by Stan Grant
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Patrick Wolfe, Traces of History: Elementary Structures of Race, Verso, New York City, 2016.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
STAN GRANT is a Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi man. A journalist since 1987, he has worked for the ABC, SBS, the Seven Network and Sky News Australia. From 2001 to 2012 he worked for CNN as an anchor and senior correspondent in Asia and the Middle East. As a journalist, he has received a string of prestigious international and Australian awards. In 2015, he published his bestselling book Talking to My Country, which won the Walkley Book Award, and he also won a Walkley Award for his coverage of Indigenous affairs. In 2016 he was appointed to the Referendum Council on Indigenous recognition. Stan is now Professor of Global Affairs at Griffith University and International Affairs Analyst at ABC.
ALSO BY STAN GRANT
The Tears of Strangers
Talking to My Country
TALKING TO MY COUNTRY
Talking to My Country is Stan Grant’s very personal meditation on race, identity and history. It is that rare and special book that talks to every Australian about their country – what it is, and what it could be. It is not just about race, or about Indigenous people but all of us, our shared identity. Direct, honest and forthright, Stan is talking to us all. He might not have all the answers but he wants us to keep on asking the question: how can we be better?
‘an urgent and flowing narrative in a book that should be on the required reading list in every school’ – The Australian
‘Grant will be an important voice in shaping this nation’ – The Saturday Paper
THE TEARS OF STRANGERS
Stan Grant was born in 1963 into the Wiradjuri people, warriors who occupied the vast territory of central and south-western New South Wales. For 100 years the Wiradjuri waged a war against European invasion and settlement. When Stan was born the war had been lost, the remnants of the Wiradjuri were scattered onto mission camps and the fringes of rural towns, and ravaged by alcoholism, poverty, abuse and neglect. Against this backdrop the Grant family waged its own struggle to survive.
From first contact with white settlers to today, The Tears of Strangers is an unforgettable Aboriginal memoir of survival, healing and hope. It is the story of the Wiradjuri people, the Grant family and Stan’s own journey to come to terms with his Aboriginality and identity.
‘a serious, considered and, above all, honest portrait of both his own life and Australians’ attitudes to race.’ – The Age
COPYRIGHT
Three lines from NEW AND COLLECTED POEMS 1931–2001 by Czeslaw Milosz
(Allen Lane The Penguin Press, 2001). Copyright © Czeslaw Milosz Royalties Inc., 1988, 1991, 1995, 2001.
Three lines from CITIZEN: AN AMERICAN LYRIC by Claudia Rankine (Penguin, 2015). Copyright © Claudia Rankine, 2015.
Lyrics from ‘January 26’, written by D. Rankine/A. Briggs/D. Sultan (EMI Music Publishing, Mushroom Music Publishing), reproduced with kind permission.
Lyrics from ‘Treaty’, written by P. Kelly/M. Yunupingu/W. Marika/S. Kellaway/G. Yunupingu/C. Williams/M. Mununggurr (EMI Music Publishing, Mushroom Music Publishing), reproduced with kind permission.
HarperCollinsPublishers
First published in Australia in 2019
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © Stan Grant 2019
The right of Stan Grant to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
HarperCollinsPublishers
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ISBN 9781460753187 (paperback)
ISBN 9781460707807 (ebook)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia
Cover design by Darren Holt, HarperCollins Design Studio
Cover images: Map showing the distribution of Aboriginal tribes of Australia by Norman B. Tindale, courtesy State Library of Queensland. (Record number: 21124881560002061)
