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https://theconversation.com/shame-disgust-horror-kate-grenville-faces-her-family-history-of-stolen-land-in-australia-and-asks-us-to-feel-it-with-her-251152>
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Review: Unsettled: a journey through time and place – Kate Grenville (Black
Inc.)
How do Australians feel about knowing the territory we inhabit was violently
stolen from First Nations people? In
Unsettled, Kate Grenville explores this
through her own feelings. “I’ve been circling this book for years,” she writes.
But its immediate context is the 60% “No” vote in the 2023 referendum to
establish an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to parliament, and to
the executive government, which develops laws and policies.
The slogan “If you don’t know, vote No” gave Australians “permission to keep
looking away” from the past, Grenville writes. She invites us to look into that
past, accompanying her on a journey that leaves her “unsettled”, but hopeful.
For Grenville, the difference between
knowing the truth of Australia’s past
and
feeling it is significant. An accomplished historical novelist, she has
taken readers into the imagined inner lives of colonist characters in books
like
The Secret River (2005), allowing us to feel what they felt. In
Unsettled, she invites us to witness and share her responses to places and
stories of colonial land theft."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
