perspectives on this. The stories evoke the responder's personal response because they speak of such an irreversible and damaging change. The other purpose of her book is that there is a healing and a reconciliation process to be shown by the Australian people. The victims in this text get to tell their stories. Bird feels that Australia has not found the appropriate reaction to their suffering. These stories were written to evoke a response from the Australian people. "If Australia will listen," she says, "this country will begin to heal the wounds of over two hundred years". The use of language in the Bird's text helps the responder to reconstruct and understand the events that have happened in the victims lives. The language is emotive, however informative, to keep the responder aware of such an important issue in Australian society.
In Tony's story, Tony speaks about the transformation and the irreparable damage forced into his life from an early age. "My adoption mother had feelings of rejection towards me. She wanted a white son...I'd ask her why I was dark." Tony's story exemplifies the feeling of being half caste. He is accepted neither by the indigenous or white Australians. Probably the saddest element of this story that truly magnified the horror in my own particular eyes, was the fact that Tony met his own mother on the train up to Townsvil
...