Tag: schools

Newsletter Oct 2022

Hi all you wonderful readers – Well the year is advancing and I hope you’re getting through your to-do list and leaving yourself time out to read your favourite book or spend some time in nature or do whatever refreshes you.

Barbara Miller re her 2 memoirs – White Woman Black Heart and Secrets and Lies – brief interview

HOLOCAUST HANDBOOK FOR SCHOOLS & ADULTS ON THE HOLOCAUST & ANTISEMITISM

I have finished writing this project for a Jewish organisation and it is being edited. The graphic design work will begin soon. We are hoping that it will receive favour from curriculum bodies and teachers will use it. If anyone can help with this project, please let me know.

The photo is of a plaque outside the Jewish Holocaust Museum and Research Centre in Melbourne.

Brief Interview with author Barbara Miller re her books on William Cooper

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 at bmiller@bigpond.com

Extended for October also. Order from
https://barbara-miller-books.com/

REEF AND RAINFOREST: AN ABORIGINAL VOICE THROUGH ART AND STORY

Munganbana’s work in creating this book is a perfect example of … connection to country. He has combined his personal, ancestral and spiritual experiences with a mix of traditional and contemporary art styles to help give us a greater understanding of the beauty, history and importance of the Reef.

Sheriden Morris, Managing Director
Reef and Rainforest Research Centre

LEARN MORE 

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

Title of Book – Gulpilil 
‘David is a gateway to a history that we’ve so far denied and not embraced. In this country, he’s more important than Ned Kelly.’ Jack Thompson

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that content inside this publication, contains images and the name of a person who has died. For cultural reasons, he is referred to as David Dalaithngu.

About the Author

David Gulpilil is a Yolngu man beloved around the world as a hunter, dancer, actor and artist. His preternatural acting in the films Walkabout, Storm Boy, Crocodile Dundee, The Tracker and Charlie’s Country – for which he won the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes Film Festival and Best Actor at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards in 2014 – has allowed Gulpilil to transmit the worlds of the First Australians to screens with unrivalled magic and melancholy, and made him an icon of cinema.

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

My book Secrets and Lies is often no 1 best seller on Amazon Australia as an ebook in Discrimination Constitutional Law

My 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. It is currently no 1 in the Sociology of Race Relations in Amazon US and White Australia Has A Black History was no 2 beside it a couple of days ago.

 

Left – A fun photo of me putting my hands on Munganbana Norman’s Big Boomerang recently.

Right – I was invited to Courage to Care’s first event in Brisbane 5 June 2014 and am beside the William Cooper exhibit.

 

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 April 2022

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.

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 

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

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