What has gone wrong with indigenous policy in Australia over the past 30 years? In the 1970s indigenous Australians were given equal pay, access to the nation's welfare net, and greater freedom than ever before to run their own affairs. But, for so many remote communities, the new-found freedoms have delivered unmitigated misery. Plagued by shocking levels of domestic violence and sex abuse that have been fuelled by alcohol and substance dependency, many of these isolated communities have become dysfunctional outposts where women and children are daily at risk, and life-expectancy for adults is no better than it was 30 years ago.
'King Brown Country' is a dramatic case-study of one such community. Over 12 months of research, Skelton tracked down and interviewed a wide range of people from government ministers and bureaucrats to former store owners, teachers, aid workers, and members of the Anderson family to piece together his portrait of a township in crisis.
'King Brown Country' is a timely and relevant book that goes to the heart of the national conversation about the failure of indigenous policy.
