AustLit

'The author has bravely and thoroughly tackled a group of very embarrassing and difficult topics. Embarrassing, because we do not like to admit that Australians could ever have been as non-egalitarian, nor as racist, as she shows them to be. Difficult, because most of the evidence must come from official documents, which reflect official, that is, ‘settler’ attitudes, rather than the painful experiences of the young kin, servants and ‘slaves’ who had no opportunity to recount their own tales. Rarely can we detect the authentic voices of the little ten-year-olds who scrubbed and dug and weeded and washed under guise of being taught to become useful members of society.' (Introduction)