Shortlisted, 2009 John Button Prize, Essay Advancing Debate

EARLY THIS YEAR I was approached by many young women, mothers, grandmothers, and those who work with them. At first I was nervous about what they may say: I knew I had stepped beyond what was expected of me in my Griffith REVIEW Edition 19 essay ‘Trapped in the Aboriginal reality show’. I had prepared myself for hate mail and abuse, and that came, but for each abusive comment there were at least an equal number of women who contacted me and said, ‘You spoke for me’.