AustLit

'Journalist Aaron Smith's new memoir holds up a unique mirror to Australia. What he sees is at once amazing, disturbing and revealing. The Rock explores the failings of our nation's character, its unresolved past and its uncertain future from the vantage point of its most northerly outpost, Thursday Island.

'Smith was the last editor, fearless journalist and the paperboy of Australia's most northerly newspaper, the Torres News, a small independent regional tabloid that, until it folded in late 2019, was the voice of a predominantly Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal readership for 63 years across some of the most remote and little understood communities in Australia. 

'The Rock is a story of self-discovery where Smith grapples to understand a national identity marred by its racist underbelly, where he is transplanted from his white-boy privileged suburban life to being a racial and cultural minority, and an outsider. Peppered with his experiences, Smith gradually and sensitively becomes embedded in island life while vividly capturing the endless and often farcical parade of personalities and politicians including Scott Morrison and Tony Abbott.' (Publication summary)

For Torres Strait Islander actor/writer Jimi Bani, performing his new theatre show at the Gab Titui Cultural Centre on Thursday Island was like coming full circle.'

'It's been along [sic] journey for Diat Alferink since 2005 when she first performed her critically acclaimed solo show Wakaid Girl Lyndhurst Kid in Adelaide.'

'Despite rave reviews and a sell-out season of their most-recent production, Bennelong at the Sydney Opera House, dancer and choreographer Deborah Brown of the world-renown Indigenous dance company Bangarra said she was 'really nervous' about performing their 2015 hit show I.B.I.S. on Thursday Island on August 7.'

'A new book gives an insight into how Indigenous people across the country perceived and interacted with European shipwreck survivors and convict escapees who they took into their communities.'