by Donald Thompson.

"A rare matter of fact description of indigenous culture" - Quadrant.

I had lived and hunted with these people, accompanied them on their nomadic wanderings and learned their customs and their languages with the result that I understood and believed in them and resented the injustices under which they had suffered for so long at the hands of the white man and other invaders of their territory.

Jeff Waters

A death in custody on Palm Island. In November 2004 a young indigenous man made some comments that clearly irritated the police officer in the midst of making an arrest nearby. Less than two hours later the man died in a lock-up, and more than two and a half years after that, the first policeman to be charged over a black death in custody faced court. He was later found not guilty.

In The Desert

The early life of one of Australia’s great artists. In the Desert offers a rare glimpse into a world that few people remember and none will ever experience again. It is a true, sometimes disturbing account of the day-to-day life of the young Jimmy Pike growing up in the Great Sandy Desert, and of his journey out of the desert to a Kimberley cattle station.

In 1936, Daryl Tonkin and his brother, Harry, leave home in search of adventure. They find themselves in West Gippsland, Victoria and set up a timber mill at Jackson's Track - a dreamtime place, a place that was paradise.

A bushman dedicated to his work, Daryl discovers happiness there - and unexpectedly falls in love. But Daryl is white and Euphie is black and neither of them is prepared for the conflict their forbidden love ignites.

An unforgettable true story of joy, of tragedy and of hop, which has won the hearts of Australians. 300pp.

The scene is the Kimberley region late in the 19th century. Vast herds of cattle and sheep begin spreading out from King Sound at Derby. Jandamarra was in exile from his own people, but managed to lead a remarkable guerilla campaign against the police and pastoralists who were taking over Bunuba lands.

Blood on the Tracks.

Defined as a half-caste, Jimmy Governor challenged the white man's Aboriginal stereotype of 1900 – he was highly intelligent, better educated than many of his white contemporaries, personable, a hard worker, did not drink alcohol, and married to a white woman. Only the colour of his skin prevented any rise from the lowest rung of white society.

On the cold winter night of July 20, 1900, Jimmy Governor and Jacky Underwood smashed their way into the Mawbey homestead at Breelong and began killing women and children. In Australia's greatest manhunt lasting one hundred and one days, over one hundred police and civilians pursued Jimmy Governor and his brother Joe through the Australian bush, on foot, for four thousand kilometres. Using meticulous research, Maurie Garland sheds new light on the Governor and Mawbey families to provide a new analysis of the story that gripped Australia in 1900.