Advertisement
The first Australian prime minister to step up to the births, deaths and marriages roll in SBS’ long-running genealogy series,
Who Do You Think You Are?, Malcolm Turnbull was prepared for the odd skeleton in the family closet. At the risk of spoilers, what he found, along with one of those, was an intriguing mystery of missing inheritance, convict links, a tenacious politician, and parallels with his own childhood growing up with his father, after his mother moved to New Zealand. For him, it was a “fascinating and inspiring” experience that left him the richer, not only in his understanding of his lineage, but of the nation’s history.
Special Summer Library Programs Slated - Oakdale Leader oakdaleleader.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from oakdaleleader.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Max Allen’s new book ‘Intoxicating’ on display at Dalwood Estate. (Photo: Dalwood Estate)
It’s been assumed by most of us that Aboriginal Australians never drank alcohol before white European settlers/invaders arrived in 1788. But, as Max Allen writes in his latest book, this is not true.
Allen isn’t the first to record this fact: Aboriginal historians and elders have known it for a long time, but it never penetrated the public (read: white) consciousness. It suited the white man to circulate the idea that Aboriginal problems with alcohol were due to the fact that they had no history of alcohol in their own culture and couldn’t handle it when Europeans introduced them to it. It’s a fascinating and engrossing book, superbly written as we’ve come to expect from Max Allen, and I highly recommend it.
Aboriginal Australian comedian Emily posts a powerful TikTok video to hit back at racists who said she wasn t black- and added: It doesn t matter how much milk you add to tea, it s still tea.