AustLit

'Stories of war never lose their power to shock, sadden and confront. Witnessing death and experiencing violence and atrocities creates traumatic memories. Indelible and unavoidable traces of these events are left behind – not just for those who witness them, but also for future generations. How these events and their effects are understood and discussed over time is a perennial challenge to those who experience them and those who attempt, long after, to fathom the enduring depths of past human violence.' (Introduction)

'FOR INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS, experience of the Second World War went beyond service in combat roles. Consider the Davis brothers in Western Australia: as Jack Davis tells us in A Boy’s Life (Magabala Books, 1991), his brother Harold ‘was taken prisoner at Tobruk and was imprisoned in North Africa and then in Italy. He escaped and fought with the partisans. He saw the bodies of Mussolini and his mistress hung up by their heels in the streets of Milan…’ For Jack, the war was humdrum by comparison. Remaining in the Gascoyne region, where he had lived since January 1937, Jack Davis continued to work as a stockman.' (Introduction)