Searing: ‘Not Quite White in the Head’ by Melissa Lucashenko

Award-winning Aboriginal author Melissa Lucashenko has chosen a brilliant title for her latest book, which is a collection of her essays and journalism, collected over twenty years.

Full of her trademark wry humour, searing analysis and depictions of ordinary Australians of all kinds, there are many moments that made me stop. Sometimes that was to admire her incisive and lyrical prose. At others, I paused to absorb a point or idea that was new, or presented in a new way.

It’s a book that left me with much to think about.

There is a scathing analysis of nineteenth and twentieth century settler writings about Aboriginal people. It is absolutely horrifying to read of the attitudes and casual cruelties that persevered right up to the modern era and can still be found today. Pieces about police brutality, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths in custody, prison conditions, child removals: these paint an all-too-vivid picture of how bigotry and cruelty continue.

In ‘Sinking Below Sight’, Lucashenko writes about poverty, and how the poor are quickly demoted to that faceless population which Australia…finds easy to sterotype, and convenient to demonise…(pp56-57)

There are some uplifting pieces about First Nations knowledge, cosmology, law and traditions, and how the Australian continent could be said to have developed the first democratic systems in the world – well before James Cook landed here.

I enjoyed learning about her reasons for, and process of creating her first historical novel, Edenglassie. She writes:

The basic idea was a novel that tried to undo some of the racist myths that had painted us mob as simpletons and nomads, wandering aimlessly from campsite to campsite enjoying a ‘natural’ life without philosphy, government or ethics, until the arrival of the British plunged us into chaos and then quickly near extinction…’Edenglassie’ had to do many things. It intended to portray the governance, stability and sophistication of sovereign Aboriginal nations…from quite early in the colonial era. It had to give humanity and beauty to Aboriginal characters…It had to show the cruelty of the British invasion without repelling readers or causing me to lose the will to live in the writing of it. And it had to be a love story, because we are human beings who love fiercely, and because blackfellas deserve joy and romance on the page, too.
‘The True Hero Stuff’ in Not Quite White in the Head, p154

There is a thoughtful, and very thought-provoking piece, ‘Staying White’, which explores the complexities and controversies for people who have more recently discovered, or acknowledged, their Indigeneity. I wish that people who criticise or reject those who the author dubs ‘New Aborigines’, would read this one and learn about the many complications and the emotional journeys involved in this decision, which every individual must make for themselves.

For me the most hopeful of the pieces in this collection is ‘What Has Changed?’ in which Lucashenko reflects both on the work that must still be done, and on the ways in which the growing cohorts of First Nations film makers, authors, musicians, educators, activists, politicians, health professionals, lawyers and advocates, are doing the work of growing up the nation. (p239)

If non-indigenous Australians could just listen a bit more, open our hearts a bit more, and be ready to hear new ideas about our country, this would indeed help Australia to mature as a nation.

I thank Melissa Lucashenko for this collection of her work, which speaks to all Australians.

Not Quite White in the Head was published by UQP in 2025.