AustLit

'On 30th April 1996 Aboriginal activist and leader Robert Riley — born Robert Dinah, and universally known as Rob – drove into a plain, besser-block motel on a busy highway in a light-industrial part of Perth’s southern suburbs. He paid cash for Room 24, carried in a few personal belongings and shut the door. Alone in the crammed and sparsely furnished room, he penned his final thoughts. The next day, staff found him dead, hanging from the shower fixture. He was forty-one.

'This is how the book begins (p.1): a description of the last moment of activist and leader Rob Riley. The reader is taken directly and abruptly to the sad and tragic reality of Rob Riley’s suicide. The first question coming to mind when we approach the book is then: Why? Why such a prominent figure like Rob Riley would take his own life. The reader will find some answers as he goes along, but there is more to the story than a ‘single-minded attempt to explain Rob’s suicide’ as the author, Quentin Beresford, points out himself (p.7). Beresford did not want to overshadow Riley’s successes and accomplishments. Nevertheless, Riley’s death is inextricably interwoven into the whole story of his life: the story of an Aboriginal man from Western Australia, a Noongar who grew up in an institution, separated from his family, a man confused about his identity, a man who was the victim of sexual abuse, a man who experienced racism, a husband, a father, a man who became a fighter for Aboriginal rights, a man who engaged in an enduring struggle full of disappointments, failures, and obstacles. But more than the story of a man, it is also the story of a nation, of a people. Through this 374- page biography of Riley, Quentin Beresford gives us a real history lesson. Beresford is really specific in his account and has the sense of historical details. He relies on a wide range of materials but his access to family records and photographs brings some more value to his rich and up-to-date bibliography. It testifies to a solid research work and through the different stages of Rob Riley’s life, a whole page of the history of Australia opens up to us.' (Introduction)