History of early contact based on documentary sources; traces changing attitudes of both Aborigines and whites and the increasingly devastating effects of settlement.

His personal journey towards the realisation that he, like generations of Australians, grew up with a distorted and idealised version of the past. From the author's unforgettable encounter in a North Queensland jail with injustice towards Aboriginal children, to his friendship with Eddie Mabo, to his shattering of the myths about our 'peaceful' history,