…the story of Australia’s white settlement. It empties the vacuum cleaner with which modern Australians are at last cleaning under the carpet where for generations the dust of truth has been swept.

…from his first days at Sydney Cove he lives the shame of a nation’s founding.

…the aborigine too finds his securities shattered, faced with the terrible realisation that his heritage is crumbling.

The butt of intimidation and victimisation, he questions past standards and wrestles with new. Threatened securities become shattered. He can but dream of a world where there is compassion and dignity.

Disparaged that in the convict heart is only shame for his world he discovers in the black man’s culture, solace and dignity. Yet the shame will not die.