Aftermaths: Colonialism, Violence and Memory in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific by Angel Wanhalla, Lyndall Ryan and Camille Nurka

Description What we choose to remember and what we choose to forget about the violent past tell us something about the society we live in now. Whether we like it or not, we’re part of each other’s story. So how do we talk about the past? —Joanna Kidman and Vincent O’Malley Aftermaths explores the life-changing intergenerational effects of colonial violence in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific. The settings of these accessible, illustrated short essays range from Ōrākau pā in the Waikato to the Kimberleys in northwest Australia, from orphanages in Fiji to the ancestral lands of the Wiyot Tribe in Northern California. Story by story, this collection powerfully reveals the living legacy of historical events, showing how they have been remembered (and misremembered) within families and communities into the present day. Editors Angela Wanhalla, Lyndall Ryan and Camille Nurka have invited a group of prominent scholars to write about colonial histories by reflecting on a range of events through a variety of perspectives, including personal experiences, family stories, collaborative research, oral and literary histories, commemoration activities and contemporary artworks. The result is a readable, informative and often extremely moving book that makes an essential contribution to our knowledge of the effects of colonial violence and dispossession. Paperback, 2023, 312 pp