'The powerful story of a Bundjalung woman's journey to uncover her family history.
'The phone rang unexpectedly late one night. 'Guess who our white ancestors were?' chuckled Uncle Gerry. 'They were slave traders! A couple of generations of slave traders!'
'With this startling revelation, Shauna wanted to find out more. She discovers her ancestor Robert Bostock arrived in Sydney in 1815 convicted of slave trading in Africa, and his grandson Augustus John married Bundjalung woman One My. Battling restrictions on access to government archives, Shauna pieces together her family's stories, from dispossession and frontier violence, to the Aborigines Protection Board's harsh regime on the reserves and surprising acts of kindness, to decades of activism.
'Reaching Through Time reveals the cataclysmic impact of colonisation on Aboriginal families, and how this ripples through to the present. It also shows how family research can bring a deeper understanding and healing of the wounds in our history. Shauna writes, 'I am a proud Aboriginal woman who has always wanted to make a stronger connection to my cultural heritage. I experienced an inner yearning to find out about my ancestors and what they experienced in life. This is the story of my journey.'' (Publication summary)
'If the failure of the recent Voice referendum teaches us anything, it is that there is still a very long way to go before non-Aboriginal Australians really grasp, at a fundamental personal level, the nature of the historical injustices that Aboriginal Australians have faced. This new widely acclaimed book by Bundjalung historian Shauna Bostock promises to change all that.' (Introduction)
'Reaching Through Time: Finding my family’s stories is the epitome of Indigenous family life writing. Predominantly set in New South Wales, on the east coast of Australia, Reaching Through Time is a journey through more than 200 years of Australian history, from early invasion and colonisation to the present day, through the lens of Indigenous family lived experience. This collection of life stories – skilfully located in the archives, family memory, and secondary sources – traces five generations of the authors’ family. Reaching Through Time is a rich, engaging contribution to Australian history. Bostock is writing against Australian historiography, which has excluded the voices of Indigenous families. As Shauna Bostock says: ‘This book is written for people who want to know our history from an Aboriginal perspective.’' (Introduction)
'Reaching Through Time: Finding my family’s stories is the epitome of Indigenous family life writing. Predominantly set in New South Wales, on the east coast of Australia, Reaching Through Time is a journey through more than 200 years of Australian history, from early invasion and colonisation to the present day, through the lens of Indigenous family lived experience. This collection of life stories – skilfully located in the archives, family memory, and secondary sources – traces five generations of the authors’ family. Reaching Through Time is a rich, engaging contribution to Australian history. Bostock is writing against Australian historiography, which has excluded the voices of Indigenous families. As Shauna Bostock says: ‘This book is written for people who want to know our history from an Aboriginal perspective.’' (Introduction)
'If the failure of the recent Voice referendum teaches us anything, it is that there is still a very long way to go before non-Aboriginal Australians really grasp, at a fundamental personal level, the nature of the historical injustices that Aboriginal Australians have faced. This new widely acclaimed book by Bundjalung historian Shauna Bostock promises to change all that.' (Introduction)
