Crossing cultures

In the early 1980s, Barbara Jackson visited her father in Tennant Creek and was catapulted into the harsh reality of life in an Aboriginal community. Her version of Australian history hadn't prepared her for the racism, the sub-standard living conditions, or the suffering. She decided to do something about it.

Barbara's wry humour leavens her lively account of the traumas, frustrations and rewards of working to help empower Aboriginal communities in the face of bureaucratic ineptitude and institutionalised racism. Told with a larrikin's eye for the ridiculous and a sociologist's insight into the structural barriers facing remote communities, it is also the story of a friendship between father and daughter, and the work they shared.

A rare combination of engrossing story and history lesson, Crossing Cultures is a book about the outback and its peoples, especially the Indigenous people still fighting for a voice in how their communities are governed.