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Kidd's compact, macrocosmic
essay on 'the biggest social experiment in our history'
- the removal and incarceration of tens of thousands of
Aborigines, not only children, but people of several
generations over a period of some seventy years … is a
distillation of a litany of 'deliberate and persistent
breaching of State and federal laws, of decimated
community workforces, of devastated social fabric, of
pathological overcrowding and jeopardised health'. 'How
many preventable child deaths', Kidd asks: '[H]ow many
beatings, stabbings, jailings and ruined lives are
traceable to these carefully, knowingly implemented
policies?' [This short account] stings like a
bee.
Raymond Evans, Politics and
Culture
Kidd’s work dispels dominant
myths of ‘good intentions’, ‘policies of the time’ and
other rhetoric espoused by those unwilling to confront
the atrocities of the past…The disparity between the way
Aboriginal and white children were treated, particularly
in the allocation of funding, is a serious indictment of
policy makers…The flagrant disregard of labour laws and
basic decency in the use of the Aboriginal workforce
demonstrates an abuse of human and legal
rights.
Linda Briskman, Australian
Journal of Political Science
For such a tiny book Black
Lives, Government Lies by Rosalind Kidd packs a powerful
punch and is a must-read for anyone interested in the
living conditions endured by Indigenous people in
Queensland from the late nineteenth century through to
today…Dr Kidd has pieced together a shocking picture of
abuse and neglect using the Queensland government’s own
official and archival records, along with church records
and letters from Indigenous workers, parents and
children and letters from non-Indigenous pastoralists,
missionaries, doctors, police and politicians…With a
clear, concise, easy to read style and sledgehammer
directness, Dr Rosalind Kidd adds another perspective to
the written history of Indigenous people in
Queensland.
Elizabeth Burrows, Koori
Mail
This book demonstrates that
there is indeed no gap between the historic deeds of
previous governments and present circumstances … Dr Kidd
is to be commended for so vividly demonstrating these
connections between past and present, and for outlining
some of the challenges that remain in addressing
unfinished business.
William Jonas, Aboriginal &
Torres Strait Islander Commissioner,
HREOC
Ros Kidd’s Black Lives,
Government Lies is the essential introduction to
Aboriginal realities in contemporary Australia….The book
is powerful and quickly read, and will never been
forgotten… I recommend that everyone read and re-read
this indispensable little volume. Peter Jull,
School of Political Science & International Studies,
University of Queensland.
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