Why weren't we told? A personal search for the truth about our history

Description

Historian Henry Reynolds has found himself being asked these questions by many people, over many years, in all parts of Australia. The questions are always the same. Why weren't we told about the troubled history of relations with indigenous people? Why were we denied the truth? Why Weren’t We Told? is a frank account of Henry Reynolds’ personal journey towards the realisation that he, like generations of Australians, grew up with a distorted and idealised version of the past — a vision of peaceful settlement. The reality, as this book reveals, is that the colonists and the original inhabitants fought a bloody war for more than 100 years. Aborigines were vital contributors to early colonial industries including pastoralism, fishing and surveying. And counter to contemporary notions of terra nullius, there was, for most of the nineteenth century, official recognition by the colonial authorities of Aborigines’ rights to their land. From Henry Reynolds’ unforgettable encounter in a North Queensland jail with injustice towards Aboriginal children, to his friendship with Eddie Mabo, to his shattering of the myths about our ‘peaceful’ history, this book will shock, move and intrigue. Accessible and provocative, Why Weren’t We Told? is crucial reading on the most important debate in Australia as we enter the twenty-first century.