Cirrus@Austlit

'W.E.H. Stanner's words changed Australia. Without condescension and without sentimentality, in essays such as 'The Dreaming' Stanner conveyed the richness and uniqueness of Aboriginal culture. In his Boyer Lectures he exposed a 'cult of forgetfulness practised on a national scale,' regarding the fate of the Aborigines, for which he coined the phrase 'the great Australian silence'. And in his essay 'Durmugam' he provided an unforgettable portrait of a warrior's attempt to hold back cultural change. 'He was such a man,' Stanner wrote. 'I thought I would like to make the reading world see and feel him as I did.''

'The pieces collected here span the career of W.E.H. Stanner as well as the history of Australian race relations. They reveal the extraordinary scholarship, humanity and vision of one of Australia's finest essayists. Their revival is a significant event.' (Source: Black Inc Books website)

'In December 2002, The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Volume One by Keith Windschuttle was published. It argued that violence between whites and Aborigines in colonial Tasmania had been vastly exaggerated and sought to rewrite one of the most troubling parts of Australian history. The book soon attracted widespread coverage, including both high praise and heated criticism.'

'Until now, Windschuttle's arguments have not been comprehensively examined. Whitewash collects some of Australia's leading writers on Aboriginal history to do just this. The result provides not only a demolition of Windschuttle's revisionism but also a vivid and illuminating history of one of the most famous and tragic episodes in the history of the British Empire - the dispossession of the Tasmanian Aborigines.' (Source: Publisher's website)