Every Hill Got a Story

This collective memoir is for anyone who has ever wondered why Aboriginal people choose to live in remote communities in the heart of Australia. It is for all who want to truly understand why nyinanyi ngurangka – being on country – is not a “lifestyle choice” but a hard won right, a spiritual and cultural duty, a constant battle, a source of happiness and opportunity and the meaning of life all at the same time. Why some of the poorest Australians consider themselves “rich with my family, rich with my country”.

From living off the land to negotiating their place in the digital age, Every Hill Got a Story is the first comprehensive history of Central Australia’s Aboriginal people, as told in their own words and their many languages.

Heartbreaking, funny and poignant, 127 eminent men and women remember surviving first contact, massacres and forced removals and resisting more than a century of top-down government policies. Their testimonies, a taste of which are accessible as audio sound bites, paint a devastatingly honest picture of life and work on the missions, cattle stations and the fringes of towns. The storytellers also celebrate winning back ownership of more than 410,000 square kilometres of ancestral lands. They speak eloquently of their struggle for self-determination and citizen rights such as health, housing, education and freedom from violence.