Families are made, and unmade, all the time. Our families are those people among whom we come to know ourselves, who bear witness to our beginnings, who encourage or sometimes constrain our chosen directions. And they are the new connections we make for ourselves by following or challenging the ways of those worlds. Yet it must also record the degrees of difference, speak of constraint as well as choice, and recognise that if some connections were celebrated and some hopes were fulfilled, others were broken or denied. Aboriginal families, especially , share a story in which outsiders rarely recognised and often destroyed the bonds of love and care.
History is made from stories.
Family stories are prompted by questions and reminiscence, and by the informal archive of letters and photographs. In a continent of long journeys, they often tell of families parted and places left behind, and they often fix upon the seeming permanence of a solemn snapshot, a headstone, or a family tree. And stories are told with a purpose. Friends share stories of the twenty years that have made them 'like family'. The hardships of grandparents' lives remind the young of sacrifices and obligations.