Cirrus@Austlit

'The point of departure for Country Women and the Colour Bar is the contrast (and friction) between the now fairly well-known Freedom Rides, which toured New South Wales (NSW) in 1965 – drawing attention to the racism and segregation still rife in many country towns – and the ‘quiet activism’ in which many country women had been engaged for a decade or more, working together with sympathetic white people to create networks of support and improvements in living conditions for Aboriginal communities. Country Women and the Colour Bar immerses the reader in this world of country women, and the local concerns and relationships of women in six NSW towns where branches of the Country Women’s Association (CWA) open to, or expressly for, Aboriginal women existed between 1956 and 1972.' (Introduction)