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New ePress book revisits Jackson's Track16 August 2006
Monash University ePress has published Jackson's Track Revisited: History, Remembrance and Reconciliation -- a new book by Monash alumna Ms Carolyn Landon. Monash historian and Monash London Centre Director Professor Graeme Davison launched the book at Readings Bookshop in Carlton on 10 August, accompanied by Wurrundjurri Elder Annette Xiberras, who gave a 'Welcome to country' address. Jackson's Track Revisited, which is based on Ms Landon's masters thesis in biography and life writing completed at Monash in 2004, highlights the difficulties that existed between white and Aboriginal Australians during the mid-20th century. It is the sequel to the highly acclaimed and multi-award-winning book Jackson's Track: Memoir of a Dreamtime Place by Ms Landon and Daryl Tonkin, which told the story of Daryl and his older brother Harry who together had set up a timber mill in 1937 at Jackson's Track near Warragul in West Gippsland, Victoria. Daryl fell in love and married Euphie, an Aboriginal woman, and they had nine children. In the new book, Ms Landon returns to Daryl's story, but this time the story is told from the perspective of his daughter, Pauline Mullett. "In Jackson's Track Revisited, Carolyn draws on her wide reading of Aboriginal history, memory, biography and history to inform, but not overwhelm, a story that remains an intensely personal one, both for the writer and her subjects," Professor Davison said. "I think many readers will come away enriched by the unflinching honesty and imaginative sympathy it reveals. I believe the book is likely to take an honoured place, not just in the history of Aboriginal Victoria, but also in wider debates on history and memory." Monash University ePress Manager Ms Michele Sabto said the book was a must-read for those who were captivated by the original story of Daryl Tonkin. "Jackson's Track Revisited, with its different ways of understanding and telling history, is about classic historiographical concerns -- the status of memory, archives, oral history and the importance of understanding history as multiple stories," Ms Sabto said. "It is a tribute to Carolyn's skills as a writer that even though it deals in these big themes, it is still an intimate and gripping read." Jackson's Track Revisited is published both as a print-to-order paperback (RRP $22.95) and an ebook (RRP $50). Copies can be purchased via the ePress website or from major bookstores. Ms Landon is a guest at the Melbourne Writer's Festival and the Warragul Writers' Festival this month. |
