On reflection, this book demanded a response as it reinforced my respect for Stan Grant as a local and international reporter, TV moderator and producer. And just that word ‘plight’ goes to the heart of my fear that it may offend. I feared being a non-indigenous person (and also not born in Australia) trying to write about the plight of the First Nations Australians could be perceived as distasteful. I was initially tempted to leave it to the 4-star rating. I thought long and hard about this review. He might not have all the answers but he wants us to keep on asking the question: how can we be better? Direct, honest and forthright, Stan is talking to us all. It is not just about race, or about indigenous people but all of us, our shared identity. TALKING TO MY COUNTRY is that rare and special book that talks to every Australian about their country - what it is, and what it could be. This is his very personal meditation on what it means to be Australian, what it means to be indigenous, and what racism really means in this country. He also spent many years outside Australia, working in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa, a time that liberated him and gave him a unique perspective on Australia. Stan Grant was lucky enough to find an escape route, making his way through education to become one of our leading journalists.
'We are the detritus of the brutality of the Australian frontier', he wrote, 'We remained a reminder of what was lost, what was taken, what was destroyed to scaffold the building of this nation's prosperity.' His was a personal, passionate and powerful response to racism in Australian and the sorrow, shame, anger and hardship of being an indigenous man. In July 2015, as the debate over Adam Goodes being booed at AFL games raged and got ever more heated and ugly, Stan Grant wrote a short but powerful piece for The Guardian that went viral, not only in Australia but right around the world, shared over 100,000 times on social media. An extraordinarily powerful and personal meditation on race, culture and national identity.
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