What do you think?
Rate this book
Us Mob
Leading writer, activist and commentator Mudrooroo crosses the cultural divide to speak to all Australians about his people's past, their place in the present and their hopes and aspirations for the future. Keenly felt, vigorously argued and compelling in their sweep, these provocative essays range the spectrum, from Aboriginal spirituality and oneness with the land to the practicalities of health, education and law. History, culture, politics and, perhaps, reconciliation: Us Mob is essential reading for all those wanting to understand the reality of Indigenous Australia in this post-Mabo age.
- GenresNonfictionAustralia
242 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 20, 2020
Published in 1995, the book ends with a hopeful vision of some progress in the reconciliation with our land’s original inhabitants. Tragically, 25 years on, there has been little progress in a just settlement with our indigenous brothers and sisters. We just seem to be spinning the wheels, even the most recent Uluru Statement from the Heart is a rehash of a long history of reports and recommendations that have simply been ignored by the majority community ever since 1788. We need truth telling and a just settlement NOW!
January 16, 2018
I’m glad to have finally picked this up again and finished it, but it would have gotten a better review if it weren’t for the controversy regarding the author. As eloquent as the book is, we clearly cannot trust anything he says on Aboriginal rights, lives, experiences, and culture.
August 28, 2009
This is going on my "want to own" and "Indigenous Australia 101" lists. It does exactly what it says on the cover: provide an introduction to a whole lot of issues relating to Indigenous Australians. It's organised by general topic area, with chapters on health, spirituality, language, education, politics, land rights... It's immediately post-Mabo, so it's about fifteen years old at this point. The concluding chapter looks forward so specifically to 2000 as hopefully being the year of Australia becoming a republic that it hurts. (In fact, when this was published, Howard wasn't in government yet: ain't *that* a sobering thought. Things were about to get a whole lot worse...)
Mudrooroo seems to have found a reasonable balance between a "tone" that can reach white readers (rather than hack them off) and not betraying his princples. He certainly comes across very firm and strong in his opinions.
Haven't finished reading this yet (although I might tonight, as I'm very close to the end and Vulture's Gate is *not* the sort of book to reaad before bed) but I wanted to start noting Highlights:
* The author quoting Uncle Eddie in the chapter on Spirituality. Which I feel was a greater moment even than seeing Djiniyini Gondarra being quoted and referenced in the same chapter. Uncle Eddie was a work colleague and friend of my father's, and was the person who taught me about the Dudaroa and Jitmaithang and Pangerang, and whose word on the extent (or otherwise) of Yorta Yorta land I'm still going to take over anyone else - except maybe Vince.)
* The way Mudrooroo presents each of the "lectures". Very firm, and yet fully aware of just how deeply the suppositions he's challenging really run.
* The media chapter - outdated (it's 15 years old now) but really important. It is very odd, though, for Burnum Burnum to be lauded as the archetype of an indigenous actor, when I'd now think it might be David Gulpilil or Aaron Pederson or Deb Mailman.
Lowlight:
* That he recognises that it is in fact "us mobs" when speaking of indigenous people, but refers to non-indigenous Austalia as a generic "you mob". Non-indigenous Australia is at least equally diverse and on the rare occasion that he uses the phrase You Mob it grates. (Usually he uses "the Master", which when it's not giving me inappropriate Doctor Who thoughts, is a fairly good choice. It allows for some distancing on behalf of the reader, which is important if he wants to make any headway at all with some people.) I think it specifically grates because there are a lot of other-than-white people with their own problems with the Master (so to speak) that he's lumping all together with the whitefellas.
Fabulous book, well worth time and effort.
Mudrooroo seems to have found a reasonable balance between a "tone" that can reach white readers (rather than hack them off) and not betraying his princples. He certainly comes across very firm and strong in his opinions.
* The author quoting Uncle Eddie in the chapter on Spirituality. Which I feel was a greater moment even than seeing Djiniyini Gondarra being quoted and referenced in the same chapter. Uncle Eddie was a work colleague and friend of my father's, and was the person who taught me about the Dudaroa and Jitmaithang and Pangerang, and whose word on the extent (or otherwise) of Yorta Yorta land I'm still going to take over anyone else - except maybe Vince.)
* The way Mudrooroo presents each of the "lectures". Very firm, and yet fully aware of just how deeply the suppositions he's challenging really run.
* The media chapter - outdated (it's 15 years old now) but really important. It is very odd, though, for Burnum Burnum to be lauded as the archetype of an indigenous actor, when I'd now think it might be David Gulpilil or Aaron Pederson or Deb Mailman.
Lowlight:
* That he recognises that it is in fact "us mobs" when speaking of indigenous people, but refers to non-indigenous Austalia as a generic "you mob". Non-indigenous Australia is at least equally diverse and on the rare occasion that he uses the phrase You Mob it grates. (Usually he uses "the Master", which when it's not giving me inappropriate Doctor Who thoughts, is a fairly good choice. It allows for some distancing on behalf of the reader, which is important if he wants to make any headway at all with some people.) I think it specifically grates because there are a lot of other-than-white people with their own problems with the Master (so to speak) that he's lumping all together with the whitefellas.
Fabulous book, well worth time and effort.
August 28, 2026
I want to leave this message for others to keep in mind when considering both the contents of this book, as well as the below comments regarding the controversy of Mudrooroo's Indigenous identity.
Since his passing in 2019, questions have once again been raised regarding the veracity of the claims made by Mudrooroo's estranged sister which so effectly cratered his credibility in the public sphere. Paul Spickard - a leading voice on the topic of ethnicity, race and multiculturalism - highlights this possible discrepancy in his obituary for Mudrooroo:
"Mudrooroo’s oldest sister had probably never met her youngest brother. She had been living as a White woman, married to a White man, for half a century. In 1996 she publicly denounced Mudrooroo as a racial fraud, a White man pretending to Aboriginality. She had done some genealogical research and found that one ancestral line led back five generations to a Black American. So she decided that her olive skin and dark hair and eyes derived from that source, not from Indigenous roots in any of the 31 other lines of her ancestry."
These doubts were also mentioned in a 2021 essay by Gerhard Fischer, who at one time had a close working relationship with Mudrooroo. He too questioned how the research carried out by Mudrooroo's older sister (genealogical testing done in the 90s, mind you) focused on their mother's family lineage alone, "ignoring the 31 other branches in the family's complex genealogical tree", and thus dismissing any possibility of racial mixing, a practise that was particularly prevalent in Indigenous communities as a result of the genocidal White Australia policy.
Of course it's up to the reader whether or not they take such scepticism seriously. Personally, I find it quite telling that our so-called polite western society was so quick and willing to double down on their denial of Mudrooroo's Indigenous authenticity. It follows an age-old colonial tradition of purity testing, one that is particularly vicious when it comes to outspoken Black thinkers, and even more so for those who are mixed-race. Ironically, this is something that Mudrooroo himself addresses towards the beginning of Us Mob, but it's also a theme which features heavily throughout the writing of renouned decolonial storytellers, from Frantz Fannon (who was clearly influential in Mudrooroo's own political formation) to contemporary figures like Stan Grant.
What they tell us is that this problem exists regardless of intention, as a matter of both ignorance and insecurity. White people (white liberals in particular), in our desperation to be assured that our "understanding" of another culture is authentic, will dismiss entirely the word and work of anyone who doesn't perfectly fit our predetermined image of an ideal cultural spokesperson. This is as true today as it was in the 90s, if not more so considering the current environment of anti-intellectualism and increased rhetorical scrutiny which has so effectively managed to stifle societal progress across the global North. And so, despite his extensive work in the upper levels of Aboriginal academia, a single question over Mudrooroo's racial purity was enough for him to be ostracised, and for his work to be written off entirely. It's a damn shame, there is so much knowledge, compassion and understanding hidden in these pages, even as so many years have passed with little to show for it.
Regardless of his true identity, I think it would be foolish to dismiss this book (or any of Mudrooroo's other work) based on a single claim which remains largely unsubstantiated. What he was is not for us outsiders to say. It is neither our place, nor do we have the luxury as it stands. The best we can all do now is to listen, learn, and continue towards a future where we can all thrive in harmony with Country and each other.
Since his passing in 2019, questions have once again been raised regarding the veracity of the claims made by Mudrooroo's estranged sister which so effectly cratered his credibility in the public sphere. Paul Spickard - a leading voice on the topic of ethnicity, race and multiculturalism - highlights this possible discrepancy in his obituary for Mudrooroo:
"Mudrooroo’s oldest sister had probably never met her youngest brother. She had been living as a White woman, married to a White man, for half a century. In 1996 she publicly denounced Mudrooroo as a racial fraud, a White man pretending to Aboriginality. She had done some genealogical research and found that one ancestral line led back five generations to a Black American. So she decided that her olive skin and dark hair and eyes derived from that source, not from Indigenous roots in any of the 31 other lines of her ancestry."
These doubts were also mentioned in a 2021 essay by Gerhard Fischer, who at one time had a close working relationship with Mudrooroo. He too questioned how the research carried out by Mudrooroo's older sister (genealogical testing done in the 90s, mind you) focused on their mother's family lineage alone, "ignoring the 31 other branches in the family's complex genealogical tree", and thus dismissing any possibility of racial mixing, a practise that was particularly prevalent in Indigenous communities as a result of the genocidal White Australia policy.
Of course it's up to the reader whether or not they take such scepticism seriously. Personally, I find it quite telling that our so-called polite western society was so quick and willing to double down on their denial of Mudrooroo's Indigenous authenticity. It follows an age-old colonial tradition of purity testing, one that is particularly vicious when it comes to outspoken Black thinkers, and even more so for those who are mixed-race. Ironically, this is something that Mudrooroo himself addresses towards the beginning of Us Mob, but it's also a theme which features heavily throughout the writing of renouned decolonial storytellers, from Frantz Fannon (who was clearly influential in Mudrooroo's own political formation) to contemporary figures like Stan Grant.
What they tell us is that this problem exists regardless of intention, as a matter of both ignorance and insecurity. White people (white liberals in particular), in our desperation to be assured that our "understanding" of another culture is authentic, will dismiss entirely the word and work of anyone who doesn't perfectly fit our predetermined image of an ideal cultural spokesperson. This is as true today as it was in the 90s, if not more so considering the current environment of anti-intellectualism and increased rhetorical scrutiny which has so effectively managed to stifle societal progress across the global North. And so, despite his extensive work in the upper levels of Aboriginal academia, a single question over Mudrooroo's racial purity was enough for him to be ostracised, and for his work to be written off entirely. It's a damn shame, there is so much knowledge, compassion and understanding hidden in these pages, even as so many years have passed with little to show for it.
Regardless of his true identity, I think it would be foolish to dismiss this book (or any of Mudrooroo's other work) based on a single claim which remains largely unsubstantiated. What he was is not for us outsiders to say. It is neither our place, nor do we have the luxury as it stands. The best we can all do now is to listen, learn, and continue towards a future where we can all thrive in harmony with Country and each other.
October 27, 2012
The main problem with this book is that the author Mudrooroo (also known as Colin Johnson) is not a Noongar person, therefore he is not one of the mob and it is fraudulent, on his part, to write a book called "Us Mob".
Colin's sister, Betty Polglaze, did a geanealogical trace and could not find any Aboriginal heritage in 5 generations. Polglaze's research found that her family were direct descendants of Irish immigrants Edward and Jane Barron who had arrived in WA in 1829 and that their paternal grandfather was Thomas Creighton Johnson, an African American who had arrived in the colony of NSW from North Carolina in 1863 and who later married an Irish immigrant, Mary Gallagher, in 1868.
On 27 July 1996 the Nyoongah elders released a public statement: "The Kickett family rejects Colin Johnson's claim to his Aboriginality and any kinship ties to the family".
Mudrooroo later replied to his critics, stating that his dark skin meant he was always treated as Aboriginal by society, therefore his life experience was that of an Aborigine.
This story shows the arrogrance of people like Johnson who believe that being Aboriginal is about the colour of one's skin.
Colin's sister, Betty Polglaze, did a geanealogical trace and could not find any Aboriginal heritage in 5 generations. Polglaze's research found that her family were direct descendants of Irish immigrants Edward and Jane Barron who had arrived in WA in 1829 and that their paternal grandfather was Thomas Creighton Johnson, an African American who had arrived in the colony of NSW from North Carolina in 1863 and who later married an Irish immigrant, Mary Gallagher, in 1868.
On 27 July 1996 the Nyoongah elders released a public statement: "The Kickett family rejects Colin Johnson's claim to his Aboriginality and any kinship ties to the family".
Mudrooroo later replied to his critics, stating that his dark skin meant he was always treated as Aboriginal by society, therefore his life experience was that of an Aborigine.
This story shows the arrogrance of people like Johnson who believe that being Aboriginal is about the colour of one's skin.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews