Bluff Rock: Autobiography of a Massacre

by Katrina M Schlunke

The past is a problem for us. We know certain events happened, sometimes exactly when and yet our longing for certainty cannot be satisfied we tell stories about where we come from and who we are. We change these stories sometimes minutely, sometimes radically This is an original and courageous book. Schlunke, who grew up in the New England area, takes this one story the massacre(s) of Aborigines at Bluff Rock, in New England during the 1840s and looks at the many ways it is organised as a memory of Indigenous/non-Indigenous relations. Schlunke breaks new ground as she probes the hidden histories of Indigenous-settler encounters and addresses herself urgently to the problems of history in Australia.

332 pages, Paperback

First published October 19, 2010

Reviews

[Claire Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dense, luminous and unique. What a fascinating way to grapple with the brutal truths of Settler violence and history. Didn't love it in its totality but overall it was an amazing work