Cirrus@Austlit

Author's note [from Sister Girl]: I wanted to write about the silent history of Aboriginal women that has been the experience of so many of my mother's and grandmother's generatoin. Although we learnt about the pioneering efforts of mostly European males, little was recorded about the 'backbone' of the pastoral industry, the Aboriginal men and women who toiled as stockmen and domestic servants. This is so much a part of Australian history and it is about my history. The stories deserve recognition and need to be rescued, recorded and shared. I wrote this piece in 1987, just prior to the bicentenary. (p. 1)

Epigraph: In attempting to present evidence of our true situation we are furiously attacked by white Australians... going back 200 years... the past is finished!... Yet kill [our] mother, rape [our] land, psychologically attack and keep [us] in a powerless position each day - does it not fire on in the mind of the victim? Does it continue to scar and affect the thinking? Deny it, but still it exists. -- Kevin Gilbert