I read up to page 66 of this and had to put it down. It read white woman dreaming at times. I read this book as anticipation of my visit to Yawuru country in broome. I'm writing this partial review from Yawuru country, broome. I've put it down because I didn't want the authors' feelings and perceptions to colour my own upon arriving here.
I may pick it up after I leave to compare the experiences we had and see how they were different (race) and how they were the same (settlerism).
I was impressed by the authors' social agility to meet the 'right people' both Indigenous and non-Indigenous who had some sort of social capital in this part of the world in such a short amount of time. From what I read I would have to agree with the author's observation that there is a saturation of the white genteel here. Despite this, there is a higher number of visibly black and brown folk here compared to brisbane which I'm finding brings a different energy to this place. The heart of this town is Chinatown which is a historic location where indentured Chinese, Japanese and Malay pearlers first came and mixed with the local Yawuru peoples. It also seems like first impressions' aren't everything here, which is a welcome change from metropolitan brisbane.