Cirrus@Austlit

'The resurgence of Indigenous culture and thought continues. Confident, smart and sensitive Aboriginal artists, writers and theorists create world-class work in every genre. Tough and autonomous critical milieux have developed, liberated from colonial and modern mythologies about Aboriginal culture and its relations to Western ways of thinking and seeing. Flourishing Indigenous arts and literary scenes have grown around a new generation of Aboriginal publishers, curators, writers, editors, film-makers, choreographers and savvy arts entrepreneurs...' (Minter, Peter, Listen Up, Meanjin Vol 65 No. 1 2006: 1-2)

'An authoritative survey of Australian Aboriginal writing over two centuries, across a wide range of fiction and non-fiction genres. Including some of the most distinctive writing produced in Australia, it offers rich insights into Aboriginal culture and experience...

'The anthology includes journalism, petitions and political letters from both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as major works that reflect the blossoming of Aboriginal poetry, prose and drama from the mid-twentieth century onwards. Literature has been used as a powerful political tool by Aboriginal people in a political system which renders them largely voiceless. These works chronicle the ongoing suffering of dispossession, but also the resilience of Aboriginal people across the country, and the hope and joy in their lives.' (Publisher's blurb)