “N.Q. Messagestick” an Aboriginal newspaper for the North Queensland Land Council.

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

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

Newsletter Jan 2022 no 1

Hi all you wonderful readers – No doubt some of you are still on holidays and some are back to the grind. No! Not the grind – an exciting new year full of lots of opportunities and adventures

Review of White Woman Black Heart: Journey Home to Old Mapoon by author Barbara Miller

This is a highly engaging and inspiring memoir. At its centre is the story of Mapoon which has all the elements of a great drama with the violent expulsion of the community in 1963 and their triumphant return eleven years later. As the author explains she came almost by chance to be at the very centre of the drama which in turn dramatically changed her life. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in political and social change over the last 50 years.
 
Professor Henry Reynolds,FAHA FASSA University of Tasmania, eminent historian and award-winning author
Check it out as it is only $2.99 US for the ebook https://www.amazon.com/dp-B07CCMV6CP/
 

Wansee 80th Anniversary

We have two very important anniversaries coming up which we should remember because of the gravity of the inhumanity to man shown at each. On 20 January, we have the 80th anniversary of the Wansee conference when Nazi leaders developed the Final Solution to expedite the genocide of European Jews. This horrific story is told in both the above books, If I Surviveabout a Polish Shoah (Holocaust) survivor and Shattered Lives Broken Dreamsabout Aboriginal William Cooper who led the Australian Aborigines’ League on the protest re Kristallnacht to the German consulate in Melbourne in 1938. Both books can be found on my website with amazon links for ebooks. 

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

The other anniversary is on  27 January, the 77th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German concentration and extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau. In November 2005, it was declared International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust by the United Nations General Assembly. On this annual day of commemoration, the UN urges every member state to honor the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust and millions of other victims of Nazism and to develop educational programs to help prevent future genocides.

Excerpt of horrific story from If I Survive

P 55 “Using bullets to kill Jews was not quick enough, used too much manpower and rattled some who had to do it. A conference was held to plan Hitler’s Final Solution on 20 January 1942, at Wannsee, a suburb of Berlin. Head of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), SS General Reinhard Heydrich, ran the meeting. Adolf Eichmann wrote the protocols, which included the words “transportation to the East”, a euphemism for the genocide of Europe’s Jews, who numbered about eleven million at the time. Josef Bühler, State Secretary of the General Government of occupied Poland, asked for the Final Solution to occur in Poland because transportation was not a problem. About 1,700,000 Jews were killed in Operation Reinhard.

Aktion (Action) Reinhard was the name given to the plan to send Jews to their deaths at Treblinka, and the other extermination camps built in Poland – Belzec and Sobibor. According to the Central Commission for Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, a fourth death camp had already opened at Chelmno, today’s Poland. The Nazis gassed the first Jews there in mobile vans on 8 December 1941. (Scapbookpages.com 1998)

 

BOOK OF THE MONTH FEATURE

Anne Sarzin and Lisa Miranda Sarzin wrote Hand in Hand: Jewish and Indigenous People Working Together as a project for the Jewish Board of Deputies (JBD) NSW who published it in 2010. While more stories could be added to it now, it is the most comprehensive, valuable, and inspiring book available on this important topic. The book has a focus on working together for reconciliation and justice.

For NAIDOC Week 2021, the JBD began a digital portal to build on the book. As their website says:

“The portal will provide a comprehensive overview of the Jewish-First Nations relationship in NSW and an inspiration to local Jews and others to continue and take part in the journey. This digital portal will expand on the Sarzins’ work and document the history; highlight key personalities and personal stories; catalogue collaborative work being done today and offer opportunities to get involved in it; present the work of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, and give access to important resources from other organisations.

“Here are just a few of the collaborations which will be featured on the portal:

 

European Quest to Find Terra Australis Incognita

I published  European Quest in 2014 and it is only available for sale through my website but I will soon upload it on Amazon. It is the fascinating story of Pedro Ferdinand de Quiros, a Portuguese explorer under the command of the King of Spain who had a great desire to find the large unknown land that he and others believed filled the gap between South America and South Africa and balanced the norther and southern hemispheres. He travelled through the south pacific and encountered Indigenous people along the way, landing on Vanuatu in 1606 and then was forced back. His second in command, Torres continued on and alerted Europeans to a strait between New Guinea and the land to the south. However, he was beaten by 6 months by Dutchman Janszoon who was the first European to set foot on Australia. 

I am also writing a new book that will focus on this story from a Christian point of view as there is a huge interest in Australia and the Pacific that de Quiros, a devout Catholic, prophecied “the south land of the Holy Spirit over the Pacific from Vanuatu to the South Pole. The island in Vanuatu where he made his declaration from is called Espiritu Santo or Holy Spirit in Spanish and they believe they are the custodians of this prophecy. 

Norman and I were asked to speak at the Vanuatu Prayer Assembly in 2012 and 2013 and we went to the very place where de Quiros made this declaration and met with villagers there. Quiros made it on May 14 1606 which was Pentecost or Shavuot and so the villagers celebrate it each year and also celebrate the birth of the modern state of Israel on May 14. How amazing! So much more to tell.

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

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!