Non-fiction

Our State of Mind

by Quentin Beresford
Ligature untapped
genre Non-fiction

In 1937, the Australian Government adopted a policy that led to the removal of Aboriginal children from their families. The aim was assimilation. The result, if the policy had continued, would have been the end of the Aboriginal race. The terrible long term impact on the mental, physical and emotional health of those children, now known as the Stolen Generation, is well documented. But how could such a policy have been passed? What was the rationale behind it? Our State of Mind critically examines these questions and proposes that the answers can be used in the path to reconciliation.

First published in 1998, Our State of Mind won the WA Premier’s Book Award for Non-fiction that same year.

Quentin Beresford is an Adjunct Professor of Politics at the University of the Sunshine Coast, having previously taught politics at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Western Australia. Paul Omojo Omaji is Professor of Criminology & Security Studies, and Vice Chancellor and President of Admiralty University in Nigeria. Both authors have published extensively.

Noonkanbah

by Steve Hawke and Michael Gallagher
Ligature untapped
genre History · Non-fiction

The multi-award-winning first-hand account of the dispute over the proposal to mine sacred land at Noonkanbah Station in Western Australian in 1978. The proposal led to walk-offs, a blockade, government intervention, and the formation of the Kimberley Land Council. The dispute became a landmark Indigenous land rights campaign.

On the launch of an exhibition in 2018 to mark Noonkanbah’s 40th anniversary, Kimberley Land Council Acting Chief Executive Officer Tyronne Garstone described the dispute as a ‘David and Goliath battle’.

First published in 1989, Noonkanbah won the Human Rights Australia Literature Award that same year. The following year it won the National Book Council Award for Non-Fiction and the Special Award in the WA Week Literary Awards.

Steve Hawke is a novelist, playwright and award-winning non-fiction author. His most recent work is The Valley (2018). Michael Gallagher worked as a photographer from from 1978 to 1986. His projects included assisting the Noonkanbah Community, the Kimberley Land Council and the Swan Valley Fringedwellers with documentation in their campaigns. After this period he worked as a historian and anthropologist in heritage and native title matters in Western Australia.

Letters from Smike

by Arthur Streeton
Ligature untapped
genre Biography · Letters · Non-fiction

Sir Arthur Streeton, a founding member of the Heidelberg School of painters, remains one of Australia’s best known artists. He was also a prolific, engaging letter writer. This collection includes letters to fellow artists Tom Roberts, Lionel Lindsay, Frederick McCubbin, Julian Ashton, George Lambert and Sydney Ure Smith. It offers an invaluable record not only of the life and opinions of one man, but of artistic and cultural life in an Australia emerging from the British shadow.

With pictures selected by Oliver Streeton, Arthur Streeton’s grandson, Letters from Smike was first published in 1989.

Editors Ann Galbally and Anna Gray are renowned experts in Australian art and both have published extensively in the area. Ann Galbally is a former academic, and Anna Gray is the former Head of Australian Art at the Australian National Gallery.

Little by Little

by Michael Tyquin
Ligature untapped
genre History · Military · Non-fiction

The remarkable story of the formation, development, and achievements of the Australian Army Medical Corps, from before Federation to the Vietnam War and beyond.

Michael Tyquin is the official historian of the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps and a former Adjunct Professor at the University of Queensland’s Centre for Military and Veterans’ Health. His most recent book is Training for War (2017). Little by Little was first published in 2003.

Joh

by Hugh Lunn
Ligature untapped
genre Biography · Non-fiction

Sir Johannes ‘Joh’ Bjelke-Peterson was premier of Queensland from 1968 until 1987. First published in 1978, award-winning author Hugh Lunn’s biography was written half-way through Bjelke-Peterson’s controversial time in office, so has a very different perspective to the biographies that followed.

Hugh Lunn is a Walkley Award-winning journalist and the bestselling author of Over the Top with Jim (1989) and Vietnam: A Reporter’s War (1985), winner of The Age Book of the Year Award for Non-Fiction.

Gross Moral Turpitude

by Cassandra Pybus
Ligature untapped
genre Non-fiction

Acclaimed historian Cassandra Pybus’s compelling re-examination of the scandal involving Sydney Sparks Orr, dismissed from his position as Chair of Philosophy at the University of Tasmania in 1955 after allegedly seducing one of his female students.

First published in 1993, Gross Moral Turpitude won the Colin Roderick Award that same year and its themes remain current today both within and outside university environments.

Cassandra Pybus is an award-winning biographer, historian and novelist. Her most recent book is Truganini (2020), winner of the National Biography Award in 2021, and her award-winning biography The Devil and James McAuley (1999) is also part of the Untapped Collection.

Glass after Glass

by Barbara Blackman
Ligature untapped
genre Memoir · Non-fiction

‘Glass after Glass introduces us to the secret and fascinating world of Barbara Blackman … she has used her blindness as a shortcut to a world of wonder that many of us fail to see.’ — Betty Churcher AO, former director, National Gallery of Australia

A vivid, generous delightful memoir of family, friends, writing, art, bohemia, blindness, poverty, prosperity and love of life from acclaimed poet and writer Barbara Blackman.

‘Brightness and sunshine pour from every page of this book. The brightness of the spirit, informed by love and nourished by the enchantment of everyday life … it is a mad, beautiful book full of dreams and fancies and homely realities and idealism … when you have finished reading it you will be a happier person than you were before you began’ — The Canberra Times

First published in 1997, Glass after Glass was shortlisted for the Nita Kibble Literary Award the following year.

Barbara Blackman AO is a poet and writer. She’s a patron of the arts and has been actively involved in supporting the blind, including the formation of the National Federation of Blind Citizens. ‘Seeing from Within’, a documentary about her life, was released in 2017.

Great Convict Escapes in Colonial Australia

by Warwick Hirst
Ligature untapped
genre History · Non-fiction

Six vividly told true stories of daring, desperate and dangerous escape attempts by colonial era convicts. Just how did Mary Bryant make it from Sydney to Timor in an open boat? And how did the murderous cannibal Alexander Pearce managed to escape not once, but twice, and with what dire consequences?

Based on original documents and accounts, this book is a story of human endeavour and resourcefulness—and those who’ll fight for their liberty no matter the cost. First published in 1999; this revised edition was published in 2003.

Warwick Hirst is an archivist who has also worked as the Mitchell Library’s Curator of Manuscripts, and writer of narrative non-fiction. His books include My Dear, Dear Betsy (1993), Great Convict Escapes in Colonial Australia (1999; 2003), The Man Who Stole the Cyprus (2008) and most recently, Wreck (2015).

Far from a Low Gutter Girl

by Margaret Barbalet
Ligature untapped
genre History · Non-fiction

Drawing on the letters of girls who were made state wards, acclaimed writer and historian Margaret Barbalet’s Far From a Low Gutter Girl reveals the real world of Australian domestic servants in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, amplifying their voices for the first time.

Far from a Low Gutter Girl was first published to critical acclaim in 1983. In addition to non-fiction, Margaret Barbalet has written essays, children’s books, poetry, short stories, novels and has worked for the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Fate of a Free People

by Henry Reynolds
Ligature untapped
genre History · Non-fiction

This award-winning and critically acclaimed book from one of Australia’s best known historians challenges the myth about the fate of Tasmania’s Indigenous people, vividly describing the extent of their resistance to colonisation, discussing the terms of the peace agreement under which they called themselves the ‘free Aborigines of Van Diemen’s Land’, and arguing that they weren’t defeated—but betrayed.

First published in 1995, Fate of a Free People won the NBC Banjo Award for Non-Fiction.

Henry Reynolds is an Honorary Research Professor, Aboriginal Studies Global Cultures & Languages at the University of Tasmania and one of Australia’s best known historians. His books include The Other Side of the Frontier (1981), The Law of the Land (1987), Why Weren’t We Told? (1999) which won the Queensland Premier’s Harry Williams Award for Literary Work Advancing Public Debate, Nowhere People (2005) and, with Marilyn Lake, the multi-award-winning Drawing the Global Colour Line (2008). His most recent work is Unnecessary Wars (2016).