Cirrus@Austlit

'The powerful story of a Bundjalung woman's journey to uncover her family history.

'The phone rang unexpectedly late one night. 'Guess who our white ancestors were?' chuckled Uncle Gerry. 'They were slave traders! A couple of generations of slave traders!'

'With this startling revelation, Shauna wanted to find out more. She discovers her ancestor Robert Bostock arrived in Sydney in 1815 convicted of slave trading in Africa, and his grandson Augustus John married Bundjalung woman One My. Battling restrictions on access to government archives, Shauna pieces together her family's stories, from dispossession and frontier violence, to the Aborigines Protection Board's harsh regime on the reserves and surprising acts of kindness, to decades of activism.

'Reaching Through Time reveals the cataclysmic impact of colonisation on Aboriginal families, and how this ripples through to the present. It also shows how family research can bring a deeper understanding and healing of the wounds in our history. Shauna writes, 'I am a proud Aboriginal woman who has always wanted to make a stronger connection to my cultural heritage. I experienced an inner yearning to find out about my ancestors and what they experienced in life. This is the story of my journey.'' (Publication summary)

'Clouded by the great conspiracy of silence, the dominant myth of peaceful settlement, and the proliferation of Eurocentric narratives touting the achievements of explorers and pastoral pioneers, our people's remarkable history of resistance and survival during the first few decades of the occupation has faded into obscurity. It is this history which Surviving New England sets out to reclaim, co-opting the colonial archive and subverting the colonial narrative, deconstructing their story in order to uncover our own.'

Source: Abstract.

'For 40,000 years the Central NSW area of Wellington was Aboriginal - Wiradjuri - land. Following the arrival of white men, it became a penal settlement, mission station, gold-mining town and farming centre with a history of white comfort and black marginalisation. In the late 20th century, it was also the subject of the first post-Mabo Native Title claim, bringing new hope - and new controversy - to the area and its people.

Wiradjuri land is also where author Patti Miller was born and, mid-life, it begins to exert a compelling emotional pull, demanding her return. Post-children, having lived a dream life in Paris, it is hard for her to understand, or ignore, and so she is drawn into the story at the heart of Australian identity - who are we in relation to our beloved but stolen country?

Wellington and the Wiradjuri people are the main characters - and in revealing their complex narratives, Patti uncovers her own. Are her connections to this place through her convict forefathers, or through another, secret history? She sets out on a journey of exploration and takes us with her. Black and white politics, the processes of colonisation, family mythologies, generational conflict and the power of place are evoked as Patti weaves a story that is very personal and, at the same time, a universal story of country and belonging.

The Mind of a Thief is about identity, history, place and belonging and, perhaps most of all, about how we create ourselves through our stories.' Source: http://uqp.com.au/ (Sighted 03/04/2012).