Black and Blue:
a memoir of racism and resilience
Buy ebook
Black and Blue:
a memoir of racism and resilience
Overview
WINNER OF THE 2022 VICTORIAN PREMIER'S PRIZE FOR LITERATURE
WINNER OF THE 2022 VICTORIAN PREMIER'S LITERARY AWARD FOR INDIGENOUS WRITING
SHORTLISTED FOR THE DOUGLAS STEWART PRIZE FOR NONFICTION
The story of an Aboriginal woman who worked as a police officer and fought for justice both within and beyond the Australian police force.
A proud Gunai/Kurnai woman, Veronica Gorrie grew up dauntless, full of cheek and a fierce sense of justice. After watching her friends and family suffer under a deeply compromised law-enforcement system, Gorrie signed up for training to become one of a rare few Aboriginal police officers in Australia. In her ten years in the force, she witnessed appalling institutional racism and sexism, and fought past those things to provide courageous and compassionate service to civilians in need, many Aboriginal themselves.
With a great gift for storytelling and a wicked sense of humour, Gorrie frankly and movingly explores the impact of racism on her family and her life, the impact of intergenerational trauma resulting from cultural dispossession, and the inevitable difficulties of making her way in the white- and male-dominated workplace of the police force.
Black and Blue is a memoir of remarkable fortitude and resilience, told with wit, wisdom, and great heart.
Details
- Format
- Size
- Extent
- ISBN
- RRP
- Pub date
- Rights held
- Paperback
- 234mm x 153mm
- 256 pages
- 9781925849240
- AUD$37.99
- 30 March 2021
- World
Awards
- Winner of the 2022 Victorian Prize for Literature
- Winner of the 2022 Victorian Premier's Prize for Indigenous Writing
- Shortlisted for the 2022 Victorian Premier's Prize for Non-Fiction
- Shortlisted for the 2022 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards for the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction
- Shortlisted for the 2022 ABIA Awards for Small Publishers' Book of the Year
- Commended for the 2022 State Library New South Wales National Biography Award
Praise
‘Black and Blue is a work of epic storytelling, a memoir authored by Gunai/Kurnai woman Veronica Gorrie. This is a book that must contend on every page with structural racism and the violent legacies of colonialism, from the account of Gorrie’s childhood to her experiences working in the Queensland police and raising a family as a single mum. It’s the memoir of a survivor, a resilient woman. If Black and Blue is a grim indictment of institutional racism, Gorrie’s highly distinctive voice ensures that it is also surprisingly funny and candid.’
‘Every now and then, a story comes along that astonishes with its degree of truth, trauma, and resilience. Veronica Gorrie’s memoir, Black and Blue, is one such, chronicling a life of inconceivable pain, abuse and discrimination … Her book should be mandatory reading material for all emerging and current cops … Women who have historically been silenced: now more than ever, we need to be reading their stories.’
About the Author
Veronica Gorrie is a Gunai/Kurnai woman who lives and writes in Victoria. Her first book, Black and Blue (2021), won the 2022 Victorian Premier's Prize for Literature and the 2022 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Indigenous Writing, as well as being shortlisted for the 2022 Douglas Stewart Prize for Nonfiction and the 2022 ABIA Small Publishers’ Book of the Year.
