Cirrus@Austlit

'Mention Palm Island to many Australians and they will conjure images of tropical resorts in the Caribbean, the Grenadines or Dubai. Most non-Indigenous Australians know little of Palm’s history as a penal settlement for Aboriginal people, established by the Queensland Government a century ago. Some may vaguely recall television images from 2004 of smoke billowing from the roof of the police station on an island in North Queensland; others the shock headlines ‘Tropic of Despair’, ‘Paradise Lost’ or ‘Queensland hell hole’ that thrust Australia’s... ' (Introduction)

'In November 2004, Mulrunji Doomadgee's tragic death triggered civil unrest within the Indigenous community of Palm Island. This led to the first prosecution of a Queensland police officer in relation to a death in custody.

Despite prolonged media attention, much of it negative and full of stereotypes, few Australians know the turbulent history of' Australia's Alcatraz', a political prison set up to exile Queensland's 'troublesome blacks'.

The repressive regimes were under the guise of protectionism. But the police control continues, and there is a continuing failure to address the cause of on-going Indigenous disadvantage.

Palm Island, often heart-wrenching and at times uplifting, is a study in the dynamics of power and privilege, and how these are resisted.' Source: Publisher's Blurb