Born in 1969 in a tin shed at the back of Kempsey hospital in NSW, Lynette was taken away from her mother when she was eight years old and placed in a Catholic orphanage, then with white foster parents. Many feminists have created myths about the position of Indigenous women in Australian society and universalised their concept of women's experiences of patriarchy, assuming that women represent an homogenous group. This is one of the most urgent arguments in the book. Placing stories by Lynette and Athlea in a general collection was not only a direct way to confront the tensions between Indigenous and non-Indigenous women, but a way of highlighting our shared interests and concerns. Middle Australia is more likely to be convinced by personal stories than political slogans and policy statements.
Racial discrimination results from more than a lack of legislation.
There is a crisis among our current political leaders about how to deal with difference. Enhancing ideas and stories about our past and present opens up various ways to recognise and understand cultural difference. If more women start doing this in different arenas, the politicians might have to follow. My final point is that my involvement in the reconciliation process is as much for my own benefit as anyone else's. Reconciliation is at the heart of the sort of social and political culture that I want to be a part of.