Stan Grant

5 stars - with a caveat. I would stress that this is only one opinion. As Grant himself notes, many Indigenous people would disagree with some of his conclusions, and I've certainly heard mixed reviews of Grant's theories from my Indigenous friends. But that's true of any group, of course; it is an easy majority fantasy to reduce a minority to one representative.

Acknowledging this is one take on a complex issue, Grant's essay is gorgeous. Encompassing the ancient history of Australia's Aboriginals as well as the murky modern situation, analysing Europeans' abhorrent treatment while also stressing some intriguing challenges to the modern progressive opinion of race relations in Australia. Grant is one of our most respected journalists for a reason, and that reason is clear.… (mais)

Stan Grant is an award-winning Australian journalist; in a lot of ways he is similar to Ta-Nehihi Coates, whom he references a couple of times.

Talking To My Country is a frank and direct statement of what it is like to be Aboriginal in today's Australia. Grant makes the point that the abuses and depredations that so horrify us now and not that far in the past that his family can forget them. He reminds us that we have whitewashed our history, pretending that there was nobody here when the British arrived, glossing over the massacres our forebears committed and writing them out of our Constitution.

Formal apology for these depredations are just the start of what this country needs to do to face up to and rectify our appalling relations with the original occupants of this land. Reading Grant's book leaves one in no doubt as to the need for us to do that.… (mais)