Aliens and Savages is a hands-on historical record of the racism that underpins Australia’s growth as a nation. First published twenty-five years ago, this new and revised edition asks: what has changed?
As we approach the referendum on an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament, Aliens & Savages is still the only publication of its kind – a survey of racism and xenophobia in Australian popular writings before the advent of social media. It is a collection of fiction and non-fiction, of personal narratives and official reports, of diaries and media misinformation. In it, you can hear the unguarded voices of the colonists, the squatters, the politicians; you can see the close relationship between the popular press and the prejudices of its readers.
Released September 2023.