Reynolds draws on his political motivation to uncover the truth of Australia’s colonial past in an effort to represent the disparities between the glorified Australian identity and the harsh reality of institutionalised discrimination towards Aborigines. Reynolds thus bestows the reader with a greater awareness, therein encouraging them to revaluate their perception of Australian history and to question the idealistic portrayal of Australian identity. Accordingly, Reynolds writes of his visit to Norfolk Island, where two young Aboriginal girls were imprisoned for the trivial offence of swearing, allowing the audiences to question their previous perception that Australia is ‘fair’ to all. The dichotomy between the accumulated images of suppression in “the locks, reinforced door, bars and thick concrete walls”, to “the little thin girls”, triggers both sympathy and shock within responders and forces them to recognise the harsh reality of aboriginal treatment ingrained within Australia’s identity, where even children were exposed to discriminatory conduct. Furthermore, in the chapter “Lest We Forget”, Reynolds draws on his criticism of the inconsistencies in Australia’s political history in the emphasis of the symbol in the fallen soldier and the Anzac spirit, highlighting the dignified but exclusionary nature of the Australian identity.…
