Introduction

I appeared at the office on Monday, 1 December and spent the morning filling out forms: bank deposit, next-of-kin, taxation. You can work it out.

Jason took me to lunch at a cafe just down the street. While we were there he told me what was happening: several aboriginal families had taken up residence inside the Sturt National Park and claimed rights to the area.

"In a way, they're right. But we're supposed to do something. And your first chore will be to evaluate the situation."

Back in the office, I was assigned a desk and did a little research.

In 1909 the Aboriginal Protection Act was implemented, and in 1936 the Aboriginal Protection Board acquired the powers to remove Aborigines from "undesirable living areas". From Tibooburra, around 70 people were forcibly loaded onto trucks and taken to Brewarrina, east of Bourke. Some found their way home to their tribal areas, but life for many was irreversibly damaged.

I also learned that Harold Hunt had written the memoirs of his mother, a native of the Corner Country. I walked down the hall.

"Do we have a library? I'd like to read up on the Corner."

"Use the collection in the Museum."

"I'll do that tomorrow. Now, what do I do?"

"In brief, you read the file; you do a bit of research; you ask me about getting to Tibooburra; you fly there; rent a vehicle; talk to people; come back; and write a report."

"Is there a budget? How long do I stay?"

"No and as long as necessary."

I took a deep breath.

"Do I fly to Bourke or to Broken Hill?"

"Whatever. I've never been there. It's tough. I'm throwing you into the deep end."

"I understand. One of the lectures I went to concerned the fact that though the telly and the cinema depict lawyers at trials, actually few lawyers engage in litigation. Lawyers are middlemen. Negotiators."

"Exactly. This will be awkward. I'm not sure whether these are really descendants of the Milparinka. But they might well be. And the problem is a century old."

"Right."

The largely waterless lands of the Corner Country were traditionally occupied by several Aboriginal groups. In the Milparinka area lived members of the Maliangaapa people, around Tibooburra were Wadigalis and Wangkumaras.

A fundamental understanding of the land and environment helped Aboriginal tribes to survive, especially their ability to find and conserve water. Soaks and wells were dug in dry creek beds, holes gouged into the lower ends of claypans, and campsites established alongside creeks and waterholes. They carried water in bags of kangaroo skins, or in coolamons [Aboriginal carrying vessels]. Many Europeans, both explorers and early settlers, could not have survived without the help of the Aboriginal people.

Trade routes and tracks were established across the desert to the west, to the north and east to the rivers. Sturt recorded following one track for six hours, coming, in the end to a well full of water. Stone artefacts found in the Corner Country had their origins in quarries hundreds of kilometres away.

Settlement brought changes to life in the Corner Country. Pastoralists spread their flocks of sheep and cattle across the region and competed with local Aborigines for water, and for grazing land. Often there were serious and tragic consequences. In time, however, many Aboriginal people were employed on the newly formed stations, and were able to co-exist with pastoralists on their traditional lands. Others moved to local centres such as Tibooburra where they lived on the fringes of the township.

I phoned my dad when I got home and learned that I could just walk in and use the Museum's library. I told him about my "assignment" and that I wanted to talk to him about it. We agreed on lunch, as I'd be in the Museum, anyway.

I learned a lot on Tuesday morning. I'd known nothing of the evils of the "Aboriginal Protection Board." [Aboriginal Protection Board had the function of regulating the lives of Australians. It was also responsible for administering the various Half-caste acts where these existed and had a key role in the Stolen generations.] I realized just how shameful they must have been – there was no mention in the index of Paterson's The Lost Legions; nothing in Kinley's book (and I'd gone to his classes at Sydney on human rights law!).

I began reading Keith Windschuttle's The Fabrication of Aboriginal History; vol. III: The Stolen Generations and was horrified. "In 1997, the Human Rights Commission made the most notorious accusation ever directed against Australia. It accused this country of committing genocide against the Aborigines by stealing their children. The purported intention of gov­ernments and welfare officials was to institutionalize and assimilate the children into white society and thus rid Australia of its Aboriginal people. In 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologized to Aboriginal people for these policies."

I met dad and told him what I'd been reading.

"I know," he said. "But it's very hard. Your mum and I lived close to Aboriginal bands for years. And we know how bad the behavior of Europeans toward the original Australians was. But, at the same time, I recall there was a great deal of criticism of Windschuttle's first volume when it came out. He's still a vehement denier where child removal's concerned. Don't swallow everything whole."

"True. True. But the citations from Alexander Stuart in the 1880s up to just before Rudd are so dreadful..."

"Lunch here or outside?"