“While giving the Voice the attention it deserves, Tor Hundloe goes much further to discuss issues that are crucial for understanding how best to empower Aboriginal people to be all that they can be.”
- Anthony Dillon
Tor Hundloe offers a thoughtful, impartial inquiry into the moral and political challenges at the heart of reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Drawing from decades of lived experience, focus group research, and philosophical insight, the author—an advocate since the 1967 referendum—examines issues including the 2023 Voice referendum, the life expectancy gap, and contested concepts like treaty and truth-telling. Grounded in universal ethics and guided by the Golden Rule, this work challenges assumptions, confronts complexity, and seeks practical, respectful paths toward unity, justice, and understanding in contemporary Australia.
Tor Hundloe is an Emeritus Professor of the University of Queensland. He has held a professorship at Bond University. In the 1980s, he was the Director of the Institute of Applied Environmental Research at Griffith University. He has had various teaching and research appointments around the world. He specialises in economics, environmental science and economic anthropology.
Chapters Include:
1: The True Fella Approach
2: A Postmortem on the Voice referendum
3: An Introduction to the Main Items on Our Agenda
4: Closing the Length of Life Gap
5: We Humans are a Mixed Mob
6: The Personal Dilemma of Mixed Ancestry
7: The Notion of Indigenous Rights
8: Invasion or Settlement?
9: The Same Land, Different Values
10: Introducing Lady Luck
11: Elaboration on Matters Important
12: Introducing New Matters, Revisiting a Medley of Key Issues
13: The Realpolitik of Sovereignty
14: Walking in Two Worlds, Preserving Ancient Myths and Closing the Gap
15: Helping the Disadvantaged: Closing the gap
16: Intergenerational Trauma: What Do We Know?
17 The Advice of Our Species’ Elders
Epilogue
Bibliography and References
