AustLit

'In 1957, Ella Simon of Purfleet mission near Taree, New South Wales, applied for and was granted a certificate of exemption. Exemption gave her legal freedoms denied to other Indigenous Australians at that time: she could travel freely, open a bank account, and live and work where she wanted. In the eyes of the law she became a non-Aboriginal, but in return she could not associate with other Aboriginal people even her own family or community.

'It 'stank in my nostrils' - Ella Simon 1978.

'These personal and often painful histories uncovered in archives, family stories and lived experiences reveal new perspectives on exemption. Black, White and Exempt describes the resourcefulness of those who sought exemption to obtain freedom from hardship and oppressive regulation of their lives as Aboriginal Australians. It celebrates their resilience and explores how they negotiated exemption to protect their families and increase opportunities for them. The book also charts exemptees who struggled to advance Aboriginal rights, resist state control and abolish the exemption system.

'Contributions by Lucinda Aberdeen, Katherine Ellinghaus, Ashlen Francisco, Jessica Horton, Karen Hughes, Jennifer Jones, Beth Marsden, John Maynard, Kella Robinson, Leonie Stevens and Judi Wickes.' (Publication summary)

'Entering a crowded and contested field of history requires the type of pluck and vision demonstrated by Leonie Stevens in Me Write Myself. This compelling intervention in Indigenous Australian history recounts the exile experience of Van Diemen’s Land First Nations Peoples at Wybalenna Aboriginal Establishment on Flinders Island in Bass Strait, 1832–47. Focusing upon the years immediately after the frontier wars, Stevens brings voice to ‘documents and perspectives which were previously all but silenced’ (xxxiv). This approach revises a canonical historical narrative characterised by ‘Eurocentrism and hierarchical thinking’ (252). Stevens illuminates the writings, world views and hopes of the exiles. In doing so, she critiques and corrects a historiographical record that has focused on the actions and accounts of Europeans from James Bonwick’s (1870) The Last of the Tasmanians through to Brian Plomley’s (1987) Weep in Silence and beyond.' (Introduction)

'Paul Anderson, a newly qualified GP in a small village in North Wales, rushes a twelve year old girl to hospital with suspected appendicitis, leaving the clinic in uproar. A few months later he takes her for a drive into the mountains to explain to her the facts of life, a decision that will have enormous significance in the years to come. Paul and Penny meet again when she is sixteen, and the friendship that grew between them when she was a child blossoms into love. But the road ahead has many obstacles, there are many “dragons” they have to face – Penny’s cruel and embittered mother, her alcoholic father, and a society that does not look kindly on the age difference in their relationship. But what could keep them apart forever is a different “dragon” altogether… Laced through with tales of mythology, and a touch of the supernatural, Fighting Dragons is a compelling drama that explores what it truly means to be faithful to another person, and to have faith in yourself.' (Publication summary)

'When Janey and Neil meet at the scene of a drive by shooting, a strong friendship quickly develops.

'Neil is a detective inspector with the London Metropolitan police force, a compassionate, respectful and moral man. Janey is an attractive, caring young woman with a troubled past. Both of them are happily married to other people - or are they?

'Take this longing tackles one of society's major challenges - abuse and control within marriage. While the term "marital abuse" typically conjures up images of physical violence, this book looks at other, sometimes quite subtle, forms. And when events take a turn for the worst, past and present collide with devastating effect....' (Publication summary)

'Country women and the colour bar is a timely corrective to established ideas about race relations in rural New South Wales. It reveals the untold story of grassroots efforts by Aboriginal and white women working together to make significant gains for Aboriginal communities prior to Aboriginal people’s widespread access to citizen’s rights.'

'In the 1950s and 1960s, in towns across New South Wales, specially created Aboriginal branches of the Country Women’s Association were established. Country women and the colour bar offers insights into the experience of ordinary Aboriginal and white rural women as they participated in beauty contests, cookery, handicraft lessons and baby contests. It reveals how Aboriginal assimilation policy met everyday reality as these rural women broke the rural colour bar in an unprecedented fashion and fostered cooperative campaigns for meaningful change in race-relations.' (Source: Publishers website)

In this essay, the authors 'examines the cross-cultural collaborations between editors and foundational Aboriginal writers in the social context of the protection, assimilation, and dawning self-determination eras.' (Introduction)

In this essay the author examines transcripts of Ella Simon's original oral recordings to demonstrate how the 'lack of cultural literacy amongst her non-Aboriginal collaborators led to the prioritisation of monocultural understanding of assimiliation to the detriment of Simon's more pluralist views.' (Source: Jones 2012)