Unsettling Australian Histories: Letters to Ancestry from a Great-Great-Grandson

223 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cm Includes bibliographical references (pages 215-220) First Edition #150722 (No dustjacket.)

“What do you do when you find your family tree has been re-planted in someone else’s yard? What do you do as a white Australian when you are invited by Aboriginal friends and colleagues to connect with and honour your ancestry? These questions become even more complicated when you know your family participated in colonial violence and dispossession. My great-great-grandfather was Samuel Griffith, one of the ‘founding fathers’ of Australian Federation. He was a Premier of Queensland, the first Chief Justice of Australia and intimately involved in drafting the Australian Constitution. Other ancestors of mine participated in the Frontier Wars in North Queensland to claim, ‘settle’ and defend their occupation of Aboriginal lands. This book is a series of letters written to my ancestry. It’s been created through cross-cultural friendships and partnerships. It is an engagement with history that hopes to make possible more action in the present.”–
Griffith, Samuel, Sir, 1845-1920. | Denborough, David. | Aboriginal Australians — Colonization — Australia — Queensland. | Aboriginal Australians, Treatment of — Australia — Queensland — History. | Australia — Race relations — History. | Australian