‘Coercive Reconciliation: Stabilise, Normalise, Exit Aboriginal Australia’

Coercive Reconciliation: Stabilise, Normalise, Exit Aboriginal Australia is a timely book in response to the Howard government’s intervention in Northern Territory. The book is edited by Jon Altman and Melinda Hinkson; it was published just a couple of months after John Howard had announced the intervention plan towards the end of June. It consists of more than twenty articles by aboriginal leaders, academics, health and legal professionals with experience in Aboriginal issues discussing different aspects of the intervention and its possible consequences.

There are also some cartoons in the book. One of them is titled ‘Prime Minister’s Dreaming’; in the cartoon John Howard’s sitting in a high armchair and there are two indigenous women lined up in front of him their heads down who are saying to him: ‘We’re sorry. We apologise for having been here when the white people arrived. We regret all the offence, inconvenience and embarrassment this has caused you. We’re deeply ashamed of ourselves’, which explains Howard’s perspective very well.  

I think we should all support such books by buying and reading them and recommending them to other people. The book is only $27.50, and it’s available online from gleebooks on www.gleebooks.com.au, and possibly also from other book stores.