Lies, Damned Lies: A personal exploration of the impact of colonisation

by Claire G. Coleman

A deeply personal exploration of Australia's colonisation past, present and future by one of Australia's finest contemporary authors
This is a difficult piece to write. It cuts closer to the bone than most of what I have written; closer to my bones, through my blood and flesh to the bones of truth and country; there is truth here, not disguised but in the open and that truth hurts.

In Lies, Damned Lies acclaimed author Claire G. Coleman, a proud Noongar woman, takes the reader on a journey through the past, present and future of Australia, lensed through her own experience. Beautifully written, this literary work blends the personal with the political, offering readers an insight into the stark reality of the ongoing trauma of Australia’s violent colonisation.

Colonisation in Australia is not over. Colonisation is a process, not an event – and the after-effects will continue while there are still people to remember it.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Indigenous, Australia, Audiobook, Race, Memoir

288 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2021

Reviews

[Amy Heap · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the very best way to be educated; Coleman pulls no punches, but I feel fired up, not beaten down as a result. It is about the ongoing trauma of Australia's violent colonisation, and also about Aboriginal culture, music, art, the love of and care for Country, and the power of stories. The book is like a compilation album, the chapters vary in pace, rhythm, and feeling, but are consistent in theme, about the lies we have been taught about Australia's history, and the truth that has been hidden. There is powerful poetry, well reasoned arguments in approachable language, abundant passion with diligent research, deeply personal reflection, with challenging hope for the future. Coleman's fiction cleverly manoeuvres us into deep felt empathy with First Nations Australians, this book plainly lays out the truth of our history, and our present, and it is stark, confronting, shocking, heartfelt, galvanizing, and hopeful. The words 'enjoy' and 'love' don't seem right, but this isn't a bitter pill to swallow, however harsh the truths it exposes. It is beautifully, engagingly written and aims to shine the light of truth.

[Gabriela · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thought-provoking and passionate non-fiction book about the effects of the colonial construction of Australia, its myths, its truths, and its still very real and present effects.

Very well-written and with clear and engaging prose, I enjoyed reading and educating myself on Aboriginal culture, care for Country and their true roles, struggles and victories.

It is really hard to rate and review such a deeply personal book, with such an important subject matter, which I was completely ignorant about. I did feel that some sentences and things claimed as absolute truth don't have a source, and that can hinder the argumentation and weaken the book.
However, it was a great experience, intense, emotional, and instructive.

[Ceyrone · Rating 4 out of 5]

This should be required reading by all, this is the best way to get educated. This will fire you up, to stand in solidarity with our First Nations People. These collection of essays touch upon different aspects of trauma that is a direct result of Australia’s violent colonisation and Aboriginal culture. There is powerful poetry, personal reflection, it is passionate and the language doesn’t hinder but pulls you in, it’s well researched and gives an insight into how we can challenge the future to bring about the right kind of change. It basically lays down the truth to Australia’s history that is made up of lies.

'We live here in the colony, on stolen Aboriginal land, always was, always will be. This is the everywhen, the eternal now. History, 250 years of it from Cook, 400-odd years from Janszoon, cannot erase 60,000 years or more of story and culture of living here and being here so close to forever it might as well have been. '

[Mishelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt a real connection to this story as I live on Whadjuk Noongar Boodja. Coleman challenged my thinking in several areas, I enjoyed the audiobook a lot. Defintely recommend for those who wish to further educate themselves on the effects of settler colonialism in Australia. #alwayswasalwayswillbe #indigathon

[Tiff Wasley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a powerful book. Coleman is a brilliant writer and this book is no exception. Required reading for the colony regardless of how much you think you know about colonialism and raceism within Australia I can almost guarantee this book will still teach you alot.

[Rahul]

Outside of music, I have never really connected with poetry. Poems don't move me in the same way novels do and I often find them jarring/ostentatious (likely bc I feel like an outsider that's struggled to enjoy its beauty). But once I felt its power - a young Palestinian woman's spoken word performance where she spoke of the difficulty in answering the question "where are you from". Although that question is generally considered offensive in Australia directed at POCs (for good reason), in Brussels, the 2nd most international city in the world, it isn't othering and comes from a genuine place of curiosity and interest, often facilitating insightful discussion. But, that poet expressed her discomfort in answering "Palestine" to that question as it almost always draws an extreme reaction. The impact of an Israel sympathiser's negative responses is self-evident but she also spoke of the difficulty with those that stand in solidarity. Despite being well-meaning, no one knows how to react/behave when implicitly told by a stranger that their people are being slaughtered while the world watches. What can you say/do? You certainly don't want to express your solidarity in a way which causes the person suffering to manage your reactions/emotions as that's incredibly emotionally burdensome for them. This concern will always be present in some capacity, placing the person suffering in a difficult situation. What they do they do - lie or deflect the question? This too has its challenges, as the Palestinian poet described. She can shelter herself from the stranger's responses but, instead, exposes herself to feelings that arise within her; the guilt associated with repudiating her own identity while her people, on her homeland, are experiencing a genocide. She knows (as do we) that she is not abandoning her identity but despite intellectualising that, she cannot avoid the feeling of guilt/shame. She started crying after her performance, as did everyone else in the audience including myself. She was able to utilise the power of spoken word/slam poetry in a way I'd never seen before, the perfect medium to capture what she continues to go through.

Coleman's own personal story, in addition to countless other First Nations Australians, is similar and arguably worse. In response to "Aboriginal Protection" laws that gave state appointed "Aboriginal Protectorates" that could legally abduct Indigenous children from their families, Coleman's grandfather told his family (including her father) that they were Fijian. He took the truth, regarding their Indigenous ancestry, to the grave to protect his family and keep them together. Coleman and her father only uncover their ancestral roots years later. Lies, Damned Lies is at its best when its more personal and memoir - I too felt a similar rage when Coleman talks about what it's like to be part of the "Hidden Generation", to be dispossessed of her identity on her own ancestral lands. The trauma associated with the loss of 65,000 years of ancestral knowledge due to invading colonisers that did not view her and her people as human at all. And this colonial project continues, as is evident with the death of Kumanjayi White in custody during reconcilliation week. Coleman's book tells us the same.

However, I do note that much of the information is not novel to me and I already agree with e.g. on Black women, Australia day, Indigenous art, Indigenous knowledge including on the environment, the "pygmy" myth, Indigenous settlements etc. She oft-cites Bruce Pascoe's Dark Emu, which I haven't read completely (yet) but have skimmed completely. The lies/beliefs she addresses and dismantles are those held by those aligned with the country's far right, especially egregious views that I already know to be untrue and why. As such, I learned less than I would have liked from this book and it doesn't broaden my worldview in any concrete way. If this is why you chose to pick up this book, it probably won't meet your expectations if you're left-leaning (and I'd argue a centrist too). This did impact my enjoyment of Lies, Damned Lies and made me feel as though I may not have been the intended audience.

I feel uncomfortable giving this book a star rating as I did want more and would probably mark it down on this basis. But, I acknowledge that I am a beneficiary of the settler-colonial project here in Australia. My ancestors/family suffered from British colonial rule in India, and is likely the reason my parents came to Australia as economic migrants, but the opportunity afforded to them came at the expense of Indigenous Australians. My wealth and privilege flows from what Coleman talks about. So, no star rating, just my thoughts.

FYI I listened to the audiobook while running/driving so may have missed some things in the book too.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Claire G. Coleman’s words and truth blaze like a wildfire across every page. Commanding your attention and burning away the lies we have been taught about Australian history.
🔥
I had the privilege to study history at University and discovered pretty quickly that only relying on one version of history is not only lazy research but dangerous. To truly understand a historical era or moment you must study all sources, listen to all voices, and often expose the lies in the dominant colonial version of history.
⏳
Claire deftly deconstructs the Australian history that is touted and paraded for the comfort of white Australia is based on a myth. Exposing it as a bastardised history that hero worships white male explorers. Blatantly ignoring the wealth of culture and history in this country and it’s people, the indigenous people. She celebrates their strength as they have and continue to survive during this violent and patronising colonisation. This brilliant book is another bell clamouring for Aboriginal rights and voices to be heard, respected and represented in all areas of society.
🏝
“Australia’s mythology is written in sand and the tide is coming in. The tide is coming in.”

[Philipp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to write about such a personal book - I can't imagine what it's like for your grandparents to pretend to be Fijian so the authorities don't take their children, not even associating with relatives because the fear of having their children taken away was too big.

A series of essays on the personal impact of Australia's colonisation on Noongar and Australian Aboriginal peoples, but also an exploration of the lies Australia tells itself about its past. Sometimes disjointed, as some of these chapters seem to have been published elsewhere separately, but still, there's a lot of angry truth here. If Australia wants to grow up, a lot of uncomfortable discussion that has to happen.

[EmG ReadsDaily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enlightening. Thought-provoking. Essential reading.

[Tamsin Ramone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant! Must read again! I’m keen to read more of Claire Coleman’s work.
Just incase Claire reads this I just really wanted her to know the cremation ash (cremains) are inorganic and do not biodegrade, they are harmful to plant life and never go away. There are other options for more environmentally friendly dispersal after death that won’t harm your beautiful country. You can check it out more on the Natural Death Advocacy Network website or Green Burial Council website or on the Heaven and Earth Eco Burial Products website! Just incase you’re interested!

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Lies, Damned Lies, proud Noongar woman Claire Coleman meticulously debunks many of the lies Australia has been told about its dark and violent history. From ‘Terra Nullius’, to the fact that colonisation still continues (despite what some may think), and more personally, that for many years Coleman had no idea she or her family were Aboriginal.

Like Dark Emu, which I read earlier in the year, Lies, Damned Lies should be prescribed reading for all Australians. Some of what Coleman presents was already familiar to me, but this is only because I have made an effort as an adult to look beyond our whitewashed history in a way that was not taught to me at school between 1994-2006 (the Apology by Kevin Rudd on behalf of the Australian Government didn’t even happen until 2008). We should never stop seeking out the voices and histories of First Nations’ people, and I found so much value in Coleman’s research, writing, and story.

Safe to say, I highly recommend this book and think you should all get your hands on a copy.

[thelibraryofalexandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have no words. Absolutely exceptional.

[Tammi Cordell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Claire G Coleman - terrific writer. Again, essential reading and should be on school booklists and bookshelves everywhere. If you think you might find it confronting remember the saying - feeling uncomfortable is a necessary part of unlearning oppressive behaviours.

[Carol Ryles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended.

[Rochelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book for those who haven’t unpacked what the term ‘colonialism’ truly means. The series of essays proves that colonialism hasn’t ended and continues until this day; the continuing process of settlement, not just the intergenerational trauma that results.

While largely for a non-Indigenous audience who has never had the need to confront their colonialist roots, Indigenous readers will find their experiences affirmed within these pages. So many Indigenous people have had people try to justify their racism based on out-dated, biased, or just plain fictional texts masquerading as truth; Coleman’s book can provide tools for Indigenous people and their allies to refute unfounded claims.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

'We live here in the colony, on stolen Aboriginal land, always was, always will be. This is the everywhen, the eternal now. History, 250 years of it from Cook, 400-odd years from Janszoon, cannot erase 60,000 years or more of story and culture of living here and being here so close to forever it might as well have been. '

A powerful essay collection that I had to sip to take in its magnitude. Totally blows the top of incorrect beliefs around the discovery of Australia, it's settlement and the first nation people that lived here. When you land on a country ready to shoot, that is invasion. When you dismiss the culture of the people who lived thousands of year on the land and label them under presumptions, that is racism.

This book will challenge a lot of people's perceptions around the way Australia was established. I hope it awakens not angers, so true reconciliation can occur in this country.

[Amy Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lies Damned Lies is the first non-fiction book by Claire G. Coleman, a proud Noongar woman and an amazing author. "They [the colonisers] took it, took everything,  just because they could. Colonisation is a process, not an event, and in Australia that process has not yet completed".

This is such an important book and such an important message. A personal reflection that offers all Australians a chance to really understand and confront not just our history, but our present and future and what we need to face before we can find a way forward in this country.

This National Reconciliation Week I was fortunate enough to hear from a proud Palawa man who echoed many of the messages in this book. He explained that  #bebravemakechange is a message for us, non-indigenous Australians, the 97% of the Australian population who need to listen, be brave and make the changes needed. As Claire G. Coleman explains, "it is time for some of the burden of disproving white lies be shifted from the shoulders of Indigenous people and on to white people".

Whilst not holding back, and pulling no punches, Claire G. Coleman's writing leaves me feeling so pumped and ready to be a part of the solution. Passivity to racism is racism. Anti-racism takes action and an openess to hear when you get it wrong, and how to do it better. I recommend everyone read this book with an open heart and a willingness to listen. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you Claire for offering so much to the important conversation this country needs to have, and I thank and acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land I feel privileged to be on, the Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation.
🖤
💛
❤️

[Julius Bautista · Rating 3 out of 5]

Australia is not a postcolonial nation. I value this book as part of my continuing effort to address my own maleducation about my home country’s history. An interesting thought that this book inspired was that Captain Cook has been mythologized, even apotheosized , in Australia and not in Hawaii as most assume. Coleman argues that it is more appropriate to describe “The Lucky Country” as a post-apocalyptic landscape, given how its indigenous people have been all but obliterated. The book is admittedly polemical. The second half pushes harder than the first. But on the whole, I found it very informative and particularly timely in this age of dismantling monuments and decolonizing knowledge.

[Leanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many parts are repetitive but in a good healing way. We need to have these messages repeated so they sink in and overwhelm the fake narratives that we’ve been consistently fed. Important read.

[Natasha (jouljet) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cook discovered Australia, Australia Day is about Cook's landing, and is a long-standing tradition. Right? These are just a handful of the lies we have all been fed, since school usually, or have somehow twisted around to be myths about the country called Australia. This book deals with truth, and re-education about the facts of this country and it's enduring racist white history, and it's rich Aboriginal cultural stories and knowledge.

Taking off where Bruce Pascoe's Dark Emu left off, here are lessons in Aussie misconceptions, truth busting the common misunderstandings which has whitewashed our education systems, political discourse, and championed by those at a point to gain from this oppression and genocide of culture. Debunks the fake news, the false legends were repeat and are repeatedly told.

Challenging the very underpinning ideas Australians have about our country - bringing to the front the massacres, the genocide, the policies that continue to destroy Aboriginal communities across these lands. The invasion, the lies of the Intervention, the boot at the neck of Indigenous people at every turn, still.

Powerfully, Claire shares her own journey back to Country, to her working back the myths of her own family and cultural connection, to share her truths, her connections to land and family, identity and history. An incredibly generous, raw and personal account of discovery, connection, pain of the years of loss and lies, and the strength of revelation.

This reads like Claire is sitting with you, sharing the truths she has learned through research for her fiction, for her non-fiction writing, through her art, and also from her discovery of family truths. She has also conducted significant personal research to inform herself, so she is armed with the truth arguments to the ongoing slater of white supremacists and racists, to truth deniers and the willfull ignorant.

But she is also, generously and compassionately, bringing us, the white reader, along with her. She knows we, as she was, have been sold so many untruths, the lie of terra nullius, of Cook, of the land rights of Uluru. She is sharing so much here, passionately so we can all unlearn and relearn, for a better so-called Australia. For a future of unity, understanding, treaty, knowledge, and harmony.
.
This needs to be read by all, as we journey towards the acceptance of the Uluru Statement From The Heart, and real change in this nation.

[Priya · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing book for self education on
the colonisation and invasion of Australia. Whilst living here I wanted to be more informed of this country's history and this has defo been the perfect start.

[Spike Barker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing. Can't believe some of the racist doctrine regarding the continent and First Nations peoples that are unpacked in this book.

[Anna (RattleTheShelves) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've learnt so much from it, very informative and approachably-written book. Definitely recommend!

[KT · Rating 5 out of 5]

The concept of colonisation can feel like a long ago thing that doesn’t permeate into every day (in this instance) Australian life. In biased media discussions that sometimes don’t even include First Nations people, I love how Claire so effortlessly was able to weave her personal experiences with no nonsense facts and data. Vulnerability is one of the keys to decolonise ourselves and this country.

[Saskia · Rating 5 out of 5]

The words are so true that you can feel some sentences resonating through your body. Relevant and important for everyone, but especially useful reading from/on Noongar Boodjar

[Lexi RL · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read call to action for a country to finally start truth telling and healing

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing!! 10/10 recommend

[Thomas Chew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal writing
Powerful story telling

[Sarah Newton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bloody exceptional. A MUST READ 📣📣

[Lysh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every Australian needs to read this immediately. I'd even go so far as to say it should be compulsory reading in high school. Brilliantly written. I am angry and I am fuelled with the fire of Coleman.