Reviews

Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia by Anita Heiss

charli_onslow's review

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3.0

school books just arent for me

musingsbynitika's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

What a gem!!! Cried. smiled. Laughed out loud. Wow. This should be mandatory reading for everyone who considers so-called ‘Australia’ their home. Go read it now!

amerasuu's review

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5.0

Taught me lots, everyone living on so called Australia should read this

lottie1803's review

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

vezreads's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective slow-paced

4.5

A fantastic collection of stories

maddig96's review

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challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

emmad's review

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challenging emotional informative medium-paced

4.0

amybroome's review

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring fast-paced

4.0

drillvoice's review

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4.0

This is a powerful and eye-opening book and I'd recommend it to anyone wanting to hear more perspectives on growing up Aboriginal in Australia. The book contains lots of short pieces, many about two or three pages, from a huge range of people - some who are public figures and recognisable, others who might be relatively unknown, or younger. It's the breadth of perspectives, but also the mix of shared and unique experiences, that makes this so worthwhile.

The main weakness of the anthology is that the pieces are simply listed in alphabetical order. I feel that the book would be stronger if they were ordered more deliberately, or say, thematically, but to some extent this choice also allows each story to speak for itself.

And one caveat for non-Aboriginal readers: be wary of presuming that this book is a substitute for experience, or means that you 'know' what it's like to grow up Aboriginal in Australia. Be grateful for what they book can teach you, but also recognise its, and your own, limitations.

beck22's review

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challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5