'Survival In Our Own Land presents history in 'South Australia' for the first time from the point of view of Nungas, as many 'Aborigines' call themselves, showing Goonyas, as Europeans are called, as the invaders.
Almost 150 Nungas have told how the Goonya invasion and implementation of Goonya law and policy have affected us. Fifty years ago for 'South Australia's' centenary we were a chapter in a Goonya book. Now we are our own books.
The stories, in prose and poetry, speak volumes of much that has been previously omitted from history and textbooks. Many have been told for the first time for this book. Extracts from Goonya archival documents, many never before published, have also been included to illustrate Goonya attitudes and actions which have caused the deaths of many of our people and the destruction of much of our culture.' (Source: Back Cover)
'Around August 1988 the long awaited South Australian Sesquicentenary (1986) publication Survival in Our Own Land appeared on the shelves of Adelaide's bookshops. This jubilee ISC volume is important in Aboriginal studies for a number of reasons. It is to my knowledge the second only of its kind to make a state-wide overview of Aboriginal history and affairs. The other book of similar proportions was edited by R. and C. Berndt as part of a series of volumes commemorating the Western Australian Sesquicentennial, Aborigines of the West (Berndt and Berndt, 1979). The Western Australian volume was compiled through the work of a large number of contributors who were chiefly white Australians from academic disciplines. There were very few contributors of Aboriginal descent, a lack of representativeness which did not go unnoticed and was at the time a point of criticism.' (Introduction)
'Around August 1988 the long awaited South Australian Sesquicentenary (1986) publication Survival in Our Own Land appeared on the shelves of Adelaide's bookshops. This jubilee ISC volume is important in Aboriginal studies for a number of reasons. It is to my knowledge the second only of its kind to make a state-wide overview of Aboriginal history and affairs. The other book of similar proportions was edited by R. and C. Berndt as part of a series of volumes commemorating the Western Australian Sesquicentennial, Aborigines of the West (Berndt and Berndt, 1979). The Western Australian volume was compiled through the work of a large number of contributors who were chiefly white Australians from academic disciplines. There were very few contributors of Aboriginal descent, a lack of representativeness which did not go unnoticed and was at the time a point of criticism.' (Introduction)
